Hosting Foodstuffs?

I'll be hosting a D&D weekend in a little over a month from now and I was wondering what all you fine fellows did for making food and drink when hosting.

Do you put on a spread? Is there a main meal you make? What's good to keep energy up and not to make people sleepy? Do you even have themed meals? I'd love to know.

Other urls found in this thread:

simplyrecipes.com/recipes/african_chicken_peanut_stew/),
soylent.com
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Chips. Store brand version of Mountain Dew.

I wish I was lying, but we also sometimes just get a crave case from White Castle or order 30-40 tacos from Taco Bell.

I don't know why, but something about eating this kind of food actually enhances the experience.

I sometimes do themed meals, but my go-to is simple, easy stuff.

Pic related. I get this at my local No Frills, and it's basically a huge, plain-jane Lasagna which is filling, hearty, and satisfying. I typically just top it with some garlic powder, Parmesan cheese, and about half a pound of grated marble cheese.

It's cheaper and tastier than pizza, and the entire setup is cheap enough that I don't give a damned about the cost (Entire thing is $10>). I ask players to bring me a single interesting beer and/or snack when I host them and nothing more unless we pre-plan for more expensive food.

Protip: Don't offer snacks. Pre-munch on some popcorn and then put the food away when you get to the table.

Pizzas
One cheese,one pepperoni, one supreme
eat the leftovers for breakfast

chips are the worst you can do: they're greasy, loud to eat, not filling and too delicious to stop nomming

i personally like salty snacks, so things like pickled carrots/mini-corns/pickles/onions are great
dried meat (or sausage) is also great
can't go wrong with a can of spam/tulip ham or corned beef

for the drinks, a few beers per person (unless they are real lightweights) and soda. You can also clean a bottle of tap water (freeze then filter) for those who like it

for sugary things, buy a few pre-cooked bread portions and stick some chocolate inside before you put them in the oven
or you can have a trail of dried fruits

if you want to make a big meal, go for something filling, like pasta or rice with some meat on the side

ice cream/popsicles are also trivial to make, you just need a blender, a fruit (apples work well) a small bottle of cream (a dash of lemon syrup) and most importantly, molds (plus a little sugar if your fruit isn't sugary enough)

Someone one here once said they made bread bowls full of rock candy and called it some dwarven/gnome thing, I've always wanted to try that.

I like the idea of cooking with a theme based on what kind of culture they're in but I've never gotten around to it, the D&D sacrament for us is little debbie oatmeal creampies and pizza and candy.

We used to all drink a ton of soda when we played in highschool. Now all of us drink a little soda/icetea and a little booze, and that one guy kills a 12 pack of twisted tea, but we don't mind because he just gets funnier and more enthusiastic.

>dried meat

Why have I never thought of doing a game where the only food is trail food?

I would have a bowl of nuts and jerkie and stale bread and then when someone makes a good survival check I'd hand out some berries.

First time that happens that someone is going to be getting favors from the other PCs, berries after a long period of dried meat and stale bread is amazing.

Jerky and baby carrots always works for me.

They're both fairly clean to eat and won't get sticky shit all over your materials, and together are healthy and filling enough not to bother most people unless one of your players is an actual elf.

To make jerky:

>slice up lean beef (or venison if possible) into thin strips, removing fat
>marinate in the fridge in a large bag overnight in liquid smoke, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, onion powder, garlic powder
>remove from fridge and pat dry with paper towel, removing surface moisture and applying some pressure, allow to air dry for 1-2 hours
>place on a grilling rack or cage and put in the oven on the lowest heat setting possible for 4-8 hours, depending on your oven and the size of the pieces
>DO NOT increase heat, it'll turn into leathery strips of heresy
>remove when they are dry to the touch but not crumbly

I've also had good luck with pretzels, and drinks are really your call.

If you really want to adventure it up you can try making hardtack. Flour, water, salt, bake.

I was about to ask about hard tack. Is that really all it is?

From what I know, yes. It's not something you eat for fun. It's kind of bearable if you use it as a scoop for ground beef but otherwise it's just designed to be easy calories in case of a nuclear winter. If you make it right it'll be hard enough that you need to moisten it to eat it.

I'd honestly recommend pemmican or some other preserve over hardtack. It just tastes like low quality soda crackers.

Drink wise, I just stock what I drink. Everyone else brings their own, usually beer. Since we switch who hosts each week, this is pretty much the plan we all follow.
Food wise and I'm hosting, it depends on what time we start. If we're not starting until 5pm or later, I usually put together some spaghetti sauce or stew at 1 and stick it in a crock-pot and just make noodles/rice/whatever starch goes with the shit in the slow cooker that takes 5-10 minutes. If we're starting at noon we usually just pool together to order pizzas/subs/whatever or take an hour to go get what we all want.
As for snacks, it's usually chips or something else salty.

