Baked Potatoes
Kelly
09/21/10 		I am preparing potatoes for a wedding reception for 350 using your guidelines for a potato bar with toppings. How are potatoes sized? I do not want a really large potato and I would like them to be uniform. What would you reccommend using? Rest of menu, chicken breast, roast beef, green beans, glazed carrots, rice pilaf, tossed salad, and rolls. Many Thanks~
elen
09/22/10 		Get them by the case at a produce wholesaler. You want around "60's" 40's are the really large ones and 80's are pretty small.
Kelly
10/13/10 		Thanks Ellen, Thought I would set up a seperate station just for the potatoes and toppings. How do you reccommend serving a large quantity of potatoes? Put them in steam talbe pans over a chafer and change frequently? I could use a basket that has a cooler liner but the basket would have to be constantly opened. Should I dedicate a person to opening and serving the potato and the guests top themselves? Just can't seem to work this out in my head. I enjoy your site and appreciate the time you spend helping everyone!
ellen
10/13/10 		People are pretty used to serving themselves a potato at a salad bar. The steam table pan should work fine. A server to split and fluff the potato would be a nice touch, especially if it is the main course, but not essential.
Kelly
10/25/10 		Thanks so much for the help. One more question, Would you reccommend not using more than 1 rack in the oven when baking or could I bake 2 layers at the same time to speed up the process?
ellen
10/26/10 		As long as it is a large oven and you leave one inch around each wall clear, and a bit of space between the potatoes, you can use 2 racks. Or see my potato bar article for how to do cook and hold potatoes.
kelly
11/10/10 		Hi Ellen, Wedding's just around the corner,did a trial run on the potatoes for girls here at the bank it worked great!!!!! Wanted to get your thoughts on quanity for rice pilaf. Plan to serve 300 people. Will bake 325 potatoes just to be safe. Do you think I should prepare rice for 300 as well or shrink that abit. IF so how many would you prepare for? Menu: Chicken, Italian Beef, Baked Potato Bar, Rice Pilaf, Glazed Carrots, Green Beans, tossed salad and rolls. Many Thanks~ Kelly
ellen
11/10/10 		Hi, I would do about 16 pounds of rice. You will have some of each left over.
Kelly
11/19/10 		Ellen, Wanted to let you know everything turned out great, I thought I would share the Baked Potatoe Ham Topper recipe I used.

Serves 50

3 cans Cream of Mushroom Soup or the large can @ GFS

1 C Milk

2 C Sour Cream

1 T. Black Pepper

3 lbs finely diced ham

3 sm cans of diced green chilies undrained

1 stalk celery diced and steamed in a little water.

Combine all in a crock pot and heat thouroughly. Very Good-not spicey!

I tripled this recipe and had about half of it left over. Mixed the leftovers with mini cheese ravioli, topped with Parm and other white cheeses, baked for about 40 minutes and treated the girls here at the bank to lunch, it was great this way as well.

Many thanks for keeping this forum going, it is a great healp to those of us who love to cook!