Use bowls

[piney]

How many of you fv put your food in bowls and set it on table to pass around and let each one serve themself? Or do you fill up each plate?

[McD]

I fill each plate, but I transfer the food from the pots into bowls.

Prettier presentation.

[Libby]

Generally we serve things family style where you can portion out your own servings then sit down to eat. Its just easier. We're all adults in this house and know we're accountable for our food choices. (from stove/pots/pans)

We plate meals such as roast chicken, roast beef, turkey etc b/c we're only three under this roof so its easier to cut off as much as needed per meal and wrap up the leftover meat as a whole vs sliced. (from stove/pots/pans)

Holiday meal/guests over/larger number of diners - we do the family style b/c not everyone likes everything. (from bowls/platters)

[CrazyHomemaker]

It's just DH and I. We fill our plates from the stove and eat in front of the TV.

When we have company, I put the food into nice bowls, set the table, and we have family-style dinners.

PS - Libby...I LOVE your avatar!

[Contrary Housewife]

Sometimes, it depends on what I am serving, and whether or not I feel like cleaning extra dishes afterward. Most times, for DH and I it just goes from stove to plate. For company dinners I usually put the meats on a platter to pass around, sometimes the sides, too. It's too tricky in my small kitchen to manage serving 8 individual plates up.

[Darlene]

1 Yell dinner time
2 Stand in line, grab a pot holder cause your plate will be warm (cold plate + hot food = not good )
3 Give guidance to server
4. Sit down, wait for everyone to be seated
5. Dig in

[FrabjousDay]

We typically only use serving dishes when we have guests. It's just easier and less mess to fill plates from the cook top.

[Dancing Lotus]

I fill the plates from the stove. This is so that the kids eat what I want them too and I have noticed DH eats less when I do this. He could gain a few pounds and it wouldn't hurt him but I like to plan the leftovers for his lunch the next day, So I need leftovers.
Also it's less dishes to wash.

[Jamielane]

I dish it up to plates from the pots and serve them that way. We always eat on trays in the livingroom. When I was a kid my Mom always transferred everything to serving bowls and Dh's mom does t0 if we have a meal there but our kitchen is to small to put a table in for all of us to use and I do the dishing out so its silly for me to create more dishes for myself.

[Mom2-3]

Whatever the item was cooked in/on is now the serving dish. lol Everyone is responsible for dishing out their own portions and we still at the table. On Friday we make pizza and eat in the front room watching a movie.

We don't have guests over, we have extended family. When you come over you are family and are treated like such. Nothing fancy.

[monkeywrangler71]

Pasta goes in a bowl in the middle of the table, everything else you fill your own plate in the kitchen. Tiny people have theirs served for them.

[piney]

When my mom was alive she always transfered food to bowls and put on table and when my family was at home i would do that but now when i have a large crowd over of mostly family i just set food on cabinet and tell everone to fill up their own plates.If it was just a few people and not family i would put food in serving bowls on table.

[piney]

Ps.thanks to all that replied

[2ndGenGranola]

Since I still have 3 young ones who either make a mess or cannot judge proper serving sizes, I dish it up and put it on the table for them. Sometimes I will put things on the table depending upon what it is.

[nuisance26]

~I fill plates at the stove(90% of the time) unless we have company. We have an eat-in kitchen. I'd do bowls most of the time if we had a dining room. ~