Dungeness crab and dragonfruit.

Is the OP image semen?

Hey there man. Really cool thread to actually see up here. Honestly gaming food is something I focus on a fair bit for the gaming crowd. So here as been our deal for the past while.

So one of our plays had this bad habit of coming to game after buying 30+ dollars in expensive ok-ish quality japanese takeout and then complaining about how he couldnt afford to continue gaming because of how expensive it was for him. Needless to say he was doing it to himself, but we understood his problem, since he drove the farthest for all of us to game.

So, starting about a year ago, we set up a system. Every week we would rotate who could choose the kind of meal and recipe we could have. Often I would make sure the recipes were good looking, viable, or if nothing else, had a large number of positive responses on their websites (since most cookbooks are kind of meh these days). Then, after everyone had the chance to veto or make minor changes to the request, the night before game, the GM and I would head out and pick up the ingrediants for said meal. Depending on the meal itself, I would either cook the food up the morning before game, or I would cook food come sometime between 6 and 8, depending on how hungery everyone was. Preferably, at that time if a combat is happening, thats perfect for me, since I only need to check in on a combat every time it hits my round. Then, we would all split the costs of the meal, get some good warm food that we could have as a group, and though the GM and I got saddled with the dishes, it was fine.

Honestly, if anyone wants me to recommend some site/recipes/ect, go ahead and respond to this soon. Cheers!!

Mate, if you're spunking crouton things shaped like d6es you need to see a urologist.

as far as in game snacks go you should avoid loud sticky or greasy, basically anything that can adhere to your fingers make a mess or detract from the immersion. so what i personally suggest is pastries with the sweet stuff on the inside. meat based treats are always nice but can be expensive. if you want salty mixed nuts or those chex mix things with the various large mix matched forms of dried breads can be okay but with that try to avoid the flavored ones because they have a residue about them.

themed meals are nice but not always realistic.
as far as full meals do something light and inexpensive like fruit salad and finger sandwiches because there is nothing worse than being tired from too much food at the game table.

as far as beverages avoid very sugary and hot drinks, if players want to bring their own thats them but as far as providing do lemonade or maybe that dollar start fruit water (both are easy to clean in event of mess)
and if alchohol is involved try to limit consumption as a drunk game might be fun for the drinkers but the ones not drinking not so much. also its very hard to remember what you did during that session if too much alcohol is involved.

but the most important thing to remember when snaking at the table is to make sure you enjoy it, because after all what is an enjoyable situation without equally enjoyable food.

For the first session of D&D I ever experienced, I was hosting like 4 friends and my older Brother who DM's campaigns as a hobby.

I generally enjoy cooking for friends, and I had asked he give us something of a quintessential "Dungeons and Dragons" stereotypical campaign, like 3 sessions over the course of 3 weeks, each being about 6 hours a pop around my dining table, he began as our band convening in a tavern / Inn / Public house in a large trading town as the start of the first session.

Wanting to do something interesting, and something of a stereotype as "Inn food"
>Que Esmeralda
>the dumpy, frumpy she-ork//hag/half human, daughter of the owner of the establishment, played by myself putting on a grating cockney accent and a pronounced hunch
>brother DM describing her hideous, cleavage flashing, young yet whizzened appearence as I wheeze over
>proceed to mocking drunk-flirt with members of the group as I serve them my food and exit
>return to my character, basically a grumpy Gimli trope

I served a boiled, glazed and then roasted whole ham, with a white Bloomer loaf and a seeded loaf, butter and spicy pickled relishes and mustard, all on a board in the center of the table and a big fuck-off rusty knife I have in my knife-board for some reason.

Alcohol included Cider, Beer, Rum and Gin, with Pepsi and tonic as mixers. No one was encouraged to drink too much, just enough to break the trepidation of our first time RPing.

>had a great time playing the squat, bulky dwarf cooing over "Salted Pork!"

Was pretty fun. Subsequent sessions just had an array of chips and snacks and dips, with access to same drinks. Made of meme of having some mountain dew. Bread and Butter on hand for anyone who actually wanted anything approaching substantial.

Whenever I host, I make really fancy drinks, both alcoholic and not. A friend of ours usually brings a shitload of snacking foods to every session.

