I will be making the teacher's last luncheon for this school year,

dawn_mo

dawn_mo

Well-known member
and made the mistake of asking what they would like for lunch. They would like hot pasta, with a crockpot of Alfredo sauce with chunked chicken on the side, so they can add it if they want. I think I will have some steamed broccoli on the side too. My budget is a little on the lean side this time, so I will have to stretch the dishes out a bit. Also a red sauce, which I have covered, I am going to make a red sauce with Italian sausage, olives and artichokes. I will probably do one more sauce or pasta dish to go along with those two. A salad and Bubba Toast will accompany the pastas. I have a friend who does the desserts for me, so I don't have to worry about those.

Any favorite Alfredo sauce recipes? Any suggestions on how to keep the pasta warm for up to and hour and a half? Thanks!

 
Some thoughts

This looks like fun smileys/smile.gif

Some thoughts.

If you have cooked pasta without sauce, you MUST put in a little oil in it right after it's been drained from cooking water. Otherwise you'll just end up with a big nasty lump. Also, you may want to undercook the pasta a bit.

I don't know that I'd keep the pasta warm, without sauce, for up to an hour and a half. Seems like it is calling for it to dry up. Can you, instead, have a "warming station"? That is, have the pasta cool/room temperature, and a container of hot water (crock pot on high?) with a strainer, where people can warm up their pasta as they go? This can be a very successful way to do things, but depends a lot on how many people will get in line at a time, as it can slow service significantly. Also depends on being able to keep the water reasonably hot and fresh.

I remember working a dinner for a sporting event where we had about 1,500 athletes attending. One of the dishes requested was Spaghetti & meat sauce. We had cooked spaghetti the day before and kept it in big bins. During the buffet hour, we warmed up spaghetti in deep fryers where the oil had been exchanged for water. It worked a wonder smileys/wink.gif But we had a lot of staff on hand.

So another option would be to warm up batches of pasta as you go. Again, that depends on your setup and staffing. If you have no way to warm up the pasta, that could be problematic.

My alfredo recipe tends to be done with reduced white wine, cream, and parmesan cheese. It's awesome for a couple people, but very expensive for a larger group.

I'd experiment with a light bechamel + dry white wine (cardbox wine usualy ok). Find real parmesan rather than the kraft stuff (I may be stating the obvious here, please forgive me if that's the case).

Hope this helps

 
I'd cook the pasta, a tad under done, toss it with the warm sauce and put it into those large warmer

things. Have extra sauce warming nearby so they can have extra if they want. Pasta keeps very well warming with a little sauce. If you toss it with olive oil first, the sauce will not adhere to the noodle, so that is why I like to toss it with the sauce. Someone can be assigned to give it a slight toss with tongs once or twice. Not a complete toss, just a little.

 
Agreed

Yes, keeping the pasta warm with a bit of sauce would be much easier. But from the Dawn's post, it appears that a tomato based sauce will also be made available, so it might be problematic to keep the pasta with either Alfredo or tomato sauce? Dunno.

 
Dawn, something I have done many times to keep pasta warm for a long stretch

is to keep it in hot water. I cook just until it is underdone a bit then hold it in a pot of hot water. Not hot enough to cook it further but hot enough to serve it after draining.

Why not make an Alfredo-TYPE sauce, not the real thing....a sauce with a roux base will hold really well- real Alfredo is just butter, cream, some parmesan, pepper and a pinch of nutmeg all reduced down and it really doesn't hold well. Just a suggestion.

 
Aw, as a former teacher, I applaud you. smileys/smile.gif And would love to know what Bubba Toast is!

 
Thanks everyone, I like Cathy's idea of keeping them in hot water.

I think I will just keep a little water in the bottom of the roaster to keep the noodles moist but not cooking anymore.
Actually I called it by the wrong name. It is actually called Bubba Bread, and it is my husband's specialty.
All it is really is garlic bread, but he meticulously slices it, then spreads it with garlic butter (melted butter with sauteed garlic bits in it), then sprinkles it with parme, then puts it under the broiler.
The thing is, he always manages to make it with no one watching him. I am usually too busy making the rest of the dinner to notice exactly what he does. I think it is one of my seasoned salts from the spice cabinet, but I don't know and he won't tell. I now have my own version aptly named Dawnie Bread which has also received rave reviews. My secret; Johnny's Seasoning Salt. I order it in bulk by the 5 lb. tub. LOL.
His nickname Bubba, came about when we were in Mexico on vacation, and we were watching this little boy kicking around sand, sort of like a little Tasmanian devil, and we heard his parents call him Bubba. Well, from then on, hub was Bubba. Little did I know that we would end up living in a town where there are a lot of Bubbas!

 
About the only way to keep the pasta....

would be to fashion a steamer inside the warmer. Make sure the pasta was tossed with a bit of olive oil or butter as it cooled. You don't want it to swell and swell and get gummy...I just used the nicest little hotel pan sized colander the other night when doing spaghetti. It has loads of holes and would suspend the pasta inside a standard hotel pan, which fits inside a commercial sized chafing dish (check your own favorite restaurant to see if they'd loan it for a day...you might be surprised) which can likely be rented relatively cheaply. The school may even have one. That's where I was cooking!!

 
Life with Bubba...

