MUSINGS OF A LOCAL by Iris Mead THE or THAT FORGOTTEN DISH

Has this happened to you? You plan that special meal, as in our recent holiday, prepare favorite dishes, set your time frame for the meal, at the appointed time or almost the appointed time – if the turkey/beef/ham/lamb is done – and enjoy a wonderful dinner with your family and guests. 

Then, while savoring that wonderful, fancy dessert that tops off this perfect meal, you suddenly realize that something was missing!  That special molded jellied salad that got stuck in the back of the refrigerator or the green beans on the stove that had been pushed aside to use the burner it was on to make the gravy.  How many special dinners are served with a part of the meal missing, but no one misses it unless it is the person who brought it. Two things collide at the same time in your mind: yes, that’s what was missing! And, darn, that was a major or favorite component of the meal and now it will have to be a leftover.  And then to make you feel better and to get it out of your kitchen, you cajole your guests to “take some home for tomorrow” and package it in plastic containers and force it on your guests to take it home with them,

Hoping to avoid this from happening at the next special meal, you mentally tell yourself to make a list of the foods to be served and where they are stored.  And then with all the commotion in the kitchen and people “helping” to get everything on the table before it gets cold, the list is forgotten, or lost, to be found the next day or week with only a couple of items checked off. A missing food item among the many other delectable treats at the “special” meal does not spoil the day.

I hope your “special” meal was without any disasters or forgotten items