Coke and fucking chips bru

I made Hardtack for fun about half a year ago. it really is that simple. but as said its turbo bland and can be tooth breaking. I ate mine while it was still semi-cured so it was merely Insaneo chewy and kinda salty. needed water to go down with it but tasted all right.

Tis as tradition dictates

Prefer pretzels, baby carrots, peanuts, and celery.

My preference really but i'm a fat fuck and need to cut down so...

When I was hosting games here, I'd do something easy to make in bulk for everyone for dinner, like some form of pasta (sometimes home made) and sauce, maybe a big ol' pot of curry with rice, or, order pizza if I was lazy.

Folks would generally bring their own alcohol, and to keep everyone awake, I would make exotic varieties of tea by the pot.

For snacks while playing, usually tortilla chips and salsa. Less greasy than potato chips.

Classy move! Americans can be pretty lazy about feeding themselves, I"m as guilty as anyone, but yea it's really cool of you to step up and help your friends like that. Did the group have any favorite meals out of that experience?

It wouldn't take a urologist to know that he's the Chosen One.

are you 10 years of age?

Well for the most part, I can't think of a recipes that were poorly received, even the less stellar ones. I know I have pulled the recipes I have choosen mostly from allrecipe or cooks illustrated, since allrecipe has a good review response count, and cooks illustrated recipes are just hard to match (and I have come to trust).

I did get a really good response from the homemade Italian sandwich recipe I got from budget bytes (including homemade breed, roasted bell peppers, and pickled red onions), and from my seasonal African Peanut Stew recipe (simplyrecipes.com/recipes/african_chicken_peanut_stew/), Honestly there is a lot more because we have a long private thread online where people post the recipes most weeks. If this is still up in the morning and people want more recipes, I can rumage through and post some more

(Oh and made my first ever Risotto for our game night, and man I got to say I was super proud of that)

We just get cardboard pizza from little ceasers, $10 feeds 4-6 people.

Though I wish I could get better pizza from local joints.

This. Italian food is perfect for gamers. It's tasty, filling, cheap, and easy to do.

Frozen lasagna and cannelloni can be heated up while gaming.

Spaghetti can be cooked in no time (I like Barilla n°7 spaghettini because they cook in 5 minutes). Carbonara sauce can be prepared while the spaghetti is cooking, bolognese sauce can be cooked in advance and kept in the fridge or frozen.

Fresh pasta like ricotta/spinach ravioli are delicious and are usually cooked in like two minutes. Add a sauce for more taste. Basic option is to simply add butter or olive oil and salt/pepper.

Crostini bread is dirt easy to do - cut bread, oil bread slices, fry them in a frying pan, cover them with slices of tomato and chopped basil. Advanced crostini are still dirt easy to make - preheat the oven, cut bread, oil slices, add mozzarella cheese, diced tomatoes, cut onions, smoked ham, spicy sausage, and chopped garlic, put in the oven for some minutes).

Something delicious is chicken curry. Cook rice. While rice is cooking, grill chicken and cut onion in a frying pan. Once chicken starts to get brown, sprinkle it with flour. The, deglaze with stock (chicken, vegetable...), white wine a mix of lemon juice/water or whatever you have at hand. Add curry powder - I like Madras curry for it's spicy taste (pussies can use mild curry instead). Add cream. Mix well and let simmer at low heat until rice is cooked. Serve together. To give the impression of having cooked something extremely healthy, you can unthaw frozen veggies in your microwave and add it in the mix when you deglaze.

For fuck's sake, simply grilling some pork neck steaks takes like 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper all at the end. Cooking paraboiled rice takes about as long. Making a simple salad isn't rocket science either, especially if the salad is already washed (for the salad sauce: 1 part wine vinegar, 2 parts olive oil, some salt, some pepper, some mustard, eventually some herbs or some crushed garlic, that's it). The steak can be served by homemade or industrial café de paris (butter, mixed with salt, pepper, garlic, parsely). You can also make a sauce by deglazing the frying pan with white wine and then adding some cream and herbs.

Risotto, another good option!

Finally, if you're a lazy fuck and you play some medieval game, just buy some cold cuts, some good cheeses, good dark bread, some fruits (grapes, apples, dried figs...), put everything on a platter and serve with red wine or quality beer. Finish. It fits the setting, is tasty and nourishing.

So it's like dwarf bread? If your're hungry you can take it out, look at it, and realise you weren't really very hungry anyways.

I live next door to a fish and chip shop so if we're hungry we go there or just make something easy. Everybody brings a bag of chips, some nuts or whatever and I've got Pepsi, Mountain Dew and Beer in the fridge.

