How do you serve your special meals? (leftover, stove, 2015)

[no kudzu]

I would like to ask about how you serve your special meals.

The perfectly set table is beautiful but what happens when it is time to eat? Do your guests sit down to the salad already on the plate and you hop up to remove salad plates when they are finished? How do you serve the main and side dishes? Family style ( pass the serving platters and bowls around)? Of course, it depends on how many guests you are serving.

I usually ask my guests to put their beverage at the place they want (or sometimes name cards), pick up their dinner plate and serve themselves from the buffet. I serve already prepared salad plates while they are at the buffet. (Or sometimes I stack the dinner plates at the end of the buffet.) I always ask my guests to start without me as nobody wants cold food. When they are finished they bring their plates to the kitchen and then help themselves to the dessert buffet. I simply cannot hop up and down anymore taking away plates and bringing new ones. I'd really like to know how everyone else does it.

BTW for everyday family dinners, I serve from the stove with hot oven dishes on the counter or I let them serve themselves. Sometimes I bring the oven dishes to the table to make it easier for people to get seconds. I usually don't transfer stovetop food to serving dishes. I try to keep dirty dishes and pots and pans to a minimum.

[nmnita]

very interesting question: for us it depends on the number we are serving. Normally, a basic formal dinner size of the with 8 or less people I use the good china and silver. We serve family style and no I do not get up and remove plates of any kind until it is dessert time. Often we have dessert later. When we have too many guests for one table we serve buffet style with 2 tables set formally.

[magicshark]

The most formal meal we do is Thanksgiving. I set a full formal table usually for around 20! We serve family style staggering where I start bowls. I do not sit instead I "bus" the table as needed.
For every other large meal I lay out a buffet. I set it up with plates at the beginning. I still clear the table as needed but in a more casual manner.
For everyday meals with our family I do pretty much the same as you.

[Missy2U]

For the holidays (really the only "entertaining" we did), I drag out the linen tablecloth and napkins, use the China, the Crystal and the Silver, and we serve family style.


Usually, though, if we're having company over to eat, it's far less formal. Dishes as casual, food is served on the counter buffet style. Everyone eats in the living room where they're at (I have about 20 of these trays so they can balance everything.)

[emm74]

Family style (passing serving dishes at the table) for up to about 8. More than that, it's a combo with some dishes passed at the table but the main courses and maybe a few others are buffet. So something like a basket of rolls gets passed around and kept at the table so people can help themselves to more, but the main courses and casseroles that are in big, heavy and/or hot containers are on the island.

I've never had more than about 14 at one time, but I have been to people's houses where they have 25 or 30 people, and they will often hire one or two people to help serve and clean up. I think I would do that if I ever tried to host that large a group!

[Jkgourmet]

We've always done buffet for anything over six. But I noticed that people hesitate to return to the buffet for seconds. So this year, we did an experiment on Thanksgiving and an annual holiday dinner where we had eleven and thirteen people, respectively.

We put all the food on the table and passed it around. Guess what? MOST people had seconds of at least one dish, usually more than one dish. We had fewer leftovers than we've ever experienced, and people expressed that they liked this arrangement better than buffets (it's a standard group of the same folks for both dinners). Yes, the table was crowded. Yes, the passing was a bit of a pain. But we put the entree onto TWO plates rather than just one, so that made things much easier. If we had served salad, I probably would have put that in the bowls ahead of time rather than pass around the salad bowl.

I'll also add that people lingered MUCH longer at the table after desert. I'm not sure why the 'no buffet' arrangement made such a difference; but I'm convinced it did.

So this is our new go-to set up for whatever dinners we have that everyone is at the dining room table (can fit up to 16 in a pinch). If it's more people than that, we'll go back to buffet as people will be seated at different tables. We're in the process of finding hot pads for the plates that we can put on the tablecloth and looking for serving bowls that have handles for easy passing (we already have a few). (Amazingly, we only have a 2000 square foot house!)

[jlawrence01]

I nearly always serve buffet style for large family dinners as I do NOT have enough service bowls for two or three tables.

I never do the "banquet style" preplated meals as someone will decide against something on the plate.

[Caligula1]

To me a special meal is one where Family or Good friends who know me well get together and eat..
They would come, grab a plate off a stack I have set out. Grab some flatware from the drawer, or a pile I set on a tea towel.
Scoop their food from the pot on the stove, the same it was cooked in.
I do slice meat and put it on a platter, usually in the center of the table, maybe a gravy boat or bowl with a small ladle if needed..
No fancy schmancy here, just good folks having a good meal..

Sit at table and eat..

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by Missy2U

I have about 20 of these trays so they can balance everything.

Aren't those cute.

[Dirt Grinder]

Paper plates, plastic flatware, red Solo cups, and a roll of paper towels. How else would you enjoy a "pig pickin'"?