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Branding

F

Faster horses

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
30,531
Location
NE WY at the foot of the Big Horn mountains
We are branding Saturday morning and I'm stuck on what to make.

Any good ideas out there? We are having Roast Beef, Sloppy Joes,
Ranch beans and from there, I'm stuck.

Got any good salad ideas? EASY good salad ideas... :wink:

I used to cook for a lot of people, but I don't anymore, so
I never know how much to make of something. What looks like
a lot to me, isn't when you have hungry guys around. I love cooking
for them, but I just don't know what is 'enough' anymore.

I was going to make this really good corn dish where you put spaghetti noodles in it but with it being fairly warm out, I didn't know about that. I thought cold salads might be better.

What kind of potatoes do you all fix? I made oven baked ones that are like jo jos. They loved them but that is all I got done: put more spuds on the pan and cook more of 'em. I have a convection oven that works great for doing that, but it was just I needed so many...so I'm not doing that again.
 
Taco Salad
scalloped potatoes
green salad with different dressings
macaroni salad or potato salad
favorites in our area for brandings
 
We had lasagna. I have to vaccinate so I fix stuff I can put in the oven.
We had fruit salad with cottage cheese, cool whip and canned friut.
And we had I think it's called garbage salad with auger noodles and fresh vegtables and Italian dressing.
And for dessert we had cheese cake with strawberrys over the top if they choose too.
Ice tea, coffee and water.......
I didn't have time to make dinner rolls so just whole wheat bread...
 
I'm going with vegetable pasta salads. Carrots, cucumbers, green peppers and green onions in a sweetened condensed milk etc. dressing. It's a little sweeter than plain old mayo and everybody seems to like it.

Now I've got a question for you. If I make a roast the day before and put it in the fridge overnight, can i use the crock pot to warm it up in the morning? I thought I'd turn it on low around 7 am. Would it be warmed up good by noon or one? Or would that be too much and dry it out? How about electric roasters? Are they for cooking for bigger crowds like 30 or 40 people?
 
T99 said:
I'm going with vegetable pasta salads. Carrots, cucumbers, green peppers and green onions in a sweetened condensed milk etc. dressing. It's a little sweeter than plain old mayo and everybody seems to like it.

Now I've got a question for you. If I make a roast the day before and put it in the fridge overnight, can i use the crock pot to warm it up in the morning? I thought I'd turn it on low around 7 am. Would it be warmed up good by noon or one? Or would that be too much and dry it out? How about electric roasters? Are they for cooking for bigger crowds like 30 or 40 people?
Click to expand...
The little pretty Mrs. Red Robin cans some roasts with potatoes and gravy I think and just pours them into a pan and heats it up for times like that. Sure is good eating. Of course I could be wrong. I'm not in the kitchen unless something is on fire or has sprung a leak. I don't even know where the spoons are. (wee bit of an exaggeration, just a very wee bit)
 
Like katrina, I have to work the day of, so I always do stuff that I can make ahead of time, or leave in the roaster for a while that day.

Taco salad is our lunch break (I usually do a couple of big batches) and a couple pans of Rice Krispy bars or something like that.
Dinner itself (early supper, usually) is ham and spuds. One whole ham, cubed in big chunks, 15 pounds of potatoes cubed about the same size. Four quarts of half and half (enough to fill my roaster about 3/4 full or so). Put it on a low roast and it's ready to go by the time we're all done. I always have an empty pan. :)
I also make two or three 9x13 pans of deserts and a couple of bowls of salads.
 
T99, the big electric roasters are really good for big bunches. However, you can use your crockpot to heat the pre-cooked meat up in and it won't dry out. Crock pots are to keep moistness IN. I would put the juice from the roast in the crockpot too, to keep the flavor. It won't take much juice to do that.

I'm cheating and having the grocery store here cook the roast and SLICE it. They will give it to me sliced up with the juice in a plastic bag and I will heat it up Saturday morning. Works real well that way. I will use the big electric roaster turned way down.

Interesting, when I was younger I wanted one of those big roasters in the worst way and they were so expensive, I never could afford one. Now that I don't need it so much, they are only $39.00.

They do cook all meat well.
 
My favourite way to do potatoes is in potato salad. Just make sure you can keep it good and cold! :shock: :shock: Don't want anyone getting sick. I've found one of the best make ahead salads is coleslaw. Instead of deteriorating as the day goes on, it gets better the longer it sits. Lettuce is so fussy, it's not that practical.

Cooked sliced carrots with a bit of chopped onion, green peppers, and French dressing is another good one. I like stuff you can make the day before, because there's enough to do as it is when you're working the cattle. :roll:
 
Wow this discussion is really making me hungry. You all sound like good cooks. My crew has been branding and working the cows for the last 3 days and my 4 employees have to bring there own lunches (I think they prefer that to my bachelor cooking anyway :wink: ). Would be nice to hire someone to cook for us all when we work long hard days like this. But pretty impossible especially when you live out in the boonies. I'm usually so tired when I get in I don't feel like cooking. Quiting early tonight after only a 14 hour day. Hopefully everyone is having a good spring and avoiding accidents when working around cattle.
 
mtrancher, get yourself a crock pot and you'll be amazed at what a good cook you are. It's my single one most important thing I've got in the kitchen. Throw a roast in on top of some carrots and potatoes and you've got one good meal when you get in at night.
 
cooking might have been the single most important skill my mom taught me in my teenage years. When at college I would be cokg real mswil my roomates ived on take out and frozen dinners. They spent more money on food than I did and I ate better, go figure.

