Forgetting to serve one thing

[Fat Guy]

Does this sound familiar:

You serve an elaborate meal to a group of guests. Everything goes well. You clean up. While cleaning, you remember YOU FORGOT TO SERVE THE POTATOES!

Or some other dish. It's just sitting there in the now-cold oven, or on the windowsill or in the refrigerator. Somehow, despite all the lists you made, all the planning you did, there's one dish that never made it to the table.

Is this something that just happens to me, or is it more along the lines of a law of nature?

[conor610]

Happens to me all the time, even when it's not a big dinner party or an elaborate meal. The other day I braised some pork ribs with a bunch of root vegetables and apples, which I then pureed and pushed through a strainer. While the braising was going on, I decided the meal needed some texture, so I fried up some crispy parsnip shavings to be the plating touch that tied it all together. I didn't remember the poor parsnip "chips" until we were 3/4 done with the meal. There they sat, getting colder and colder on their draining rack. Ah, well. They were just delicious on their own.

[ChefCrash]

Ten minutes into Thanks Giving dinner yesterday. The brown-n-serve rolls.

First I forgot to put them in the oven.

Then I forgot to take them out.

It's not only about forgetting to serve something at dinner, but also about forgetting what you're doing in the kitchen. Lately, if I have two things at once cooking on/in the stove, you can bet one is going to burn.

What good is a timer if one forgets to set it?

It's called C.R.S. (Can't Remember Sh!t). And I hate it.

Anyone else experiencing this? How are you dealing with it?

[chezcherie]

yeah...happens.

nowadays, while i am making recipe lists, shopping lists, and prep lists, i also make a serve list. takes 30 seconds. saves hours of fretting/regret. even though i laugh at myself while i do it...i do it.

[dockhl]

Years ago........Thanksgiving. MASHED POTATOES !!!

I'm sorry, on Thxgiving, mashed potatoes are enjoyed MORE than the turkey !

(My SIL never lived it down....)

[SuzySushi]

That's why I write a list and post it on my refrigerator door. . .

I then forget to read it!

That's why for Christmas dinner last year, with roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, I forgot to serve the horseradish I bought especially for the occasion. For my eGullet blog, no less!!!

[Chef Fowke]

...my mother forgot to put the turkey in the oven last year. She stuffed it the night before; served us breakfast and lunch ~ then saw the turket sitting in the fridge at 3pm. She sent my dad and I out to find a ham....

Love my mom, but OUCH; football was on!

[JeanneCake]

...my mother forgot to put the turkey in the oven last year. She stuffed it the night before; served us breakfast and lunch ~ then saw the turket sitting in the fridge at 3pm. She sent my dad and I out to find a ham....

Love my mom, but OUCH; football was on!

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Hee hee! A few years ago, I had a client order an elaborate cake for the centerpiece of their T-day table (this is a long standing client who always goes over the top for the holidays, I love the things she comes up with!)

So, I knew I couldn't finish her cake, deliver it and be home in time to get the turkey in the oven. So, the chef where I worked offered to cook it with the other orders they were doing and I'm going to deliver the cake and pick up the turkey on the way back.

My father (who made all the side dishes) arrives at our house expecting to smell roasting turkey while I'm off delivering the cake. Something my son says to him makes him think we're about to have a problem so he calls my cell phone and says ... "dear, where is the turkey? I can't find one in the fridge to put in the oven - how could you forget to get a turkey for Thanksgiving?"

[weinoo]

It's not only about forgetting to serve something at dinner, but also about forgetting what you're doing in the kitchen. Lately, if I have two things at once cooking on/in the stove, you can bet one is going to burn.

What good is a timer if one forgets to set it?

It's called C.R.S. (Can't Remember Sh!t). And I hate it.

Anyone else experiencing this? How are you dealing with it?

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Fat Guy's op has happened to me very rarely - I'm big on lists, and I usually print a menu as well - so having that on the side of the fridge, I just check off everything as it is ready to be served.

As far as forgetting to take something out of, or put something into the oven, stickies work really well - just put them up where you're sure to see them - and write what it is you need to remember (e.g. pie in at 3:30, etc.). I find that a cabinet door works nicely - or anywhere it stands out.

[Peter the eater]

During after-the-party clean-up or even the next morning when I go to warm up my coffee in the microwave. There it is! The damn asparagus that I forgot all about. I'll say this is a once per year thing.

[pax]

In the old days everybody always tried to forget Auntie Peggy's Creamed Onions in the kitchen, but she never let us.

[andiesenji]

That used to happen to me all the time if I had more that five or six guests, because invariably there would be some who didn't eat certain things so I would have alternates.

