![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Femmeconne ran like a dream, which was lovely. I had a great time. :-) I decided to give myself a few days off before I get back into any of my projects, and to think about which project will be next. This week I have sucked in more words of other people's works than I have produced myself. I'm impressed! I have learned how to read on my PC!! Yay!
I'm still kinda lightheaded and I have a nasty nasty cough. Yucky. But getting better. Slowly.
I am starting to feel 'ready' to think about the next project. I'm not sure which one it will be, but I have started to clean out my mail box and respond to stuff that I ignored in the pre-femmeconne stuff, checked Wastelands is at the right time and place on our whiteboard, and am thinking of what to do next.
There's three issues with the femmeconne food.
1) Trust in me to produce it. (Sorry fred-mouse, next year I promise to do better. I forgot the Venn diagram, and forgot no dairy for you.) I trust me to produce yummy food to specific requirements, and know I can do a good job. I trust myself. Next year there will be no need for multiple batches of bolognaise (if I do it again) because I have learnt this year!
2) Trust in someone else to produce it. We have a lot of specifications, and I don't do it perfectly. Some one else might be able to do it perfectly, but the people with the allergies will *also* need to trust that other person. A new person to the event might not know anyone. I know the fear of asking for food and wondering "will my body be put out if that person who made X and gets paid $15 - 20 an hour doesn't care enough to have done this correctly for me? They will go home OK while I'll be completely fucked..."
3) I don't want to give away *part* of the food prep. I want to give away *all* of the food prep. What does this mean? It means that if it wasn't for my mistakes, all of the main meals would have been gluten free completely. I don't want a small section of GF foods (GF is a very common allergy so is my example) side by side with a small section of dairy free food next to ... I want one big communal meal with selections of everything. So when someone else does take over the food, it's got to be someone I trust, the people with allergies trust, and someone capable of handling the food production for 20 - 30 people for six meals. I aim for 2 main meal options for each person with the curry night. The lasagne night ... well, there was one GF lasagne, one lasagne, and one vegan lasagne, and four? five salads. (Though I left the bean and corn salad at home. I am still pouty about that!)
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
indescribble suggested a femmeconne cookbook, which I kinda like. My standard recipes for bulk cooking is a curry night, a mexican night, a stuffed potato night... all of which involve some simple dishes to begin with, and a huge pile of stuff for people to add onto their own food. Which also allows for the staggered dinner times on Fridays as people trickle in.
I'd like to have thoughts on this nailed down, as eventually I am going to want to write a proper manual for any one else tackling femmeconnes. There's no way to avoid the trust issues other than encouraging people to bring their own food. But I really think that encourages exclusion, and it should be the caterer's role to look after every one just like they were guests in their own homes. I select Bickley because it is a child friendly location and close to home. I have made every choice so far to make things as easy as possible for women of as many walks of life as possible to come. I don't want to start making things harder for people just because of a few food allergies. By the same token, I'm not stopping any one from putting anything in the fridge/freezer/oven/cooktop at femmeconne either.
:-)
I'm still kinda lightheaded and I have a nasty nasty cough. Yucky. But getting better. Slowly.
I am starting to feel 'ready' to think about the next project. I'm not sure which one it will be, but I have started to clean out my mail box and respond to stuff that I ignored in the pre-femmeconne stuff, checked Wastelands is at the right time and place on our whiteboard, and am thinking of what to do next.
There's three issues with the femmeconne food.
1) Trust in me to produce it. (Sorry fred-mouse, next year I promise to do better. I forgot the Venn diagram, and forgot no dairy for you.) I trust me to produce yummy food to specific requirements, and know I can do a good job. I trust myself. Next year there will be no need for multiple batches of bolognaise (if I do it again) because I have learnt this year!
2) Trust in someone else to produce it. We have a lot of specifications, and I don't do it perfectly. Some one else might be able to do it perfectly, but the people with the allergies will *also* need to trust that other person. A new person to the event might not know anyone. I know the fear of asking for food and wondering "will my body be put out if that person who made X and gets paid $15 - 20 an hour doesn't care enough to have done this correctly for me? They will go home OK while I'll be completely fucked..."
3) I don't want to give away *part* of the food prep. I want to give away *all* of the food prep. What does this mean? It means that if it wasn't for my mistakes, all of the main meals would have been gluten free completely. I don't want a small section of GF foods (GF is a very common allergy so is my example) side by side with a small section of dairy free food next to ... I want one big communal meal with selections of everything. So when someone else does take over the food, it's got to be someone I trust, the people with allergies trust, and someone capable of handling the food production for 20 - 30 people for six meals. I aim for 2 main meal options for each person with the curry night. The lasagne night ... well, there was one GF lasagne, one lasagne, and one vegan lasagne, and four? five salads. (Though I left the bean and corn salad at home. I am still pouty about that!)
indescribble suggested a femmeconne cookbook, which I kinda like. My standard recipes for bulk cooking is a curry night, a mexican night, a stuffed potato night... all of which involve some simple dishes to begin with, and a huge pile of stuff for people to add onto their own food. Which also allows for the staggered dinner times on Fridays as people trickle in. I'd like to have thoughts on this nailed down, as eventually I am going to want to write a proper manual for any one else tackling femmeconnes. There's no way to avoid the trust issues other than encouraging people to bring their own food. But I really think that encourages exclusion, and it should be the caterer's role to look after every one just like they were guests in their own homes. I select Bickley because it is a child friendly location and close to home. I have made every choice so far to make things as easy as possible for women of as many walks of life as possible to come. I don't want to start making things harder for people just because of a few food allergies. By the same token, I'm not stopping any one from putting anything in the fridge/freezer/oven/cooktop at femmeconne either.
:-)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-09-25 08:55 am (UTC)From:*love*
no subject
Date: 2008-09-25 09:04 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2008-09-25 09:16 am (UTC)From::-)
no subject
Date: 2008-09-25 09:32 am (UTC)From:*hugs*
no subject
Date: 2008-09-25 09:32 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2008-09-25 09:40 am (UTC)From::-)
no subject
Date: 2008-09-25 12:22 pm (UTC)From:One of our gamers is both lactose and gluten allergic. I always try to make stuff that we all can eat together, it's far more inclusive, so I appreciate very much what you're trying to do there.
Good on yez!
no subject
Date: 2008-09-25 12:22 pm (UTC)From:Thanks!