Mealtime Pet Peeve

This is a biggie for me. I was watching The Chew as I cleaned out my purse. Mario, I think, had made a baked potato casserole with a crunchy topping, baked in the over. There was bacon in the topping, so you know it was delicious.

As they each dipped a helping onto a plate, I was alert. This is the source of my pet peeve. They dipped through the top and all the way to the bottom of the very deep casserole.

I have gone to Thanksgiving dinners with a sweet potato casserole on the buffet table where we filled our plates. There is always one person who just scrapes off the topping with little underneath. Well, maybe that's okay. However, the person will inevitably manage to slice off a piece of the topping that is about 4" x 6"! Now, on a 9" x 13" casserole, that is approximately 1/6 of the casserole topping. The person leaves behind about 90% of the underneath. If there are 12 people present, often more at this one house, only a few people get any of the topping.

When someone rightly calls out the offender, the offender is all innocent: The topping was crunchy and hard to cut. My response in my head: Then why did you start your chopping half way down and did manage to cut a huge piece when you could have successfully chopped off less to begin with?

At a meeting, a woman took almost half of the topping of a 9"x9" sweet potato casserole. There were 8 people at the potluck Christmas meeting. She was the same woman I watched stick her hand up to her wrist in a bucket of chicken and stir it around in a search for the piece she wanted. At still another meeting, she handled cold cuts, all of them, trying to get a few pieces for herself. I pointed out there were forks for serving. She seemed surprised there were forks. I usually ask for something if I cannot see anything to serve food. I mean, who wants to eat cold cuts when she has handled the whole plate full, almost every slice? I quit going because she was always first to the sideboard/counter.

However, cutting off the topping and scooping it without the corresponding filling underneath is going to make me burst a blood vessel trying to be quiet. One time, the host did not stay quiet, but blurted out loudly, "Who took all the topping and left none for anyone else?" A quick look around solved that quandary.

Children can be "helped" or directed. But, adults?

Oh, feel free to scrape off all the marshmallows from the sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows. You can have mine.

Your turn
Does getting all the topping from casseroles bother you? Okay, what are your other pet peeves you will observe during this season of casseroles, desserts, and strangers or friends? Food pet peeves?