eG Foodblog: tammylc - (and Liam)

[lexy]

$4.73 per adult and $2.37 per child

wow, not only does the food look great, but it's a steal too!

it looks like you served it buffet style, do you ever have problems with people eating more than "their share"?

also, I feel kind of stupid asking this, but since I don't have kids … how do you decide how much food to feed Liam? obviously he eats less than an adult, being so much smaller. Is he pretty good at deciding what he needs, and you just let him figure out how much he wants, or do you consciously calculate portion sizes?

[Alex]

<pout> Sure is lonely around here. </pout>

I'm here in spirit, if not in words.

[whatsup1]

I've really enjoyed your blog, Tammy.

[petite tête de chou]

Tammy,

Thank you so much for taking the time to blog. I really wasn't sure what the heck to expect from what was mentioned as being a baby-oriented blog and it has been fascinating.

With regards to Liam, I found your community-living lifestyle an absolute original in my experience. It's so cool that can you can send an e-mail to your neighbors looking for stock and other ingredients. Do you folks use this communication method for other things? Such as Birthday parties, etc?

Perhaps you have covered this in an earlier post but I just gotta ask what made/encouraged you to decide to live in an extraordinarily close/small community?

Were you involved in the community before you had Liam? Maybe these questions aren't related to food...but I think they are by the very nature of how you live. The community meals are, I think, a foreign reality in most folks lives.

Thanks, again.

Edited April 4, 2005 by petite tête de chou (log)

[Daddy-A]

Awesome blog Tammy! Been following along silently here. My kids are much older so I didn't have much to add ... but it sure brought back memories!

Watch out for the post-blog-blues!

A.

[tammylc]

Today for lunch I went to the Produce Station. I realized that anyone reading this blog would think that Zingerman's was the only game in town, when in fact, Ann Arbor has a whole ton of excellent foodie shopping.

Big Ten Market has a cheese counter every bit as good as Zingerman's, if not better AND they also sell wine. But alas, no time for a visit there this week.

I did make it to Produce Station, though.

In addition to the great produce selection you'd expect from the sign and name, they also sell lots of specialty foods, and flowers in the spring and summer.

The attraction for me today was their excellent salad bar. A salad and a half pint of chicken avgelemono (sp?) soup made a great lunch on this sunny and warm spring day.

Okay. One more big post (tonight's common meal), then I'll answer the lingering questions and it'll be time for the next blogger to step to the plate...

[Pam R]

Today for lunch I went to the Produce Station.  I realized that anyone reading this blog would think that Zingerman's was the only game in town, when in fact, Ann Arbor has a whole ton of excellent foodie shopping. 

I was kinda wondering...

Thanks so much for the blog Tammy. It brought back some great 'communal' living memories for me and I really enjoyed meeting you and Liam.

[tammylc]

The sad thing about common meal is that you have to set the menu in advance. Which means that you can't really take advantage of whatever's fresh and looks good that day, for example. Or, like today, you end up having soup on a beautiful warm day.

But at least it was really good soup.

Lots of good bits in it - noodles, rice cake, baby corn, bok choy, snow peas, pork. Hot and hearty. It felt a little odd to only have soup - no salad, no side dishes - but I managed to eat my fill, so I guess it was okay.

Liam ate some of the soup with us - we chopped up the noodles small, took out the hard bits, and fed him a few spoonfuls of it. We gave him some noodles to eat on his own, but he was mostly just playing with it. He did eat a bunch of Veggie Booty (think cheesies, but with spinach and kale instead), 1/2 c of applesauce, some leftover plain yogurt from last night's kids selection, and he crunched on a couple of crackers. Although I think he was mostly just crunching and not eating by that point.

Dessert was a nice assortment of cookies, the kinds that adults like.

And that's your last common meal with me. Well, unless you go subscribe to the Dinner for 40 thread I started a long while ago to get feedback and help with planning.

[CaliPoutine]

The soup looks good, but it does seem strange not to have anything else.

How much did this meal cost you?

[tammylc]

$4.73 per adult and $2.37 per child

wow, not only does the food look great, but it's a steal too!

it looks like you served it buffet style, do you ever have problems with people eating more than "their share"?

Last night's meal was served family style except for the kabobs. No one's yet attempted a plated dinner, although I have a friend that wants to help me cook one. Family style tends to be the best way to control portion size, since people can see how much food there is for a table of 6 or 8 or however many people, and adjust accordingly. When we do buffet style meals, the cooks will usually make a little sign telling people what the portion size is. I did this with the kabobs last night, since there was only enough to have one per meat eater.

also, I feel kind of stupid asking this, but since I don't have kids … how do you decide how much food to feed Liam? obviously he eats less than an adult, being so much smaller. Is he pretty good at deciding what he needs, and you just let him figure out how much he wants, or do you consciously calculate portion sizes?

