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An excess of sociability
May. 6th, 2004 02:43 pmI'm hosting the Romance Exchange on Saturday and a Mother's Day dinner on Sunday. My mother, when apprised of this situation, suggested that I just make extra of everything and give her tea on Sunday as well. This won't work, though. I do mostly-vegan teas. This is especially necessary now, when all the leftovers must be capable of being eaten by somebody in the household, as a part of our being completely broke and perforce thrifty.
However, vegan tea items that generally receive praise from the actual Romance Exchange guests and also my household are generally from or influenced by Indian, Chinese, and Middle Eastern cuisine. My mother doesn't like any of those. She also dislikes beans and can only eat tofu if it's well disguised. She is perfectly happy with soy cheese, soy margarine, soy cream cheese, soy sour cream, and so on. But I don't think that these make adequate substitutes for proper tea food once one subtracts the salubrious effect of all the seasonings she doesn't like. Also David, Lydy, Raphael (the consumers of the leftovers) dislike most or all of these substitutes. I am glad that I ground to a halt amongst these contradictions (please add, for flavor, among the larger pool of people who must eat this stuff, a nut allergy, lactose intolerance, a couple of people who have to watch their cholesterol, hypertension, someone who dislikes olives, someone who dislikes nuts and raisins mixed in with anything else, be it cookie dough or a curry, a mayonnaise hater or two, several haters of anything creamy whether soy- or dairy-based, and more I have probably forgotten) before I drove myself crazy.
Anyway, I'm doubling up on one of the desserts for tea, and will serve that on Sunday, but otherwise it's far, far simpler to make two meals.
I spent most of yesterday in intensive cleaning of the downstairs. It had occurred to me that for the past few years I've been up til four a.m. on the day before the tea, madly cleaning, and that maybe I should try doing my mad cleaning on Wednesday instead. Wednesday, for a Saturday tea, is too early to make most of the food, and anyway at least one kitchen needed cleaning before food was made in it. So, the living and dining rooms are dusted, vacuumed, and mopped. I haven't got the extraneous objects out of them yet, but that is another part of my genius. Instead of trying to get people to move their stuff out, which they almost never do before Saturday morning, I just shoved everything into the dining room while I cleaned the living room, and then shoved everything back while I cleaned the dining room. This caused an empty fish tank to miraculously disappear from the dining room while I was taking a break, though it didn't dispose of the photographic equipment.
I found a few final lost objects of Eric's (we inherited his cleaning supplies and a curious miscellany of other stuff when he left in September) and waxed sentimental for a while.
I've also caught in time the fact that I was planning far too much food. I thought I had suppressed this inevitable tendency in the planning stages, but I can eliminate two items at least from the tea menu without starving anybody. The Saturday menu is much simpler and doesn't need to be edited.
When I finally went outside at sunset yesterday, with my cat on his leash, I was astonished at how warm it was. Our house heats up fast enough during a Minnesota heat wave, but one hot day doesn't dent its thermal inertia in the least. And to my great satisfaction, the air was scented as it should be, with lily-of-the-valley and the first opening flowers of the lilac.
( Political Rant Below, Not an Invitation to Debate )
However, vegan tea items that generally receive praise from the actual Romance Exchange guests and also my household are generally from or influenced by Indian, Chinese, and Middle Eastern cuisine. My mother doesn't like any of those. She also dislikes beans and can only eat tofu if it's well disguised. She is perfectly happy with soy cheese, soy margarine, soy cream cheese, soy sour cream, and so on. But I don't think that these make adequate substitutes for proper tea food once one subtracts the salubrious effect of all the seasonings she doesn't like. Also David, Lydy, Raphael (the consumers of the leftovers) dislike most or all of these substitutes. I am glad that I ground to a halt amongst these contradictions (please add, for flavor, among the larger pool of people who must eat this stuff, a nut allergy, lactose intolerance, a couple of people who have to watch their cholesterol, hypertension, someone who dislikes olives, someone who dislikes nuts and raisins mixed in with anything else, be it cookie dough or a curry, a mayonnaise hater or two, several haters of anything creamy whether soy- or dairy-based, and more I have probably forgotten) before I drove myself crazy.
Anyway, I'm doubling up on one of the desserts for tea, and will serve that on Sunday, but otherwise it's far, far simpler to make two meals.
I spent most of yesterday in intensive cleaning of the downstairs. It had occurred to me that for the past few years I've been up til four a.m. on the day before the tea, madly cleaning, and that maybe I should try doing my mad cleaning on Wednesday instead. Wednesday, for a Saturday tea, is too early to make most of the food, and anyway at least one kitchen needed cleaning before food was made in it. So, the living and dining rooms are dusted, vacuumed, and mopped. I haven't got the extraneous objects out of them yet, but that is another part of my genius. Instead of trying to get people to move their stuff out, which they almost never do before Saturday morning, I just shoved everything into the dining room while I cleaned the living room, and then shoved everything back while I cleaned the dining room. This caused an empty fish tank to miraculously disappear from the dining room while I was taking a break, though it didn't dispose of the photographic equipment.
I found a few final lost objects of Eric's (we inherited his cleaning supplies and a curious miscellany of other stuff when he left in September) and waxed sentimental for a while.
I've also caught in time the fact that I was planning far too much food. I thought I had suppressed this inevitable tendency in the planning stages, but I can eliminate two items at least from the tea menu without starving anybody. The Saturday menu is much simpler and doesn't need to be edited.
When I finally went outside at sunset yesterday, with my cat on his leash, I was astonished at how warm it was. Our house heats up fast enough during a Minnesota heat wave, but one hot day doesn't dent its thermal inertia in the least. And to my great satisfaction, the air was scented as it should be, with lily-of-the-valley and the first opening flowers of the lilac.
( Political Rant Below, Not an Invitation to Debate )
