Branding Meal 2022 Recap
Branding 2022 was a success. This year we changed it up and did a taco/nacho bar instead of our traditional meat and potatoes. It went really well, and we fed roughly 90-100 people.
*If you are new around here, scroll to the bottom to better understand branding and its role in our neighborhood.
Here is a full rundown of the food we included in the bar and how much was used:
40 lbs. ground beef taco meat (2 large roasters)
12 regular sized bags of tortilla chips
3 pkg soft tortilla shells (gone)
2 large boxes of hard tortilla shells (gone)
5 24oz. tubs of sour cream
3 lbs. chopped onions (gone)
3 lbs. chopped tomatoes (gone)
32 oz. sliced olives
16 oz. sliced jalapenos (gone)
6 16 oz. bags of shredded lettuce
.5 gallon of mild salsa
16 oz. hot salsa (gone)
8 16 oz. bags of shredded lettuce
6 containers of white queso (Sams Club - AMAZING & gone)
We also had homemade pico (Renae's recipe linked here), guacamole, rice, street corn (Anna's recipe she is developing), and green chili sauce. As you can see, we didn't have a ton of leftovers and ran entirely out of a few things.
A Few Notes
We could have used more taco shells, but most people just used tortilla chips as the base.
Buying pre-shredded lettuce was very, very handy. We cut all the veggies up ahead of time and had them ready to go in the fridge. Our mom also found squeeze bottles for the sour cream. We filled them ahead of time and it helped make serving the sour cream cleaner and more efficient. The sides we made to go along with the tacos stayed warm in crockpots and we didn’t have to worry about them all day.
The meat was made ahead of time and froze in the roaster liners. The meat reheated great in the roasters. Also, both my mom and aunt were in charge of making 20 lbs of ground beef, they each ended up making about 26 lbs. Just to have extra.
To pair with the meal, we made some frozen margaritas. The recipe came from another ranch wife. Last spring, we tried them at their branding and knew we wanted to test out the recipe. It is a recipe that will be saved for just the cookbook.
What is Branding?
Each spring, our ranch has branding day. The day starts with all the neighboring ranches coming together to help work all the new baby calves. Once all the work is done, we head to the house for a big meal and plenty of drinks. Our family's ranch is the first branding out of our group. The next 6-7 Saturdays are spent helping the other ranches brand their calves.
The idea for Columbia Table Kitchen started from branding meals. The host ranch provides the main dish for the meal, while all of the other ranch wives bring a side dish or dessert to help feed the group. We loved seeing the recipes the other ranch wives brought and the staples recipes everyone always looked forward to. We knew we wanted to share these recipes with you too.
