Need help

[iPhonefreak]

Hi, I am organizing a chili dinner fundraiser. We will be kinda short on staff, so I need some help in planning things that will not require a lot of people.

So far, I have the date planned, the location and I know we are serving chili.

Would salad be a good side dish? What drinks should we serve? Thinking of lemonade, water and iced tea or coffee? Need help on drinks wise. And the desserts, I have no clue what to serve. I was thinking sheet cakes, or having the option of ice cream and brownie sundae.

Our group has basically no money, so everything will be out of pocket and then the funds made from this will help recover the costs+ earn a profit. And we do not have volunteers, so we can not really have desserts donated.

Thanks!

 

[Saruman]

coffee has high acidity so i wouldn't use coffee with chilli.

i would also add cornbread to the side dish list

 

[iPhonefreak]

Thanks! I have read cornbread, but is it easy and cheap to make?

 

[Saruman]

yes it is, and goes well with unsweetened tea 🙂

i use this combo every weekend or so

don't use chips either, as those go with sandwitches

with your salads i would have mainly ranch dressing...italian is a little acidic so might turn off the taste for some of your guests, so maybe use ranch, thousand island, etc... any of the "creamy" dressings, also ranch dressing is good on cornbread and even drizziled on chilli 🙂

also have your cakes chilled prior to serving

 

[Finn]

Hi, I am organizing a chili dinner fundraiser. We will be kinda short on staff, so I need some help in planning things that will not require a lot of people.

So far, I have the date planned, the location and I know we are serving chili.

Would salad be a good side dish? What drinks should we serve? Thinking of lemonade, water and iced tea or coffee? Need help on drinks wise. And the desserts, I have no clue what to serve. I was thinking sheet cakes, or having the option of ice cream and brownie sundae.

Our group has basically no money, so everything will be out of pocket and then the funds made from this will help recover the costs+ earn a profit. And we do not have volunteers, so we can not really have desserts donated.

Thanks!

I'd say a nice, greek salad would be good because it has lots of good things in it like feta and olives. Otherwise, go with Ceasar. I think you should do brownies without ice-cream as ice-cream can cause panic if it melts while waiting! Sounds like a cool idea though, best of luck with it. 🙂

 

[Saruman]

i never used chocolate with chilli, unless it is garnished on another type of desert

if use chocolate use milk type of chocolate as dark chocolate compliments coffee more and since i wouldn't use coffee, i wouldn't use dark chocolate

 

[iPhonefreak]

Thanks so much!

So, I have added cornbread to the mix. I will certainly offer ranch dressing, but I know many folks around here like Italian and french.

And Jingles, the ice cream will be kept cool. The event will be held in the school cafeteria/ kitchen.

And @Saruman, are you talking about the chocolate in the brownies, and cake or liquid chocolate?

 

[Saruman]

any type of chocolate really...

also for your lemonade provide packets of sweetner, more so than tea as you will find out more will use the sweetner in the lemonade than in the tea

chilled cakes will compliment the tea as a sweetner 😉

 

[iPhonefreak]

Thanks for your help!! 🙂

 

[Saruman]

also for fundraisers i've had the invintations free, but with a suggested donation of blahblahblah, so the attendees are not pressured to pay a flat rate, they are able to contribute what they can.

you may find some will then donate more now, then what they would of dontate if there had been a flat rate everyone would have paid.

just an idea on any future events 🙂

 

[iPhonefreak]

Do you think people will get too full off a bowl of chili, a salad, cornbread, a drink and dessert?

 

[Saruman]

depends on the amount of attendees and amount of food available per attendee

also keep in mind will the drinks be refillable?

will they be willing to come to any future events?

i usually plan mine as if it were the last, so then each one seems to be always "the best one"

 

[iPhonefreak]

depends on the amount of attendees and amount of food available per attendee

also keep in mind will the drinks be refillable?

will they be willing to come to any future events?

i usually plan mine as if it were the last, so then each one seems to be always "the best one"

Yes, drinks will be refillable.

By future events, do you mean more dinners that we host?

I am honestly not sure about attendance. We could do really poor, or we could do great. Its the first time for this.

 

[Saruman]

well you'll get a rhythm down, that will only be mastered once you begin hosting more and more events in the future 🙂

 

[Venom]

Milk is good for after eating chilli as the protein in it which acts against the Capsaicin found in chilis and will help settle a stomach.