Hosting a Sioux Falls Graduation Open House? Here’s a Few Ideas

Graduation party planning is in full swing in Sioux Falls.

If you're hosting an open house for the grad you'll need food and drinks available to the guests. Guest can get a little hangry after dropping multiple cards with $20 over the course of the weekend. It's nice to have food on hand.

Here are a few ideas to get you started.

1. Catering: Multiple restaurants and grocery stores offer catering for the big shindig. The advantage is not having to spend time cooking and more time being social with the guests. First, determine how many guests you'll have and the caterer will take it from there. It can be spendy but it has its advantages.

2. Food Truck: Sioux Falls has a variety of excellent food trucks that can pull up to your driveway and set up shop. From Mexican, American cuisine, and even corn dogs, can be a unique experience for your guests. If you've already have the food figured out, rent a mobile truck that specializes in ice cream and shave ice for variety. Check out https://siouxfallsfoodtrucks.org/ for a complete guide.

3. Home Cooking: This requires the most work but it can be a big money saver. We have 40 lbs. of pork reserved and will placing it on 2 smokers the night before the grad party. A side of baked beans can also be placed in the smoker. Fire up crock pots for additional goodies and sides.

My Pulled Pork Recipe:

Preheat the pellet smoker to 225 degrees.

Prepare a 8 - 10 lb. pork shoulder or pork butt by patting down all sides with a paper towel.

After trimming some of the fat, coat with yellow mustard as a binder. (Don't worry, you won't taste the mustard after cooking. It simply helps the seasonings to stick)

Generously apply your seasonings. Some cooks like to get very elaborate with seasonings but I like to keep it simple. Fresh ground pepper, salt, brown sugar, Worcestershire, and your favorite pre-packaged seasoning will be fine. I prefer Dano's Original or the Dano's Supremo. For a true BBQ flavor, use a sweet BBQ rub.

Remember, we're dealing with a lot of pork here so it's going to be right around 15 hours per smoker.

Remove from the smoker (avoid peeking during the smoking process) and wrap tightly with foil. Let it rest for at least an hour. This is very important to allow juices to seep back in.

Unwrap foil and begin shredding. Wear cooking gloves to pull apart or use that fancy shredding tool. Either way, it should fall apart easily.

Hit it with another dusting of seasoning, sweet BBQ rub or sauce, and transfer to foil pans to serve.

ON a final note, the best thing we purchased when my oldest graduated was a cotton candy machine. We bought it online for a few hundred bucks but it was the star of the show. My daughter and her friends made cotton candy for hours for guests with a sweet tooth and we plan to use it again for this graduation.

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