[QUOTE=CANTEREOIN;6615449]
OK, not to hijack but what if its a tailgate, the weather is going to be cold and you don’t have access to a power source to use a crock pot? I love to cook and I have time to do so for our upcoming hunt… love some new ideas… Anyone?[/QUOTE]
Will you have access to a grill or bbq? If so, I might prepare something in advance in a nice heavy fire-safe pot, make sure it’s piping hot, wrap it up in insulation for transport, then put it on the bbq on arrival. (This does depend somewhat on how far you’re traveling with it, though. I wouldn’t want to risk it dipping into the ‘warm’ temperature zone en route, but starting with it hot if you don’t have far to travel saves a lot of time reheating it on the grill/bbq. Or you can get those catering tray thingies with the fuel lights at places like GFS, but those are not going to be enough to heat something from chilled successfully, I suspect.
(Alternatively, is there somewhere nearby and a handy spare person you could station with it where it could be plugged in, so it just has to be unplugged and transported a short distance for serving? As long as people served up right away it should stay warm long enough for everyone to get food.)
Or buy a large purpose-made insulated thermos type container - pre-heat it with hot water, then add the hot food? Possibly check your local sporting goods store that has a good hunting/camping section, too - there’s a lot of stuff these days designed to plug into the car, there might be something that would do the trick.
(I’m mostly suggesting pre-heating for most things because I’m assuming a relatively large volume of food and most portable heating options are not going to heat a volume of food quickly, which means more time in the bacteria danger zone if the food starts out cool or warm.)
For actual food ideas - when I was producing a student film and had to do craft services for one meal in the fall I heated up meatballs (from CostCo because I did not have time to meatball from scratch) and spaghetti sauce (likewise) and then put them together in a crock pot and served that with hoagie type rolls and some pre-sliced provolone cheese and a veggie tray. That was pretty popular with cast and crew and was easy to eat even though we didn’t really have space to properly sit down at tables. I’m sure if someone wanted to take the time to make the meat balls and the sauce it’d be even better.
(To allow for vegetarians, if necessary, I’d probably do a side container of something like mushrooms and maybe some other ‘hearty’ vegetables like eggplant that turn up in Italian cooking, cut into meatball sized chunks and cooked as necessary and then in sauce. So you could have what amounted to a vegetarian meatball sub without having to supply too many additional bits and pieces. Plus, most vegetarians I’ve talked to get tired of being places where there’s a main meal for everyone else and then some weird little odd-thing-out off to the side for them like an afterthought. They’ve generally appreciated being able to have a vegetarian-safe version of what everyone else is having, or else I just do a hearty side dish that will function as a side for meat eaters but vegetarians can load up on it as a main course.)
… Is catering for hunts something you can do? Because I don’t have a horse right now and am not really in fit shape to ride, but helping with providing the food and getting to talk to horsey folks sounds like it could be fun. 