October 27, 2006
Church Potluck
At one time my only concern at a potluck dinner was trying to determine if venison was being passed off as beef in a casserole. Today it’s not just a matter of likes and dislikes, we also need a nutrition label and drug facts on every dish served. It’s all but impossible to accommodate the ‘special needs’ of everyone when you consider the diabetic who needs sugar free foods, those with various food allergies, and dieters restricting their calories or counting their exchanges. For me there’s a certain level of frustration when I’m interrogated about the ingredients in my dish. I find I don’t like being told that my entrée would be more acceptable if I’d substitute low fat, eliminate a topping or just use a different brand name ingredient. I can see why God went with manna in the wilderness…too bad He didn’t hand down the recipe.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Gail;
----Char gets flustered about this same thing. A friend delivered a propane tank to my house the other evening, and I asked her if she would like to stay for dinner. The answer depended on whether anything had been prepared with milk or cheese. She was alergic to some protein that is a part of milk. Eventually we learned that meatloaf was prepared with bread which was prepared with milk. Nix the meatloaf. So I scrambled for the sausage in the freezer. When I presented the sausage as an alternative possibility I found myself immediately directed to the fine print on the package looking for some whatever I never heard before. Char and I have another friend who won't eat any dairy products whatsoever, no meat, and cannot have her vegetables cooked to death. Char does not even want to cook for her.
----But it seems to me that it is all in the stuation. Knowing who it is that will belly up to my trough, I would expect my love to prepare for them not only what they need in their diet, but also what they like. This is the joy of serving. At a potluck, if I knew there would be someone there with a diet quark, I would find it a joy to make a little something quarky just to make sure that person felt accomodated. Of course, everything else I took would come from my own cooking habits to serve to the normal folks..
----Inclusion and accomodation must fit into a three dimensional world, therefore they must have as many sides as are needed to make a situation work. The other sides which are not discussed enough are those that question just how severe is that allergy? Just how serious is that intolerance? Or, after all is considered will it just be found to be a differing taste with a ratchetted up irritation level?
----I have to be reminded that cream was poured down my throat when I was four, and I have never had anything to do with milk since. Some of the really yummy stuff Char makes causes me to leave the kitchen yetching when I see all the milk used in its preparation. But when it hits the trough, my belly gets there first!
Post a Comment