Comments on: Planning My Weekend Bar Mitzvah Meals for 40 Guests

By: Harry

Harry — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:01:42 +0000

Mazel tov!

By: Hannah

Hannah — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 18:17:23 +0000

Sorry for not responding earlier. Thanks everyone and I hope you saw the update. Rhonda, ask Keren, I even met Flylady at a conference once and brought her a gift from Israeli flybabies.
I hope you all saw my update on the menu. I’ll be posting more this week. Today I baked the challah.
Keren, to me having people to serve seems intrusive, but I agree that it’s nice to sit down the whole time. Still, I hosted 21 once–the same people–and serving went fine.
Roz, it’s hard to keep the menu light as you will see when i post it. But there will be salads.

By: keren

keren — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:28:15 +0000

Making a Barmitzva is a subject that is always helpful .I am sure that a series of articles about this could be interesting.

Personal note: we made 2 so far, the first we bought food and served it ourselves (30+) people. The second, we cooked ourselves and got girls in to serve
Every penny we paid to girls to serve was worth it. So recomend getting help in for serving (I have sisters, daughters and nieces but it was much more comfortable for everyone)

By: Roz Keith

Roz Keith — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 01:58:15 +0000

The key is organization and really great planning. I suggest a grid with a box for each meal and how many adults and kids for each. If there is a “theme” try to incorporate it into at least one of the meals. For example, we used local specialties and favorites from the Detroit area and our out of town guests loved being exposed to new treats, etc.
Once you figure out how many for each meal then decide where the food is coming from for that particular meal. After that, a list is fairly easy to compile and you’ll have all the ingredients for each meal. I also recommend keeping the fare light, as often we feel that we go from meal to meal during the mitzvah weekends and by Sunday night the clothes aren’t fitting quite the way they did on Friday morning.
If you need help selecting a venue, this is a great article. http://bit.ly/lrIns

By: rhonda

rhonda — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 16:24:21 +0000

Also flylady is free and I think she has a Twitter-although I prefer the more detailed email-she teaches how to flyfish and is married to a judge and started a website with ideas how to clean your house in 15 minutes from people that are natually born organized-(she still has good ideas even if you are)-like seting up a “launch pad” area for each person for the mornings for school-work-congregation etc. She helps 1/2 million people.

By: Abbi

Abbi — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:28:51 +0000

Mazel tov! Yes, I would love to hear more as I would be fascinated by how you will pull all of this off. (Not that I doubt that you can, but it is a tremendous project).

Best of luck.

By: rhonda

rhonda — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:26:13 +0000

I also subscribe to http://www.flylady.net (she teaches how to clean your house in 15 minutes a day) she would probably say to freeze as much as possible for meals for your guests.

By: Adina

Adina — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 08:55:53 +0000

MAZAL TOV!
Yes, I would love to hear all the details and how you are managing the logistics. Esp how you figure out how much food to prepare for each dish at each meal – I have this fear of not having enough, and then I make too much and it’s such a waste. And what you can make in advance and it stays good and what has to be last minute. And so on and so on…
MAZAL TOV!!

By: rhonda

rhonda — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:09:28 +0000

yes, I would be interested in learning how to do this, since everyone has to do this at one or another, also some tips may help for serving a large family.

By: Ilana-Davita

Ilana-Davita — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:09:53 +0000

Good luck with all your preparations. I am convinced you’ll do fine but it still is a lot of work.