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wrote:
> I have a question for ya'll. My husband and I get together with a
> group of friends every week to play games and hang out, and we all take
> turn making dinner. Several of us in the group like to cook and enjoy
> trying out new recipes, but some just bring sandwich meat and bread or
> pizza or something easy like that. It happens occaisionally (and most
> often when one particular group member is in charge of dinner), that we
> run out of food. I was wondering if anyone has any good websites I
> could forward to the group that give estimates of how much to buy/cook
> of various things (e.g. "x pieces of chicken" or "y lbs meat" per
> person)? .
>
> What got us thinking is recently, the member in question picked up
> fried chicken and sides for dinner. No big deal, except that there are
> 7 adults (4 men, 3 women--1 man was absent so total of 6 for the
> night), and she got 12 pieces of chicken and two tiny sides (one might
> have fed 2 people and the other maybe 4) plus a loaf of bakery bread.
> There might have been 2 chicken breasts in the batch, and the rest was
> legs, wings, and maybe a thigh. Several of us basically had bread for
> dinner that night. She actually asked as we were all leaving if there
> were any leftovers!
>
> I don't usually have trouble, since I grew up in with 4 siblings, so
> cooking for a group is easier than cooking for 2. But others just
> don't know portion sizes (or they think "serves 4-6" means they can
> feed 7 adults??). I found a couple of websites that talk about feeding
> crowds, but they're talking 20-50 people, not 7-8.
>
> Any help or pointers that I could pass on would be great! My challenge
> will be to find a way to bring it up without embarrassing anyone....

To be completely understanding and tolerant, you could speculate that
this woman eats like a bird and furthermore has no clue about
extrapolating quantities for a group.

Some people do eat very small portions, you know. We have some friends
who do, and whenever we have them over to dinner we are amazed at how
much leftover food there is. And they are thin, too. Eat less, stay
thin. Go figure! (and I don't think it's our food, either, they claim
to like our cooking)

No matter what her problem is, you still have to talk to her. Just
forwarding a web site won't do it. Try having a face-to-face
conversation with her, with nobody else around. Let her know that when
ordering for the gang she's been under-ordering - she probably doesn't
realize it, you tell her - and next time, maybe you want to check with
one of us on the quantities.

If she's "cheap" (or broke) then brainstorm with her on how to stretch
dollars further. She could make a pot of chili, for instance, and some
cornbread.

Just sayin'.

Leila