Hi my sis is arranging an 18 th birthday party for my nephew in August whilst we are on our annual group camp
Over 30 people are invited to the party
She is stuck on what food to do as obviously it's limited on a camp site and keeping stuff cold will be a problem !
She was thinking of doing a BBQ but keeping it simple but doesn't really want to be cooking on and off all evening !
We have electric hook up on 3 of the pitches
3 large one pot meals buffet style? A chilli, a curry, a paella or risotto plus disposable bbqs doing one batch of burgers?
Or get a whole bunch of bbqs plus a selection of different foods and get each person to cook their own?
------------- April- rosetta 3 nights
May - walled garden 3 nights
June- ??
July- monkey tree 14 nights
What about 3 main dishes eg.
sweet & sour chicken (jars of sauce, chicken)
slow cooked ??? (something in a slow cooker)
pizza (either cooked in someone's oven or dominos)
then, rice, pasta, potatoes, peas & carrots
plus of course the salads (only a few) and the BBQ stuff
Dessert - hire a chocolate fountain and put in fresh fruits (and have some biscuits for those that don't want fruit). Don't forget to use forks / kebab sticks.
A bbq for 30 is quite an undertaking on a campsite and would take ages.
How long after you arrive are you planning on holding the party?
What about a bring and share tea - so everyone brings something and you put it out on big tables, buffet style? We did this for the jubilee a few years ago and it was a great success. I cooked a ham joint at home and took that, then made a potato salad on site. Others brought sausage rolls, pies, quiche, bread, crisps, dips, pasta and rice salads, green salad... you could also cook a few pizzas and bbq a load of chicken legs / burgers too, but by asking people to chip in it makes it much less pressure on you. It would probably only really work though if the party was quite early on in your stay...
We did a party for 60 without EHU last year (although someone hired a barn on site and we did borrow their fridge and plugged a coolbox in).
We had a BBQ as the base- got 2x large disposable ones and used our small reusuable for vege stuff.
We made up things like coleslaw/pot salad/cous cous the day before and used big ice cream tubs to keep them in- they stack easily, have a lid and we used these for serving too.
I arranged an online shop delivery for the morning of the party (to the campsite) for things like burgers, sausages, rolls, coke, cheese.
The puds were the hardest bit as we wanted to avoid 'cream' things in case the weather was hot. I know we had birthday cake but I can't remember what we did.
As a rule I don't like using disposable stuff but we did take paper plates etc.
We had a few tables which I covered (and used giant pegs to peg down) with table cloths. Everyone bought chairs of their own but we did have spares.
Think about fire safety- I had a few buckets of water on standby and food safety- I set up a handwashing station next to the BBQ with handwash, bowl of water +towel etc. Also have a wet weather shelter plan.
Thankfully our weather was fab so our guests amused themselves with footie matches, talking, wining and dining.
Thanks for all your replies and ideas ! We are going the week before but the site is nearish to home so we often pop back ! There will be people coming just for the weekend who can bring supplies and we usually take a big gas BBQ in someone's van ! The idea of getting shopping delivered is a great one also 3 slow cooker meals that would work !
Will pass on all the ideas to my sister
Thank you all
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Topic: Camping party food ideas
