A SerandEz Thanksgiving

The last couple of days (and the next few hours!) show that preparing a nice feast for one's family and friends is not only not all that difficult, but perhaps not all that expensive, either. Most importantly, it's a lot of fun to have and to host, and it's a great excuse to have over a ton of friends. Ya know, like 50 or so. :)

On the menu for today [how many in brackets]:

• Turkey! [3 12-14 lbs.] - I'm using this recipe my mom gave me, though I couldn't find nutmeg and didn't feel like using bay leaves.
• Cranberry Sauce [a few large bowls] - Cranberry sauce, crushed pineapple, and mandarin oranges mixed together. Takes 5 minutes.
• Stuffing - My mother-in-law is actually making this one for us. It's made of stuffing, duh.
• Salad Bar [a bunch of bags of lettuce, peppers, terra chips, almonds, croutons, scallions, dressings, etc.] - Basically, we're putting out a whole lot of vegetables with instructions on how to make a couple salads (Terra chip, Layah's, Ceasar) and letting people put in what they want.
• Yellow Split Pea Soup [3 large pots] - Also known as sweet potato soup. Probably the hardest thing to make of the whole meal.
• Potatoes [3 large roasting pans] - Red, Idaho, and Sweet potatoes all diced up and oiled and spiced and baked. I've already been eating a ton of them.
  
• Apple Streusel [one big, one small] - Apples. Cinnamon. Sugar. Flour, brown sugar, margarine. Yummm.
• Pecan Pie [4] - Sticky sweet.
• Drinks - 6 12-packs, 2 snapples, a dozen or so 2-liters.
  

That's not even including all the yummy things other people are bringing over (unnecessarily). All right, so here's the challenge to y'all (except those who know already!) - how much do you think this meal [remember, there's enough for about 50 people of each thing] is costing us, including all the food, plastic ware, aluminum pans, etc? Take away how much you think will be leftover/unused in coming to a total (at least in terms of drinks). Put your guess in the comments, I'm curious how much people think it costs. I'll post the final tally later today or tomorrow.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!