When the Grandkids Come to Town: Cooking for a Crowd with Love (and Leftovers)

(Any reference to using real wheat products for GF reflect our personal experience and are not guaranteed to work for everyone. Food intolerances are unique to each individual and may or may not work for others.)

There’s something magical about a house full of grandkids. The noise level rises, the laundry multiplies, and the kitchen becomes the heart of it all. If you’ve ever looked around your home during a full-family visit and thought, “We might need another fridge…” —you’re in good company.

Cooking for a large family, especially when the grandkids are in town, isn’t just about feeding hungry mouths. It’s about feeding memories.

Let Them Help With The Cooking

The beauty of having grandkids in the kitchen is that they want to be involved. I’ve had flour explosions, egg mishaps, and the occasional sugar mix-up, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Letting them measure ingredients or stir the pot might take longer, but it gives them a sense of ownership—and creates lasting memories.

Some of our favorite moments have come from baking sessions gone sideways: burnt cookies, misshapen biscuits, and laughter that fills the whole house.

How We Pulled It Off This Past Week (and stayed on budget)

Meal 1: Taco Soup (By Special Request)

It’s fast, flavorful, and fills the bellies. We made a pressure cooker taco soup that hit the spot. Served it with tortilla chips and salsa, and not a drop was left by the end of the night. ➡️ Here’s the exact recipe we used.

Meal 2: Ham + Farm Stand Freshness

We picked up a medium ham at Aldi and made a day of the rest of the meal planning—took the kids to a local farm stand to pick out fresh, in-season produce. We chatted about how to inspect the corn ears for bug, and "how much" green is acceptable on the melon. We ended up with:

• Corn on the cob

• Cantaloupe

• Cucumbers, tomatoes, sweet onions

We brought it home, taught them to shuck the corn, cleaned it all up, and made (a) a simple marinated veggie bowl using white vinegar, water, sugar, salt, and pepper (b) boiled the corn on the cob, (c) and had the cantaloupe for dessert. Served everything with homemade loaf bread using imported durum wheat flour—surprisingly, even our gluten-free folks ate it all week with zero issues. (The bread recipe is at the bottom.)

Meal 3: Pizza Night, Everyone’s Style

We split the pizzas down the middle—one for the free-range eaters and one for the food-sensitive crowd.

• Regular Pizzas: Mama Mary crusts, Delallo pizza sauce, mozzarella, and Boar’s Head pepperoni.

• GF/DF Pizzas: Caulipower crusts, Delallo sauce, hand-grated LaClare Creamery Goat Mozzarella, and Boar’s Head pepperoni.

  
  

No complaints. Only compliments.

Meal 4: Classic Southern Supper

This one took a little elbow grease, but it was worth it:

• Pan-fried chicken (buttermilk wash + Kentucky Kernel coating, fried in peanut oil.)

• Homemade pinto beans (the granddaughters helped sort the dried beans the night before, we soaked them overnight, added seasoning, ham, bacon and onions and boiled them for dinner.)

• Cornbread

• Leftover marinated veggies and chilled cantaloupe

For the chicken, we made dairy-free “buttermilk” using Meyers Powdered Goat Milk and white vinegar (1 Tblsp white vinegar to 1 cup prepared milk, let it set for 10 minutes) . And yes—Kentucky Kernel now has a gluten-free coating that tasted just like the original.

Meal 5: Backyard Campfire & Float Night

We ended the week just right:

• Roasted hot dogs over an open flame

• Miscellaneous sides from previous meals

• Homemade hot dog buns

• Marshmallows roasted by sticky fingers

• Root beer floats with Breyers lactose-free vanilla for our dairy-free crew

  
  

Laughter, sticky faces, and the smell of woodsmoke... it doesn’t get better than that. And we took the bread recipe, cut the dough into 8 pieces, rolled out 8 "tubes" and let it rise the second time for homemade buns. They were spectacular!

When you cook for a crowd, it’s not just about food. It’s about generosity. About tradition. About saying, “You matter enough that I made this for you.”

It’s messy, it’s loud, it takes planning—but oh, it fills your heart. And your sink.

Bread Recipe

Using bread machine on "dough" setting, then baking seperately.

Ingredients

• 1 cup warm water (105 to115 degrees F/40 to 45 degrees C)

• 3 T honey

• 1 T active dry yeast

• 3 cups all-purpose flour (imported durum semolina flour recommended)

• 2 T olive oil

• ¾ teaspoon salt

Directions

• Pour warm water into the pan of a bread machine and stir in honey until dissolved. Add yeast; let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes.

• Add flour, olive oil, and salt to the pan in the order listed or follow the order recommended by the manufacturer if different.

• Run “dough” cycle. Remove from container, punch down. Knead into loaf size. Place in large loaf pan. Cover and let rise 20 min. Cover with egg glaze.

• Bake at 350 for 30 min

• (For buns, bake for 20 min)