DIY food/BBQ meeting

Updated
We're up to nearly 40 bags of reef food alone, and over 50 total!  I'm still looking for people with food processors (and old cuisinart would be great) and blenders for doing the fine chopping of the reef food.  I have several big sharp knives but cutting boards will be needed.
Also, does anyone have a rotifer sieve for rinsing the cyclopeze?
[table]

GIRS MemberReefFOWLRLg/AggrHelpBBQSideNotes

Floyd R Turbo644Yes3-6
armydog4
YesNoPop
sblomgren42
NoNo
Food -> ?ninjazx777
5Yes1-3Pasta Salad & PopBlenderstew2
Bela2
NoNo
Food -> ?violet21chewy3
Yes
Dessert
gcsoupman4
bearsareawesome2
NoNo
Food -> gcsoupmanEric7504
Yes1Yes (TBD)
beckerj31
mcclandy2
Yes1Yes (TBD)
pwfish22
Yes1Yes (TBD)
TOTALS368977-12


[/table]

 

Last chance to chime in if you want DIY food or want to come to the BBQ. As of right now, we're at 53 bags, so I'm going to plan for 60 and if we don't get any more people wanting any, the bags will be that much fatter or we'll make an extra bag or two.
I won't get getting the burgers until Saturday so if anyone chimes in late, that should be fine.
There will be samples of the filter bags from Caribbean Filters so you can check those out and we'll see about putting together a group buy. We will probably raffle those off for anyone who is interested in getting one. Mcclandy should be posting some pics.
Here's the table
[table]

GIRS MemberReefFOWLRLg/AggrHelpBBQSideNotes

Floyd R Turbo644Yes3-6
armydog4
YesNoPop
sblomgren42
NoNo
Food -> mcclandyninjazx777
5Yes1-3Pasta Salad & PopBlenderstew2
Yes1Yes
Bela2
NoNo
Food -> mcclandyviolet21chewy3
YesNoDessert
gcsoupman4
YesNo
bearsareawesome2
NoNo
Food -> gcsoupmanEric7504
Yes1Yes
beckerj31
NoNo
Food -> Budmcclandy2
Yes1Yes
pwfish22
Yes1Yes
TOTALS368998-13


[/table]

 

Just an update on the ingredients, China Garden is getting us the scallops at cost, and after doing some research a while back I discovered that "wet" scallops are injected with a preservative "something tri-phosphate" which makes them absorb water so they're bulkier, but more importantly, they have PHOSPHATE in them.

So instead, we're getting "dry' scallops, which have no phosphate, but the catch is...the minimum order is 30 pounds. So guess what? Fat fricking bags of food man. And I mean FAT. Right now, without RO/DI water added, the total shopping list comes up to 57 pounds. So each bag will be buku food and still $10/bag. So I guess you could consider China Garden a sponsor too but they're also my customer, though I don't do much on their tanks anymore so don't judge my service by looking that them!!! Good food though.

I'm also including baby octopus from Wang's. Now I just need a few big fat oysters for the DIY oyster-feast ingredient. I also have half a pack of Ocean Nutrition I and II I'm going to throw in there.

 

Looks good Andy!

I need to know if anyone else beside Matt and myself is going to be able to bring a blender or a food processor. I think we really need a Cuisinart type machine, if no one has one, I'll have to hit the thrift stores or something, unless I can find one cheap at wally world or something.

About the sides, it looks like we should count on about a dozen people, so let's do the following sides:

Burgers & Brats & condiments - Me
Pasta Salad, pop - Matt
violet21chewy - Dessert (coming after BBQ)

What we need:

Buns - Need a dozen burger buns and 1 pack of hog dog/brat buns
Chips & Dip
Veggies & Dip
Corn on the cob (6-8 ears, we'll cut them in half)

I think that's good, everyone can pick one. Bring your own beverage if you want something besides pop (beer, etc). We have a lot of pop so you don't need to bring a whole lot of extra.

Wasn't able to get the 30 lb of scallops through China Garden, but they are getting us the shrimp at cost. Hy-vee is getting the scallops at a decent price, but it probably more like 20# unless there's leftover $$.

Price is definitely locked in at $10/bag.

Oh yeah, the scallops are dry/frozen (no phosphates) which is likely what they were last time after all. So no need to consider ditching your February batch of DIY food (sorry if I freaked anyone out)

 

+1 on the dip /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default//emoticons/smile.gif

Sounds like we're doubled-up on the chips. I suppose that's ok though. I'm picking up a watermelon today too so I think we're good, Andy if you want to bring veggies & dip looks like that's all that's left.

 

Thanks all for coming and helping. There are extra bags of food for anyone who is still interested.
There was interest expressed about holding the DIY food more often than once or even twice a year, like ever 3 months. I think this has merit. We made over 60 bags of food, which completely filled a 5 gallon bucket (which will forever smell like garlic). I think 40 bags is a good number because the ingredients work out nicely.
I also think this is the first time we made non-reef food, and I learned a few things that can be done better next time.
Also thanks to Matt for sacrificing his blender to the DIY food gods. It's just not a good meeting without hearing the words "Do you have a fire extinguisher handy?"