Finally I came up with the solution of writing all the names of the dishes on sticky notes and putting them on a gate-leg table (that opened up and closed rapidly) well ahead of time and placing each plate, platter, bowl, cup, gravyboat or whatever, on top of the appropriate note. This also omitted the last minute search for said container, particularly if other people were bringing things that required a particular bowl or plate, etc., and also placing with them the serving utensils that were required.

[Jmahl]

How did you know? Just happened again this thanksgiving. The cranberry relish got left in the fridge. Yes, we looked right at it and left it alone. Yes, we had a menu written out. Yes, Yes, Yes. Anyway, the relish is great with the leftovers.

Bon Appetit,

Jmahl

[SundaySous]

Gravy, almost always forget the gravy for some reason.

[slkinsey]

I've had this problem so many times that, like Mitch, I have taken to writing up a menu and also a process list so I know when to get dish X heating up on the stove while I serve dish Y.

I actually do worse about this sort of thing in more in formal dinners. I remember one time when the Fat Guy family was over for dinner, and I proceeded to burn through about two and a half baguettes, which I kept on putting under the broiler to toast and then would promptly forget about until alerted by the billowing clouds of smoke issuing forth from my oven.

[Cleo]

My mother always forgets something when she has holiday dinners. We'll be eating dessert and she comes running out of the kitchen with the string beans.

I forgot to serve the fresh fruit at Thanksgiving this year. Nobody missed it since there was 2 pies, cupcakes and 2 kinds of Ben & Jerry's.

[Cadbury]

I currently have a solution to the forgotten item in the microwave problem which usually happens at my mum's house. As babies do, mine always seems to want a bottle just as we're sitting down to eat. I go to warm it in the microwave and find some mystery item in there, just in time to go on the table. Once or twice however I've warmed up a mid morning bottle when visiting and found something from the night before .

[SundaySous]

I currently have a solution to the forgotten item in the microwave problem which usually happens at my mum's house.  As babies do, mine always seems to want a bottle just as we're sitting down to eat.  I go to warm it in the microwave and find some mystery item in there, just in time to go on the table.  Once or twice however I've warmed up a mid morning bottle when visiting and found something from the night before  .

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hey leftovers rule!!!

[MarketStEl]

I think that this too is a Thanksgiving tradition. There's just so much one can remember with all that food to cook and serve.

This year, it was the pumpkin pie, which I bought pre-made this year because (as I said to the bakery counter person at the Ak-a-me) "I'm simply going to be too busy with everything else to make one."

By that time, though, we were so stuffed, neither of us missed it.

I note this morning that roomie had some last night. I will probably have a piece before going up to the Northeast to help friends move.

[BarbaraY]

More than once I've forgotten the cranberries but never the potatoes or gravy. There would be immediate comments from the entire family if these were missing. Daughters say that gravy is a beverage and potatoes were invented to hold gravy.

This year we forgot to put the pumpkin pie away while we had dessert in the living room. *%#^%& Beagle got half of it!!!

Edited November 25, 2007 by BarbaraY (log)

[Toasted]

The rolls. We always forget the rolls. The pity is, we made them from scratch this year and stillforgot them.

[Kajikit]

Serving up Thanksgiving Dinner this week... turkey breast, check... made-from-scratch green bean casserole, check... fresh herb bread., check... cranberry sauce, check... roasted root vegetable medley, check... leg ham that I bought specially for DH because he doesn't like turkey - still sitting in the refrigerator in its package. Good thing that it'll keep till Christmas! Also, a good thing that he decided he liked the turkey breast after all!

I always forget something when I'm doing a fancy dinner...

[vogelap]

I don't tend to forget entire DISHES (like the potatoes!), but I sometimes forget components of a dish.

As an example, for the life of me, I cannot remember to put the cream cheese in the amuse duck purses at work. I gather the cheese and spoon when assembling my mise, set these items conspicuously in my workflow, and then generally forget all about it and assemble the purses without.

The only thing that's helped is to put a little blob of cream cheese on the corner of my otherwise-clean cutting board. That provides enough of a trigger that I (usually) remember! (I learned this trick when roasting nuts -- put a nut in the corner of your board and you cannot forget the nuts in the oven. I don't know why, but it works! This has, pardon me, saved my nuts any number of times!)

For multi-course meals, I do a prep-list and a serve-list with checkboxes. I check off 'milestones' during prep/service to make sure I don't forget things...

[wallchef]

Coming up in the industry, if we forget anything my lovely French chef would just smack you in the head.

[ludja]

The rolls.  We always forget the rolls.  The pity is, we made them from scratch this year and stillforgot them.

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This was the classic "forgotton dish" in our family growing up. Hope you were still able to finish baking the rolls later!