Some times we game at my mates house and his Girlfriend's a chef so that goes well.

If you wanna go full-blown authentic (read: autistic) with it, find some red & blue energy drinks, put them in glass bottles and call them health & mana potions. Give one color each to every player.

>Celery.
Wait, raw celery?

The food choice also depends on how long the session will last. We don't eat the same for a short 5 to 6 hours session, than for a 9 to 12 hours session.

Everyone brings something, everyone shares. Or pitch in to order some dinner during a break.

Correction. everyone brings what they want, and you keep your grubby hands away from my shit

Don't want to share, that's fine, but don't expect everyone else to share theirs with you.

For fuck's sake calm down its a thread about food.

Forgot the post number like a winner

Everyone usually brings something to eat or drink.
Since the games take place at my appartement, sometimes I cook something, but my kitchen is too small to make a full-blown dinner for five persons, so it's usually mostly cake. Crêpes are a classic, because they're good, extremely cheap and easy to make, and you can put almost anything in them. Also it's a specialty from my place of origin, so I like making them for other people.
Something else I like to do is breakfast-style egg bread, with cheese and/or bacon.

I sometimes bring chips and coke.

Our DM sometimes brings fruit or good chinese tea.

I'm thinking about making some 'health potions' for our game, ideally non-alcoholic, so am going to go down the route of energy drinks and Grenadine...ideally though I wouldn't want it too sweet, and maybe to have a gin-like crispness to it, but I've no idea what'd be a good replacement for gin.

>themed meals

Years back I remember a thread where someone asked for food suggestions for when the party met with an NPC halfling group. The only thing I can dig up on it is the suggestions thread archived from 2010, and not the results thread. Anyways, the players out of game were served with a feast of small-portioned food with tiny utensils at their disposal.

Pizza, beer, and tobacco the holy trinity.

I make my group 3 gallons of homemade potato soup, they seem to enjoy it

Whew lad, that's a helluva lotta soup.

I'm thinking of making something lamb-based for our game, chops or the such, to reflect the local area they're moving through.I do wonder if the food will make them sleepy though- ideally I'd want food to perk them up.

A man can go for days without eating with a loaf of dwarf bread in his pack.

Junk. Junk. And more Junk. We usually meet after dinner to play so we serve snacks and those snacks are usually cheap chips, cheap snacks, nutella bread or maybe some Tiramisu if we actually feel like cooking.

Give them coffee with it.

Get your players to bring some food, bonus points if it's themed to the game you're playing.

Rice Krispies, chips, popcorn, and weird flavored vitamin water my friend always has in the fridge. We are the paragons of health, as you can tell.

A pretty great idea! If I could come up with some kind of local brew...probably milky.

One of these, then. Very strong.

Only if by "authentic" you mean with regards to diablo 2.

Pasta salad:

Main:

1 Onion (large)
1 Cucumber
1/3 to 1/2 leek (large)
6-8 pickles
500g (about a pound) of cherry tomatoes
1 to 2 apples
1 tin (large) of corn
2 tins (small) of cubed pinapples
2 dl cheese
500g chicken
500g pasta

Garlic sauce:

2 cans of sour cream
4 table spoons mayonnaise
4-6 cloves garlic
1-2 tea spoons salt
1-2 tea spoons pepper
2 table spoons parsley
4 table spoons lemon juice

Cut the onion, cucumber, leek, pickles, tomatoes, and apples.
Mix the above with the corn and pinapples.
Grate cheese and mix.
Cut chicken into small pieces and cook.
Boil pasta.
Mix all of the above

Cut garlic fine and mix with the other sauce ingredients.

Mix everything.

Almost forgot:
Serve with focaccia bread.

gelatinous cubes

What's wrong with Rice Crispies?

I suppose no-one here would know if salted caramel goes well with peppermint, eh?

a restaurant on my town makes fucking delicious tortilla chips, so all I do is buy like 3 bags of the stuff. and by bags I don't mean a family sized bag of lays, I mean 2 gallon bags held closed with twisties. only $6
then I get a 2-liter of everyone's favorite soda store brand of course

I wouldn't pair salt with mint, user.

Themed meals for a cyberpunk game: protein bars, ramen noodles, unknown energy drinks, coffee, hard-tack, Kirin beer, sushi, spring rolls.

I am actually doing a cookout for my group this weekend.
Burgers, hot dogs, bbq chicken, corn on the cob, collard greens (maybe), cornbread, smoked salmon, 8lbs of london broil slow grilled, with cupcakes and apple crisp for desert.
My bro is bringing homebrewed beer and wine, another is bringing mead from the craft meadery down the road, my other boy is bringing cigars for everyone.
Y'all need to have a group like mine.

