Wednesday, August 29, 2007

To plate or not to plate?

Thank you very much for your kind words. I am quite well and am sure that in a few weeks my little drama will have been downgraded from "red-alert catastrophe" to "minor inconvenience" I'm just dramatic like that.

Nothing to report knitting or sewing. I haven't felt well enough to hunch over a sewing machine (perhaps I should not hunch...) and my knitting continues as discussed, I am finishing the gusset of my second pair of Bearfoot socks and working on MS3, which looks far to much like yarn puke to photograph.

Tomorrow I take an Intro to Embroidery class at Twisted. I will be embroidering a tea towel with a pattern from Sublime Stitching the theme is "Swanky decor" which goes just great with my midcentury kitchen. I'll see if I can't capture some images of my embroidery efforts.

On to my query, when I make dinner for Joel and I to share I always plate our food on our two plates and bring the plates, sans extra servings to the table, either indoors or out, which has already been set with napkins and silverware.

This weekend I hosted a wee brunch for my friends and I set the table with plates and brough the food in serving trays to the table for everyone to dish as pleased them. I'm not sure why I did it differently, perhaps four people is my threshold for plate dishing? Maybe since I can easily carry two full plates to the table but must make two trips for four this seemed like the right way of doing things?

What say you? do you plate or do you bring food to the table? I suspect that especially with children it is wise to just fill your own plate, since they can be so picky and also hungry. Plus asking for things to be passed and the act of passing helps teach good manners doesn't it?

I'm curious, do respond.

3 comments:

chrispy said...

I have just started plating our meals because I make 4 servings and we would end up eating way too much. I thought is accounted for weight gain in both of us. I allow seconds on sides but not on the main dish. Part of that stems from churchable taking the leftovers to work for lunch. If there are no leftovers then he gets no lunch.

I most likely will do so for a sit down meal. BBQs are a different issue - that is a grab what you want kind of thing.

Unknown said...

I do both, usually I plate things up but some days I remember the shelf full of vintage serving dishes I have and feel like I should use more often so I pull a few out and everyone serves themselves at the table.

To be honest I would prefer to put everything in serving dishes every night, I just like it that way and there is less waste of food as everyone takes what they want rather than me giving my normal too large portions, but at the end of a long day it's easier to throw it on plates than to dig the dishes out of the cupboard. Perhaps when I have a kitchen that makes getting the bowls easier I will serve that way more often!

Mia said...

Plating allows portion controll But platters are nice when you have more than two people for dinner.