Cooking for a crowd!

No, I'm not stocking my freezer.  I wish!  Our church has a fellowship supper every Wednesday night and tonight's my night to cook.  On the menu:  Chicken spaghetti, squash casserole (with squash from Big D's garden of course), homemade Italian bread (sliced, buttered, and garliced at Twinkle Toe's request), and grapes.

I ended up using only one of the packages of bread crumbs.  That was a lot of squash to slice and cook!  I filled up my very large frying pan twice and my medium size frying pan two times.  I'm really not equipped for cooking for a crowd, but don't think I could physically handle bigger pots and pans than I already have.

Boy, the squash sure did cook down.  I hope we have enough!  It's only a side dish, after all.  I made twice as many roasting pan's full of chicken spaghetti. 

These are the sauteed veggies for the chicken spaghetti.  I used 4 large green bell peppers, 3 packages of sliced mushrooms, one onion, 6 large cans of stewed tomatoes, and 1 large can of crushed tomatoes.  Oh, and LOTS and LOTS of cheese- both Velveeta and grated Mexican blend.  I stew the chickens, reserving broth, then saute the veggies and cook the spaghetti in the reserved chicken broth.  Mmmm.

I have very little to offer in the way of kitchen tips, but here's a trick I learned from my mom.  Place a cutting board on top of enough aluminum foil for wrapping your bread, and the bread on top of the cutting board.  Slice the bread, but not all the way through.  When you've smeared butter and garlic salt between all the pieces, then simply slide the cutting board out from between the bread and aluminum foil, wrap, and warm in the oven before serving.

I made four loaves of Italian bread and washed and separated 3 bags of red grapes into bunches.  Hopefully we'll have enough food!  Someone else is doing the dessert so I don't have to worry about that, thank goodness!  Last time I cooked for church I made beef enchilada casserole and it was a big hit.  Every last bite was eaten!  I hope they like the chicken spaghetti just as much.  It probably took a bit more prep time, but I actually prefer it to the enchilada casserole.