When I was growing up, we were taught at least to try a taste of everything, to eat what was put before us, and not to complain about the food. That upbringing has served me well. I have learned to love a wide variety of different foods because my mother was quite an adventurous cook. I have also been able to go into a wide variety of circumstances and enjoy the food. But I have discovered that not everybody was brought up that way.
I leave next door to my mother, and I help her entertain a lot of guests. Right now we regularly have a lot of the grandkids in the house. Some of them are vegetarian. Some just have a long, long list of things that don't like--often accompanied by a very short list of things they do like. When we are trying to feed a lot of people, trying to decide what to serve to please as many people as possible can be really tricky.
We have discovered that "build-it-yourself" dinners can be really helpful. Some of these types of meals have kind of become traditional--in the American diet when you go out for a buffet, but have you tried them at home? Potato bars, salad bars, sandwich buffets, and taco dinners all lend themselves very well to the family table. If you have an ingredient that it go to make the dish for some of your diners, and break the deal for others, serve it in a separate bowl and allow people to sprinkle it on.
Individual pizzas are another crowd-pleaser. For a quick meal, pizzas can be built on top of French bread, English muffins, or tortillas. Arrange the "crusts" on a cookie sheet and spread with a little pasta sauce--either your favorite marinara or Alfredo sauce will do nicely. Slice the toppings into separate bowls and let everyone put on what they like. If you enjoy the taste of traditional pizza dough, I have found the easiest way to make many individual pizzas at once is to roll the dough out as if for one pizza, then slice the dough with a pizza cutter and pinch a ridge around each crust. Rolling out the pizzas individually can also be fun for kids, and allow for creatively-shaped pizzas.
Hawaiian haystacks are another fun built-it-yourself entry. On top of a bed of rice or chow mein noodles, each diner ladles a serving of chicken and sauce--we like ours in sweet and sour sauce, but chicken gravy or a can of cream of chicken soup thinned with a little milk also work well. The diners can then add their choice of toppings. Pick a variety of choices from the following suggestions, or come up with your own: coarsely choppend nuts, shredded coconut, pineapple, chopped apples, peas, sliced green onions, cheese, mushrooms, craisins, mandarin oranges, chopped green or red bell peppers all work well. Curry is another closely related dish if you want a more exotic taste.
