Lucky Pots

[ewt]

Hmm.

As most of you know I spend a fair amount of time at the Pembury. This is good because it is reasonably convenient (more so from newflat [which still needs a name]), and it is a good pub, and there are good people there.

However.

At the moment I eat out rather a lot, between one thing and another. Partly it's that though I enjoy cooking, I easily get overwhelmed and tired and don't really want to cook properly, and eating out is better than junk food. Partly it's because often, going out for a meal is the easiest way to touch base with hairyears in a week when we are both busy. Partly it's just becoming habit, though...

Going to the Pembury on a Sunday after teaching will continue to be default for me, I think; especially now that I live so close it will be the easiest way to get myself fed and recharge for the next week a bit. After a day of teaching kids all day it's really good to have exposure to grown-ups.

I'm thinking of changing Tuesday nights around, slightly. I like the food at the Pembury but I'm mostly there for the social contact, and though it's a nice default option it's not really all that exciting when I'm there at least twice a week. It's now at the point that if there are other things at the Pembury at other times of the week I start to feel a bit over-Pemburied, but I do still want to have some social contact on a Tuesday night. Also, I've eaten my way through most of the menu now. It's a good menu and it does change but it's a bit samey for twice-a-week, hence my recent tendency to eat before I get there.

Several of my Dutch friends have a weekly "dinner group" where one person will make dinner for all the rest. I like the idea of this, but in London it's not going to be straightforward to co-ordinate. If nothing else, kitchen in newflat (which still needs a name) is small, so cooking a many-course meal for several people is not going to work particularly well. For another thing, I am historically very bad at doing lots of washing-up and I don't want to get behind on that here.

pfy has a Very Smart Brane and hit upon the idea of having a regularly-scheduled Pot Luck instead, where 4 or 5 of us get together (probably at newflat [which still needs a name] because it is relatively central being in Bethnal Green, but could do elsewhere easily enough as I'm not sure I want to host EVERY time), each bring a dish and share things around. I don't know why I didn't think of this before as I used to love the Pot Luck lunches we did at church some Sundays. Using the small kitchen for reheating is likely to be way easier than using it for proper cooking. People who want to try to cook certain dishes sometimes could do so without having to worry about providing the rest of the meal (e.g. when I make chesecake, I rarely want to also make a bunch of other stuff because cheesecake is lots of work by itself), people who don't really like to cook or don't have time/facilities could bring an M&S ready meal dish of some sort. A small amount of co-ordination would sort things out so we have a protein, starch, vegetable, and dessert of some sort, it fits in with foraging a lot better than eating meals out, and so on and so forth. Sucks if you have major allergies/dislikes but we can probably work around most things reasonably well (I have long experience of living with and cooking for people with extreme dietary restrictions and understand the importance of complete exclusion when it comes to certain foods in certain situations). I don't have a kosher milky kitchen any more so we can have deadanimalses if we want but obviously don't have to and vegetarian options are welcome.

If you're all hugely interested then I might suggest we break things down regionally a bit so that it's easier to co-ordinate, because more than 4 or 5 people simply won't FIT where I live, but I don't see that as a problem.

So. Yes. Anyone interested in Pot Luck on Tuesday nights? Any suggestions or questions? Netherlands-ish dinner groups, any specific problems you've encountered doing this that I should avoid from the outset?

Comments

[battlekitty.livejournal.com]

I like that idea :) (Probably not every week for me, though)

PS: Do you like sushi? ;)

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

I'm kindof thinking that for lots of people it won't be an every-week thing. It certainly can't be for me because I sometimes have rehearsals on Tuesday evenings.

I adore sushi, but not with shellfish in. I'm still a little wibbly on non-kosher fish varieties (so anything without true fins and scales).

[midnightmelody.livejournal.com]

I am interested. It sounds like an excellent idea!

[battlekitty.livejournal.com]

Well, the usual fish is tuna, salmon and mackerel or yellowtail or something - about the only shellfish I might bring would be prawns, and then not many :) (And to be perfectly honest, the rest of it tends to be very expensive! I think the prepared prawns are about £1 or 50p each, even then!)