We don't do brandings here but we do do all day vaccination and cutitngs between the neighbors and us. Between the two of us we have 1000 cows calving this year, although a more average year in the past was around 700 between the two of us. People around here for AI days or calf days tend to send a person to town for burgers or sandwiches from one of the dinners... Wish we had more branding type things.. Those days always make you tired but you always get a laugh or 6 along the way and for a young guy like me you tend to learn a lot too.
 
Well, since I'm not old enough to seed, or spray and i dont have my driver's license yet... I get to cook for the guys. lol. All I do is fry up like 4 pounds of hamburger (12 or so people) and take any and every can of beans, corn, etc. and dump it in, put soenm spices in, make er boiling hot. Itll come otu different each time, and it never tases bad. lol. and its simple. lol. mtrancher, if a 13 year old boy like me can make it, youll be able to top it. lol. And i got this on my own too. lol.
 
I'd do tater salad, down here in the south our tater salad has mustard and miracle whip, onions, and dill pickles in it. I've seen other kinda tater salads, and LOL they just aint the same.

for desert I usually make a big ole peach cobbler, or apple pies.
 
This you can make ahead and heat up the day you are branding and it is everyone's favorite around here:

Tater Casserole

10-12 Med spuds, peeled, diced and boiled til tender

Place in large mixing bowl, beat or mash
1 C sour Cream
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese
Beat in 2 t salt, 1/4 t pepper, 1 clove garlic (pressed), 1/4 C chopped chives. Pour into 2 qt buttered casserole - put in fridge up to 3 days, before serving, heat in a 350 degree oven for 30 min if room temp or 45 min taken right out of the fridge.



GOOD LUCK AND HAVE FUN AT YOUR BRANDING!!!!!!

This will serve 10.
Our people LOVE IT!!! It's like a twice baked tater without the skin. Yummy!!!!

Easy recipe for dessert, can make 'way ahead of time because it freezes very well...don't have to serve it warm, either, it's just, plain GOOD!!

Rhubarb Cake

Mix together:

3 C rhubarb, cut in very small pieces
1-1/2 C sugar
1 (3 oz) pkg wild strawberry jello (can't find that, regular strawberry is just as good)

Put in bottom of a greased 13X9 inch pan. Prepare a box of yellow cake mix according to directions on the box and ad 1/4 C oil to the mix. Pour over the rhubarb. Bake at 350 degrees for about 50 min. While hot turn out on cookie sheet. Serve while warm (not necessary). Cake can be frozen for later use.
 
Thanks everyone. I've done this for 42 years and my mind was BLANK
Appreciate all your help.

My mind is going...going...gone!!

I called someone named Casey the other day and instead asked for Jack.
(Jack is my husband.) Boy, that was BAAAAAAD!!

HEY, ACS~you have a good idea. When Mr. FH elk hunted the guys would get all ready to go to the Big Horns and stay a few days. They fixed a dish they called "Weens and Beaners." As I recall, it was pork and beans, corn and hot dogs all cooked together.

Do you think they would eat something like that at home? NO SIREEE! :wink:
 
At the brandings that I have been at the women normaly have to tag and vaccinate so they are to busy to cook. Nobody has ever suggested to them to cook the night before. Anyway they just run to town before lunch and buy beer, pizza, donuts, etc.
Most brandings around here are social brandings. The most important thing is cold beer or your help wont come back next year :wink:
 
Like I said, I been doing this for 42 years. It iIS a social thing, I do go out and vaccinate (used to wrestle even). Now it is just Mr. FH and me here, so I don't know how much to make of something and I had a brain fart about what to fix. We sold half of our cows last year so we'll just get started and be done. I'm a cattle person and I want to be out there watching or working, not in the house cooking. And I like to cook, but not that day.

I thought about having it catered from town. :wink:
 
Faster horses said:
We are branding Saturday morning and I'm stuck on what to make.

Any good ideas out there? We are having Roast Beef, Sloppy Joes,
Ranch beans and from there, I'm stuck.

Got any good salad ideas? EASY good salad ideas... :wink:

I used to cook for a lot of people, but I don't anymore, so
I never know how much to make of something. What looks like
a lot to me, isn't when you have hungry guys around. I love cooking
for them, but I just don't know what is 'enough' anymore.

I was going to make this really good corn dish where you put spaghetti noodles in it but with it being fairly warm out, I didn't know about that. I thought cold salads might be better.

What kind of potatoes do you all fix? I made oven baked ones that are like jo jos. They loved them but that is all I got done: put more spuds on the pan and cook more of 'em. I have a convection oven that works great for doing that, but it was just I needed so many...so I'm not doing that again.
Click to expand...



Faster Horses I have only one word for you. PIE :!: With everything else you said all you need is PIE :!:
 
I have friends who have their lunch catered. It is always good, and easier on her as she helps with branding also. probably doesn't cost a whole lot more than buying everything and doing it yourself.

But I agree with Roper good ice cold beer is the most important ingredient!
 

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