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Not a stupid question at all. I ask myself that all the time. We've had days where it seemed like he'd keep eating all day if we'd keep spooning it in or putting it in front of him. Eventually we get tired of it, or need to move onto the next activity, and we call it a day. Babies don't have all the bad habits around food that we have - they haven't really learned to overeat yet, and will mostly just stop eating when they're not hungry anymore. Liam's pretty clear about when he's done.

[tammylc]

Tammy, 

Thank you so much for taking the time to blog. I really wasn't sure what the heck to expect from what was mentioned as being a baby-oriented blog and it has been fascinating.

Yeah, that was sort of a red herring. Glad you enjoyed it!

With regards to Liam, I found your community-living lifestyle an absolute original in my experience.    It's so cool that can you can send an e-mail to your neighbors looking for stock and other ingredients. Do you folks use this communication method for other things? Such as Birthday parties, etc? 

Perhaps you have covered this in an earlier post but I just gotta ask what made/encouraged you to decide to live in an extraordinarily close/small community?

Were you involved in the community before you had Liam? Maybe these questions aren't related to food...but I think they are by the very nature of how you live. The community meals are, I think, a foreign reality in most folks lives.

Thanks, again. 

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We use the email for a lot of things - announcements of meetings, distributing minutes of said meetings, organizing activities, and yes, invitations to birthday parties, etc. I didn't mention this earlier, but for my excursion on Saturday I needed to borrow a car (I was leaving my car with Eric since it has the only car seat, but I can't drive his car because it's a stick) and I was able to get one just by sending on email to the list!

We got involved in Great Oak when it was still in the planning stages, long before Liam was a twinkle in his father's eye. Eric was familiar with the concept of cohousing and a friend told us that a group was forming here. We attended an information meeting and pretty much immediately jumped on board. It took a couple of years until we were actually built and able to move in.

We both just really liked the idea of living in a community where we'd know our neighbors, and where we could be less wasteful by sharing things in common (we own one riding mower for the whole community, instead of a bunch of individual mowers, etc). I'm an extrovert, so I was really excited about the idea of having the opportunity to be easily social. But we also liked the fact that we'd have our own house, with all the amenities, and new construction to boot. And we knew we were planning to start a family and really thought it would be a great place to do that.

I don't know that I'd necessarily describe us as close knit. For example, I wouldn't call most of the people in Great Oak my friends, although I do have some friends here. They're just my neighbors, but with a definition to the word that's mostly been lost in this day and age.

[tammylc]

The soup looks good, but it does seem strange not to have anything else. 

How much did this meal cost you?

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I won't know until I get my bill at the end of the month. But I'd guess less than $3 per adult.

My personal cheapest meal was an all vegetarian (and almost entirely organic) Morrocon meal that cost $1.78 per person. Now when I do that meal I add a chicken dish, so the price is more.

[tammylc]

Awesome blog Tammy!  Been following along silently here.  My kids are much older so I didn't have much to add ... but it sure brought back memories!

Watch out for the post-blog-blues!

A.

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Thanks, Daddy-A, and everyone else, for your kind words. It's been fun to write - I'm glad you've all enjoyed it.

And while I'll miss you all, of course, I don't expect to suffer much in the way of post-blog-blues. Finishing my foodblog will just give me the time to get back to writing in my LiveJournal, which I've been sorely neglecting this week. You're all welcome to visit me over there!

[tammylc]

Well, I went looking for the perfect parting image, but I don't have a good shot that exemplifies both Liam and Great Oak. So you get two. The picture of Liam is an oldie but a goodie, taken way back in November, just after Thanksgiving, one of the first times he actually let us get the food into his mouth. Although, as you can see, not very much of it.

The second is from a month earlier, and I love it because it shows just how much fun living in community can be. I think you'll be able to guess what special event we were celebrating that night!

Thanks everyone! It's been a great week!

[Mooshmouse]

Tammy, from one Mom to another, congratulations on successfully juggling the responsibilities of work and home while putting together such an interesting blog Looks like you have an adventurous eater in the making... keep up the great parenting! And thanks too for giving us a glimpse into the interesting concept of community living; I've greatly enjoyed reading about your unique slice of life.

[Pan]

So last night was my big common meal cooking night.  Unfortunately, it was only okay. 

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I'm sorry about that Tammy. It looks pretty good from over here - I would have been happy to sit at your table!

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I think a big part of the problem is that I just ended up not particularly being in the mood to eat what I cooked. Especially after tasting it all afternoon getting the flavors right!

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So, really, you may not be the best person to judge the quality of the meal! What kind of feedback did you get from people?

I enjoyed your blog, which was really unique because of your unusual living situation.

[SobaAddict70]

Thanks to Tammy for opening up her life for us this past week. It was a pleasure to be with you this week.

Say hi to Liam for us.

We're going to close Tammy's installment now. Kristin's Foodblog installment -- Pocky and the Geisha -- is up and running. Go check it out.

Soba