Ring ring ring...hi honey, did you hide a fake snake under my bathrobe? no, okay, well, then there is a really big snake coiled under my bathrobe. When will you be home? Okay. I will close the door.
Bubba gets home. He goes in the bedroom, and I hear a really loud rattling noise and I hear hub bounce off the wall. He comes out and tells me it is a rattlesnake. I watch as he goes into the kitchen and grabs a broom. He grabs some of my olive green yarn and makes a loop hanging from the broomstick. Of course I question the ability of a yarn draped broomstick, but he pooh poohs me. I watch him walk into the bedroom and close the door. I hear a loud rattling sound, really loud, and I hear a thud against the wall. He walks out with really wide eyes. I question the idea of a yarn draped broomstick again. He agrees, and takes a towel and a barbell. Throws the towel over the snake, then beats it senseless with the barbell. Afterwards, he proudly saves the rattle.
One night, after work, he shows a co-worker (a crazy one) the rattle, and after that night, it disappears. To this day, if I ever want to distract him from anything, all I have to do is mention the rattlesnake tail. He will immediatly go off on a tangent about the rattlesnake tail. I love it, and it is my dark side. (smile)
There are so many more Life With Bubba tales. hmmm.

 
That was San Diego!

There was a lot of construction going on around us, and I would often leave the door open, and in it just wondered in and made itself at home. Acckkkkkkkkk! I got the heebie jeebies again just thinking about it.

 
I know what you mean. I was planting my garden the other day

and started walking to the back of my yard and saw a baby rattler. I left my mom standing nearby with a large bucket to throw over it and went knocking on all the neighbors doors till I found some poor sucker that happened to open his door. He came down and killed it for me. My husbands comment when he got home was "It's too small to skin". I saw one last summer in my yard but by the time my husband got home it had slithered away. He told me to put a bucket on it and he'd kill it when he got home. No way am I getting that close. I HATE snakes.

 
This one is recent...

This came about after Bubba and I had been at my son's elementary school, and he and my son watched and laughed at me while I tried to open someone else's white mini van for about thirty seconds with a dumb look on my face until I heard them snickering over at our van.

Bubba and the Raccoon.

We live out in the country on three acres where there are lots of critters running around. Well because of raccoons, Bubba, chief dog feeder, keeps the dog kibble in a large plastic trash can with a lid, on our deck. It was an older trash can and the lid wouldn't quite fit tight enough to make a good seal. A raccoon kept taking the lid off and eating the kibble. I know this because I saw the big thing eating out of the trash can, and he was a big sucker, kind of scary really. I am always afraid that wild animals, rodents mostly are going to bite me and latch on and I am going to have to shake/fling them off. Really, that is one of my phobias.

I told Bubba that I saw the big raccoon eating out of the trash can and he needed to get a new one because I didn't want that big thing on my
deck every night. He assured me that he could devise a way to keep the raccoon out using the old trash can. That night I looked at the trash
can and saw that Bubba had used some bungie cords to secure the lid. He had already gone to bed, so I decided to take the bungie cords off and tip over the can. The next morning I hear Bubba cursing to himself when he let the dogs out. Something like Damn Raccoon. I giggled to myself
quietly. I knew now that Bubba was on a mission, he would keep that Damn Raccoon out of the dog food, come hell or high water.

That night I looked out at the can, and this time he had taken the bungie cords and ran them through and under the handles in a very concise pattern that the Damn Raccoon would not be able to get open, I could barely get them off. I did the same as I had the night before and tipped the can over. Next morning, the same reaction only louder. Damn Raccoon! I could barely contain myself. The next night I went out to look at the trash can, and Bubba had taken this really gigantic black rubber band and had secured the lid on tight. I took the big rubber band off and laid it neatly on the wood holder, draping it just so. The next morning he called me out and was telling me about what he had done so far in order to keep the Damn Raccoon out of the dog food and that the Damn Raccoon was still getting in it. I suggested that he might need to buy a new trash can and was answered with a curt no way, only a little more colorful.

My son-in-law stopped by to pick up the kids, and I called to Bubba, "did you tell Steve about the Damn Raccoon?" Steve is his usual cohort in crime, they built a fog machine together using a 50 gallon drum, the 25 gallon drum wasn't big enough, but I digress. Bubba jumped out of his chair and took Steve out on the deck and started to recount all the ways he has been trying to batton this lid down and how the varmint was outsmarting him every time. Steve started to give him some advice and went to leave. I called Steve over and let him know what I had been doing. We were both practically in hysterics. Everyone loves to give it to Bubba. Steve relayed the story to my stepdaughter, who told her kids, I called my sister-in-law, my sister and told my sons, told my friends; poor Bubba. Everyone wanted a daily update so I started emailing everyone to keep them informed as to the Damn Raccoon status.

This went on for about two weeks, I started arranging whatever bungies or other devices he tried in decorative patterns, anything that would
help him figure out what was going on. He would put large weights and such, anything to try and keep the lid on tight. It was exhausting.

Finally, I asked him about the trash can and he was so pathetic, I broke Bubba's spirit. That night after he had imbibed a martini, I decided to tell him. I walked into the den and said, Bubba, I am the Damn Raccoon. He didn't get it. I had to repeat it. He still couldn't fathom it. Then I told him that I had been taking the lid off and everyone was in on it. He looked at me in disbelief. Then he started getting mad, but Bubba doesn't do mad for very long or very well, and he started laughing. I think he was just relieved that the Damn Raccoon wasn't more clever than him, but I don't think he likes it that I am. And now I wait for payback, and I know there will be payback and it will be bad.

 
Many years ago, I had a copperhead in the house and did manage to get the bucket on it. Then I had

to wait with it in the middle of the kitchen until dh got home. I piled so many books on that bucket, it's a wonder it didn't collapse under the weight. I was terrified it would get away and we wouldn't be able to find it. That was a brand new house in an area that had a lot of construction, like Dawn said. I hate snakes, too. It was pretty small, but still...

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top