OK, so remember that dinner I wanted us all to make together this week? This is it above: Orechiette with Sausage and Broccoli. You’ll notice that no plate looks the same. Abby had the pasta and broccoli, Phoebe had the broccoli and sausage. Mom and Dad had it all mixed together. (Cool that broccoli was the common thread, no?) Anyway, when I put the bowls up against each other, it reminded me so much of living, breathing Venn Diagram that I couldn’t resist the urge to sketch up an actual one:
What does this teach us exactly? (Besides the fact that I have serious problems?) Hopefully it reminds us that family dinner is a constantly evolving algorithm of taste and logistics. That the overlapping rings will spin around and reposition based on factors that are beyond our control. All you can do is put the same delicious meal in front of them and assume that somehow everyone will still get exactly what they want.
Procedural question for you….do you deconstruct dinner before you serve it (i.e. the kids tell you–or you guess–what they want on their plates) or do you serve the kids the finished meal and leave it to them to do the deconstructing (removing what they don’t want from their plates)?
Yes, usually I do it before I serve. If that is too complicated you can just put all your components on a single serving plate, but in rows (nothing touching, God forbid!) so kids can serve themselves at the table. Couple other techniques here: https://www.dinneralovestory.com/2010/02/05/deconstructed-dinner/
I love this! Since reading similar recipes in Cookie, we have done the same. It makes dinner go so smoothly…
fun stuff bro.
this is soooo my family. love it.