Journeying Sue: What to feed a large group for dinner.

We visited our wonderful friends Steve and Jana, who we met in Germany, at their new home in the Fort Hood, TX area for the past few days. Our other friends Mark and Kathy, who we also knew in Germany, were in town from Colorado visiting their parents, and we all spent the day together. We all homeschooled our kids in Germany. (It was legal for us because we are affiliated with the American military.) Jana had everyone over for dinner and Mark's mom, who was also in Germany with us, came too. So, there were 7 adults and 11 kids.

Jana made wonderful pork barbeque sandwiches for everyone. She added baked macaroni and cheese and some dip and crackers. She had rolls for everyone to make their own sandwiches. She had some salad greens too. There was enough for everyone and we even had leftover meat. Here is a similar recipe that I found online, but not the one Jana used.

Crock-pot Barbeque from Allrecipes.com

• 1 pork roast (loin, butt, or ends)
• 10 oz. Bessingers barbecue sauce
• 1 T. black pepper
• 1 T. salt
• 4 dashes soy or Worcestershire sauce
• 1 can beer or 12 oz. white wine

Place roast in crock-pot. Cook for 10-12 hours on low. Remove and wipe pot with paper towels. Break meat into small pieces and put back in crock-pot. Add sauce (anything will work if you can’t get Bessingers), and other ingredients. Cook on high for 1 hour. (Use less pepper for small children).

Steve, her husband, did a great job pulling the pork apart and Mark added just the right amount of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce. The meal was delicious and not at all cumbersome. Well, that's what Jana said!

I put this on here because, I think, people would love to get together, but it seems like just one more thing that don't have time to do, and they don't know how to feed a large group. I feel like that a lot, but when we actually do it, our family loves getting together with other families.

Years ago a friend of ours had our family over for dinner when our oldest was about 1 year old. I thought that was awesome. I hadn't had another family over since we had a child and it seemed overwhelming. But, I'll never forget what my friend said, "It's not about the food, it's about the fellowship." Aha! What a relief. We had the best fellowship with that family that night.

I also heard someone say around that same time period say that when having others over for dinner don't have a gourmet-type meal. If you do, the others may think that they can't compete with that type of meal and they won't invite you to their house (not that that's your reason for having them over). So, have a simple meal and a good time. It's about the relationships, not about the food.

Here's our get together!!