Hello friends! I have a different kind of post for you today. I don’t normally share cooking/recipes with you, but I have a basically foolproof menu for your next holiday gathering, so I couldn’t not share it! 🙂
I made this exact meal last Easter and it was the easiest way I’ve ever approached planning a meal for a group of people! Why? Read on and I’ll tell you! 🙂
But first, the menu:
Crock-Pot Maple Brown Sugar Ham
Corn Casserole (this recipe is SO GOOD, OMG!)
The Easiest, No-Fail, Best Green Beans (recipe below)
Mashed Potatoes (this is a recipe for ranch pork chops with mashed potatoes, but I make just the potato portion of this all the time, although the pork chops are great too!)
Rolls – get your favorite kind from the freezer section of your grocery store! I love Sister Shubert’s yeast rolls.
And for dessert:
Tiramisu Cheesecake Trifle or Lemon Poppyseed Bread or go real easy and buy a pound cake from the grocery store and serve with fruit.
The Plan of Action for Executing the Easiest Meal for a Crowd:
- The night before your party, prepare the corn casserole to the point in the recipe where it would go in to the oven. Cover and store in the fridge.
- If you’re making dessert, prepare this the night before as well.
- The morning of, prepare the ham first thing and get it in the crock pot. Be SURE that the size ham you get will fit in your slow cooker. If you need to feed more people than your crock pot size will allow, borrow an additional Crock Pot from a friend and get 2 hams.
- 45 minutes before guests are to arrive, start preheating your oven to 350 and peel your potatoes.
- When the oven is preheated, put the casserole in and start boiling the potatoes.
- Start the green beans.
- Finish the potatoes according to the recipe.
- When guests arrive, put the rolls in the oven according to package directions. No one likes a cold roll, so this should be the last thing you do.
- While rolls are browning up, slice the ham!
That’s right, this menu only calls for about 45 MINUTES of hands-on time on the day of your dinner party. Since I made this menu for Easter, I was serving it on a Sunday and had to make sure I could get it on the table in a timely manner after church. We got home from church at 12:30 and served lunch at 2! Diversifying the cooking methods, complexity of the dishes (read on for the best and easiest green beans you’ll ever make), and incorporating dishes you can make the night before all contribute to an easy holiday menu!
The Easiest, No-Fail, Best Green Beans
Ingredients:
- 2 15 oz. cans Del Monte green beans (undrained)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon freshly cracked black pepper
Directions:
- Empty green beans (with liquid) into medium saucepan.
- Add olive oil and black pepper to green beans.
- Heat to boiling over medium-high heat.
- Reduce heat to LOW and simmer 20 minutes or until all liquid has evaporated from pan.
The key to this recipe is cooking the green beans on LOW for as long as possible. As long as the green beans aren’t burning, you really can’t cook them TOO long. It’s super easy to double or triple or quadruple this recipe for a crowd! Just cook the green beans until the liquid is fully evaporated.
Leave a comment below if you attempt this menu! I promise, you won’t regret it! 🙂
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