By the way: I can vouch for scales, but you've lost me on "true fins" :)

[pplfichi.livejournal.com]

It sounds like a good idea, and is certainly worth trying. I don't think it's fair that whoever the host is should get to do all the washing up all the time help, rotating who does it amongst the participants or something should work and couple of people can wash up faster then one person anyway. The host can always tell people where to put stuff. Some hosts might have a dishwasher which will make life a bit easier from that perspective?

If I want to attend then going climbing too is going to be interesting. How did I get to the point where I'm trying to keep Wednesday so I don't go and do something in the evening (and for the odd Lib Dem thing)?!

[timeplease.livejournal.com]

If I can get away from the pub (which I'm definitely trying to do!) then I'm interested. I'd like to start cooking a bit more - since we started the building work at the Pembury (and I stopped doing commercial cooking at the Oakdale) I've not been doing much. Thai things are fun!

[yady.livejournal.com]

A couple of things:

• Make sure everyone participating knows of allergies and other eating restrictions of all the regulars, and preferably also strong dislikes (such as, one person in our group *really* can't stand cucumber, to the point that he can't eat a sandwich of which the cucumber has been removed, and someone else dislikes aubergine but doesn't mind as long as he can pick the pieces of aubergine out of his food and there is still enough other stuff left for him to eat).
  
• My group has a system where one person cooks each week and we take turns, but there are only two locations that we use. The cook gets to pick the location, though the people who live at the usable locations (hennes and me) can always say their house can't be used that time. Dishwashing is done right after dinner, and as a rule the cook doesn't have to do dishes. We try to more or less rotate the dishwashing in the sense that if there are more non-cooking people than are useful for doing the dishes, the people who did not do the dishes last week are the first to be looked at.
  
• koresh' group also has rotating cooking turns, but all but one of them have their own kitchen available. So, in most cases, the cook is also the host, and the one person who can't host the group 'borrows' someone else's kitchen when he cooks. In their system it *is* the cook who is responsible for the dishes, but this is less unfair than it would be for my group because 1. they can decide whether to do it immediately or to leave it until the next day (except the one guy) and 2. everyone gets their turn with the dishes as well as with the cooking. It also has the benefit that if the cook wants to use lots of dishes, that's fine, they have to clean them up themselves anyway.
  
• Try to get people to not bring the same thing every time! We had someone in the group who would cook 'pasta and red sauce' *every* time, even after many (subtle and not-so-subtle) hints, until we got angry about it and forbade him to cook that. (After that, things got better, and he went looking for recipes and experimented a bit when it was his turn.)
  
• Make sure that someone (not always the same person) also provides drinks and, if necessary, snacks. Make sure there is always at least *something* to drink for everyone (even if it's tea or tap water).
  
• Make sure there is sufficient cutlery, plates, glasses etc. If you stick to one location, you might want to consider just buying a set of stuff with the group (possibly second hand), which perhaps the host can use at other times but should always be available for the group on the days you eat together. Or have everyone bring one plate, set of cutlery and glass and/or mug, either to keep at the location or to carry along each time.
  
• Make sure everyone knows what is available in terms of reheating, fridge/freezer space and so on.
  
• Make sure everyone knows when dinner starts and agree among yourselves what to do if a person doesn't show up at the agreed time. (Do you wait, or do you start without them? How long do you wait? Do you make sure there is food left for them when they do show up? What if they bring a part of the meal that is not optional?)
  

Oops, I hope that doesn't make it sound too complicated... It can certainly be a lot of fun to have a group like that! I wish you much luck and joy with it!

(Also, if I ever happen to be in the area at the appropriate day, could I make a guest appearance? I promise I'll bring something nice ;) )

[sci.livejournal.com]

Welcome to Food Club. If this is your first night, you have to cook.

I like the idea. Another possibility could be a sort of "Ready, Steady, Cook" with folk bringing a couple of ingredients each. :3

BTW, what station are you near now then?

[doseybat.livejournal.com]

yay, me too please!

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

I might be up for it once in a while, although probably not on a regular basis.

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

Since I suspect my flat is pretty close to your new abode this could be quite convenient for me, so count me in!