"Serene Vannoy" wrote

> My friends know that 7pm is dinner here, and around once a week, someone
> takes me up on my open-door dinner policy and crashes dinner. I love

Used to do the same all the time in Sasebo. Tight knit community, Mom would
call the kids and say Daddy was stuck at work and she wasnt off til 10pm ;-)

So the kids were added to our dinner. Keep in mind this was totally
reciprocal as when I had duty and Don was working til 8 or 9pm, Charlotte
would eat at various neighboring kids houses too.

A key thing here is I almost always had a crockpot of something going and it
was always easy to add another plate around the Kotatsu table and we had
plenty of spare sitting mats.

> of chili on the stove or something. Tonight it was a little more tricky,
> since I had just enough of the main dish for three people. It was
> store-bought ravioli, for which I'd made a tomato sauce. I'd also roasted
> a couple heads of garlic to put on slices of baguette, and roasted a small
> amount of green beans (enough for three generous servings, or four small
> ones).

I'd have added rice but then we would have had rice anyways and have at most
needed to add a little more. My ricemaker does well up to 10 cups of
finished product but we normally would have 4-6 cups. Easy fix, add more
dry and some water and reset it to make more while they ate what was ready
til more came out.

> My guest showed up around 6:45, so I quickly got out another pot and
> boiled up some spaghetti. I tossed it with butter/salt/pepper/parmesan,
> and cut more slices of baguette. The guest helped with putting roasted
> garlic and butter on the bread slices, and dinner went off without a
> hitch, and without a mention of having planned on having less food. She
> may have thought it was weird having two pasta dishes on the plate, but
> she didn't say anything. I figured, heck, you can get half-and-half at
> some Italian places. :-)

Grin, sounds like fun and much like what we did. When I was at sea, Don
would get constant gifts of 'ohh I made too many lumpia, can you eat these
up for me?'.

When I was home, I'd make too much bread (snicker) and send it out. I didnt
have to feel bad if I sent Charlotte over to Elise's place for 2 eggs and
1/2 cup milk because we traded often. So often we felt free to ask one
another for a special dish such as her rye bread or my pancit.

> Do you have any stretching-dinner stories? I know some of you don't like
> it when people show up unannounced, and I totally understand that, but my
> friends have my express permission to do so, so any intimation that she
> was being rude will be dismissed as silly.

Grin, so many I can not come up with a special story easily. Like you, I
had friends who this was common with. It was a tower building and while i
am not sure if this 'habit' is somewhat military or somewhat filipeno, it's
real common to see in military who are used to filipeno traditions. Those
who aren't filipeno, get used to this fast as well as the gentle social
rules used.

So, at any given time, I'd fix a meal for 3 and find myself with 3 extra
hungry kids or a navy guy who's wife was at work and he couldnt cook. Just
ring the doorbell and welcome to our home!

Grinning again, the social rules were quite non-western but very very sane.
Though seldom mentioned, you'd just naturally reciprocate the favor and no
one really kept count but it seemed to even out.

A common sort of thing would be: 'Mom, Derrick's dad is making snitzel, can
I eat over there?' 'Sure Honey, give me a second to finish slicing this
last 1/2 loaf of rye bread Elise made so you can take it with you, oh and
drop by Elise's place as she was low on garlic so grab a baggie with 2
handfuls of the peeled ones on your way'.

I saw at least one person didnt listen when you said " totally understand
that,
but my friends have my express permission to do so, so any intimation
that she was being rude will be dismissed as silly".

They lack the reference to such being normal. Me, I'm with you on this.
Even had one fellow who was a great fun fellow who couldnt cook worth a darn
and showed up every 6 days with his kids when his wife (Navy lady) had the
24 hour duty. He was always welcome and many a weekend, he'd take Charlotte
off to the ginza (mall) with his trio of kids so Don and I could have the
place to ourselves.