If you find that your leftovers are overwhelmingly oniony you can blanch the onion before you put it in the salad. Makes them a little sweeter too. Blanching the parsley will help keep it green longer too.

Themed meal for a post-apocalyptic game: grilled mutant chicken. Take a chicken, and two or four more chicken legs. Grill it in the oven. In the mean time prepare a smoked veal tongue. When the chicken is done, stick the tongue in the chicken's neck. Now your chicken will look like Nyarlatothep. Other option is to do some rabbit. Is it really rabbit or is it cat?

Check out the Jas. Townsend youtube channel for historical cooking which might be good for a fantasy theme.

We just do a potluck thing where everyone brings some food/beer/pot. I usually make bacon wrapped meatloaf or roast a chicken. We have a good meal, then slowly wind down and start gaming.

patrician taste, my friend.

He's pretty good. I recommend too. A channel I also like is Almazan Kitchen. I never really understood the meaning of foodporn until I discovered this channel.

Homemade baked macaroni and cheese is an easy comfort food, especially with a slightly crispy top.

If I liked jelly, that seems like it would be a great idea. I suppose it could be made for the other players though.

I sometimes just blend foodstuffs together, and reckon sometimes those'll work as fantasy delicacies. Here's some sweet-potato/tuna mayo mix that worked out alright.

What are Leftovers?

>be me in high school
>the DM comes from a big Italian family, we play in his basement
>mfw his mom interrupts every session with forks, plates, and a big fuckin' tray of hot meaty lasagna

>potatoes
I hope you at least used a cauldron for it

Give em some soylent if the setting calls for it.
soylent.com

How do you prepare rabbit?
Local market has some, and my carnivore instinct is piqued.

personally i think when its time to eat then take a break from humping dragons and slaying wrenches

i would recommended home cooked food of just about any kind as long as its tasty
for maximum immersion make a campfire and cook some good steaks over it paired with boiled whole boiled born and of course some baked potatos

I was thinking this too; if my first-worldiness doesn't blanche me from handling it.

Muthafucker, drop your balls and grip that meat like someone will take it from you.
My ex was always squeamish about handling meat, and I told her to slang it like rocks on the corner.
Besides, I don't need to skin it, and it's already cleaned.
>boiled whole boiled born
>'avin a giggle

i hope they give you some blood with the rabbit, it's primordial for Civet (the traditional rabbit stew)

>primordial
Spellcheck attack?

translation fail, actually
i meant essential

>Civet
No, won't get any of the blood with it, unfortunately.

>tastier than pizza

>TASTIER THAN PIZZA

>lasagna is tastier than pizza
Yes, it is, you pleb.

The past couple times I brought homemade biscotti.

I make 2 alarm chili with meat added per serving so my vegan friend can eat, too

I've made stew and soup, my group is large and eats a lot, so my 7 quart crock pot top to bottom with stew is enough for a small portion of stew each.

I work as a cook, but stopped cooking for my group recently because they have been ungrateful and not even willing to chip in on costs, so they can deal with their own dinners, I just cook for me and my GF at the games now.

A DM of mine tried that once, he fucked up and it wasn't solidified fully so it poured semi-gelatinous goo all over his intricately hand made dungeon tiles.

A personal favorite is spiral pasta in a homemade alfredo sauce with shelled snap peas and diced, pan-fried ham. Easy to make in large batches and always get a favorable response.

I think I might do themed meals eventually when I have a better paying job and a bigger kitchen but for now I just made whatever I was going to make that night except extra servings or pizza if I'm feeling lazy. Like this week is going to be pasta alla norma with garlic bread and a light salad and maybe I'll make a batch of a chocolate mousse recipe I've been wanting to try.

Primordial sounds so much better though.

>vegan

Lucky we aren't on Veeky Forums or I would be contractually obligated to start an argument with you. Instead I'll just say its nice of you to cater to your friends special needs.

I was about to express my horror at serving with a rusty knife, but a bit of Googling tells me that the FDA approved synthetic iron oxide for sausage casings and candy, and rust is not usually a problem for human health, so the more you know I guess.

I like vegan chili and curry just to remind me how good veggies can taste without any animal in them. My go-to is curry with sweet potato and coconut milk, it just doesn't feel like its missing anything.

I just make a shit ton of Fried rice because its easy and cheaper than take out

Either a held item in the Pokemon games that gives the holder a little health back at the end of each round, or the food that is remaining if you don't eat it all in one sitting like the fat fuck you are