robin_d - Do you remember when McDonald's french fries were so good? They formerly used a small amount of beef fat in the shortening. I try to avoid junk food, but I would make an exception for those fries! I can only imagine how good they would be in all beef fat. We did get our half cow last year, and have enjoyed the meat very much. Unfortunately, my request for the fat and all the bones for stock was passed from me to DH to the butcher. The result was that I got the usual soup bones, but all the long bones and fat were disposed of. The butcher did tell DH that we could have all the bones we wanted any time, because most people don't want them. One of these days I'll take him up on the offer, and I'll ask for all that connective tissue as well. Since the butchers normally pay to get rid of these, I imagine other butchers would be glad to get rid of them as well. Fat is one thing that I don't like to store in plastic, as it absorbs molecules of plastic quite easily. I imagine this absorption no longer occurs once frozen, but would be even faster than normal when the fat is warm. I realize that this isn't a concern for most people! ".........When you buy beef to be butchered, you pay for the hanging weight of the side/whole/quarter on the hook after the obvious parts are disposed of. Hooves, head, etc., and it's sectioned. That's how our local butchers do it, anyway. It's your call within bounds what you want off it and how you want it since you have paid for it by the weight........" calliope - that's the system used around here as well. We also paid a slight fee for the wrapping, that was either based on the pound or the number of pieces wrapped - I forget which. One reason I didn't go back and get some fat from another cow was that I particularly wanted the healthier fat from a grass-fed animal. It occurs to me now that I can call up the farmer who sold us the cow and ask when they are taking another animal in to be butchered. Of course the 100 mile drive was also a factor! Fortunately there are some great German restaurants in the town where our butcher is located, so it makes a nice outing.

Arley, the duck gumbo sounds delish & will be added to my repetoire(sp?). Minette, I cooked duck breast the other night according to the directions in the June issue of Bon Appetit & it was better than I've ever had in a restaurant. Pound flat to 1/2" thick. Score the skin side into the fat in a 3/4" diamond pattern & saute skin side down in a little butter in a med-hot pan for 5-6 minutes. Reduce heat to medium & saute other side for 5-8 minutes. Remove from heat, tent with foil, & let rest for 10 minutes to absorb juices. Slice & serve on a warmed plate. It was so good, I felt guilty having it when DH wasn't home, LOL!

I had to smile, Colleen, because that's exactly how I do it. I had a "fat separator" which was mostly a pain and didn't actually work all that well, I "wasted" a lot of stock. Well, I didn't, I mostly got disgusted and just dumped it into a Pyrex cup and siphoned off the grease on the top. That worked better than any of the separator cups I tried, so I just kept on doing it. (grin) The one sushipup posted looks interesting, though, that might actually work. If I get crazy, or find an empty spot in my cabinets, I'd probably try that one. I made stock today, but I put the pot in the garage until the fat hardened then just scooped it off with a spoon..... Annie

If this is the first time for doing this and you have just over three weeks to organize and pull it off, limit what you do so that you can be sure to do it well. . Keep it simpler and you will be more successful and be able to build in the future. It sounds like you are responsible for getting pricing for the groceries, but also at least to some degree determining the menu and what those groceries will be. Pancakes, butter and syrup are given. Do you want to provide vegan or GF options or figure that GF folks will expect pancakes not to be their thing and be satisfied with generic pancakes being vegetarian? If you do decide to provide GF and/or vegan options, I would say so on any publicity for the event. Since it is a dinner, you could consider adding eggs for more protein/substance, and it could be a GF option. Scrambled are easiest -- and you may be buying eggs for the pancakes. Bacon is great, but it is harder to cook a lot of it to correct doneness and it is messier. Sausage or ham are easier to deal with for crowds. Since this is Shrove Tuesday aka Fat Tuesday, it might be fun to have whipped cream, chocolate chips and some berries. The baked apples sound good too, but both of these could reduce baked good sales if you want to add the bake sale on the side. Decide whether you would rather have just the dinner and both provide and charge a bit more or do the bake sale. I have also seen dessert auctions where towards the end of the meal, people bid on a whole cake or pie. This works best with family events where folks tend to come for the entire event rather than just come, eat and go. You could adapt the idea to coffee cakes, muffins and other take home items since many will have had all the sweet they can handle with pancakes and syrup -- with or without whipped cream, etc. You can do some pricing online. Sam's allows you to shop online and pick up at the warehouse, so you should be able to shop and price their options online. I think Walmart does also, though not all items may be in stock at the stores, so you might have to order in advance. Costco has different pricing online and I'm not sure they have the same order and pick up. They also don't typically give prices over the phone. If you were starting 6 months out, you could do a lot more research (mixes, scratch recipes, stores, etc. -- and maybe drive yourself nuts with it all, but given what you said about Krusteaz, I decided to take a look. Interestingly, Sam's and Walmart both have Krusteaz Buttermilk complete 10 lb bags with pricing shown online -- and Walmart runs slightly cheaper than Sam's -- about $7.50 vs $8. The info says that makes 240 pancakes (not what size) and all you add is water -- so that is your total cost for pancakes. The nutritional info says 90 servings per bag -- I'd guess you might do larger pancakes for dinner and maybe serrve as few as 50 guests peer bag -- but that's still 15 cents per person. And Krusteaz will reimburse half of that? I would go buy a smaller box of the mix and make a test batch this weekend. If you are happy with them, I'd stop worrying about the pancakes and move on. You can hardly make it easier or cheaper than that. Move on to sausage or ham, syrup, butter, plates, napkins, forks and knives and beverage options (since it's dinnerr, you can get away with iced tea, lemonade and water -- maybe add coffee) then decide if you want to add anything else. Have you set a price for the dinner? Do you have any idea how many people you might be serving? Will you sell tickets in advance (helps you can get an idea -- rough idea if you also do at the door sales)? I think you probably have enough to deal with without trying to get sponsorships or donations -- I would consider those things to consider adding next year. Those things take more time than you have to do successfully. You often have to go back, call and follow up a number of times to get an answer or work out details. Have I made this long enough to lose you yet? LOL Sorry