Cooking for a crowd isn't hectic so long as everyone is given a task. Request a volunteer to set the table. Ask someone else to fill wine and water glasses. Have a designated veggie chopper. I even had a couple of girls picking the meat off of the rotisserie chicken. Small tasks divvied up mean dinner is on the table faster and no one ends up stressed.
I'm all about stretching a recipe. For Chrissy Teigen's soup, I added the meat of one rotisserie chicken, three more cups of chicken broth, and a full bag of peas. Though she says her recipe yields 10-12, only after I had added the extra ingredients was it really enough for 10. We might have had one serving for leftovers.
Get the recipe: pot-pie soup with pie-crust crackers
