Potluck days
2Thursday is my wife’s first potluck lunch at work in 10 years. My work is having a potluck on Friday.
We are both taking sopapilla cheesecakes to our respective potlucks. It is quick, easy, and cheap.
Another favorite of mine is stuffed jalapeno peppers. It is a bit less of each of the items listed above, but delicious.
What do you like to take for potlucks? Be prepared to share recipes upon request. (Smile)
- 18 comments, 18 replies
- Comment
If I don’t want to do anything hard, I always bring a crock-pot of meatballs. I 'd just buy them frozen, and dump them with the standard cocktail sauce, grape jelly, and some cayenne pepper.
For ones where I actually made an effort, I have made homemade cannolis which were way too much effort. They were good though.
Another time I brought homemade cookies and mascarpone cheese ice cream. -That one went over extremely well and wasn’t too much effort.
We had two crock pots until recently; one was replaced by an Instant Pot. For pot-luck the small one was used for mulled apple cider. The large one got cocktail weiners, a mix of regular and smoked, heated in a 50/50 mix of grape jelly or cranberry jelly and Heinz chili sauce. Or meatballs in sweet and sour or “Swedish Meatball” sauce, depending on the audience. The weiners are a Holiday tradition.
@duodec
someone i used to work with used grape jelly and heinz chili sauce with ground beef and beans to make dip for fritos
@Cerridwyn that sounds blech!
/giphy blech
@Cerridwyn @Mehrocco_Mole
BTW, if you haven’t seen the series this giphy is from- you should, because it’s hilarious…
Starring Eugene Levy, and his son plays his son.
“Schitt’s Creek” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schitt’s_Creek
@PhysAssist I have.
Some of my fave things to bring to potlucks are- pasta salads, Caesar salads, IP Mac & cheese, layered bean dips, chew cookie bars, charcuterie kabobs and others I can’t think of…
@moonhat You’re personally invited to my next party!!
@moonhat Big fan of bringing pasta salads to potluck. My fave is a basil and sun dried tomato pesto pasta. Plenty of olive oil, garlic, basil (crushed and full leaves) and a handful of sun dried 'maters tossed up with penne pasta. Out of this world. If you’re a peppa fan, fresh cracked on top with a dash of salt.
@ruouttaurmind ohh that sounds really good. Love sun dried tomatoes. I often do one that’s got some mayo, olive oil, Parmesan, feta, green onions and toasted sliced amonds. It’s usually a crowd pleaser.
I tend to buy frozen shrimp cocktail rings. I usually forget to do that far enough in advance for them to be thawed by potluck time, so I’m the shrimpsicle guy…
Before I retired my Team had a potluck once a month. I made rhubarb pie when in season, lemon meringue when I couldn’t get the rhubarb.
I didn’t retire my team, I retired. How a simple comma changes everything.
/giphy Oxford Comma
Not sure what this has to do with the Oxford Comma but I like it!
@Mehrocco_Mole Myself, I’m not sure what the Oxford Comma has to do with any of the above.
@djslack It doesn’t but I can’t resist a bit of trolling.
@Mehrocco_Mole Nothing wrong with that at all!
I am usually the drinks/paper products person.
Usually SWMBO bakes some of her Hella-good Chocolate Chip [and sometimes pecan] cookies.
She basically uses the recipe on the bag of toll-house choco-chips, but instead of little bitty doughballs, she uses approx. tennis ball-sized doughballs, and ends up with amazing 6"+ diameter cookies- and she says they’re actually easier to make and more forgiving of oven temp variations and being left in a little longer than usual due to the larger amount of dough involved.
People are amazed by them, and they are especially awesome to eat [and keep virtually forever] when frozen.
Now that I have a sweet KA mixer, I’m becoming known as “the cookie guy” Mainly just in my own head–I’ve only taken cookies to two get togethers so far…
pre KA days, I would take cheese cubes, fancy crackers (not those icky water wafers) and sliced salami.
Volunteering to be the paper plate, utensils and napkin guy has worked for me too in the past. I just never want to be the prepackaged vegetable tray guy.
@therealjrn I love when people bring a veggie tray.
@RiotDemon
ಠ_ಠ
@therealjrn You should see the pot lucks we have at work. It’s mostly cookies or whatever dessert you can get from the grocery store bakery and then a few other things. We actually have a sign up sheet at work for our next one and so far one person is bringing potatoes and another person is doing green beans. The rest is desserts. Our work is supplying all the meats.
Usually I bring deviled eggs because a carton of eggs is cheap.
@RiotDemon Me too (at least for church potlucks). I always say it’s not an official church potluck without deviled eggs.
My most common go-to is strawberries with fluff dip. That dip is good on damn near everything and ridiculously easy to make. Half a container (about 8 oz) marshmallow fluff, 8 oz (softened) brick of cream cheese, and vanilla to taste. Mix until smooth, chill for at least an hour or two. Try not to eat all the dip before sharing it.
A more recent offering has been a chocolate/caramel/pretzel bark. Pretty much this: https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/salted-chocolate-caramel-pretzel-bars/
Asiago & bleu cheese cheesecake topped with caramelized onions on top, crackers on the side. Don’t ruin it with a “savory” jelly as the recipe recommends.
One batch makes several smaller(5") cheesecakes. These freeze well.
Usually paper plates, plastic cups, chips, or soda.
I hardly cook for myself let along you chumps!
One potluck a few months ago I brought this tomato/white bean dip and a bag of pita chips and it was a huge hit.
My partner has excellent recipes for sesame noodles and mango salad, both of which were served at my birthday party this year. Also check out the vegan chocolate cake there - I might try to bring that, possibly in cupcake or sheet cake form, for an upcoming potluck.
I was overkill guy when I worked at a job that had occasional potlucks (2 in 6 years, so I don’t even know what the occasions were).
The first time, I realized that I could do my prep at work if I had good reason, so I made sushi (California rolls and cucumber rolls) on a table in my cubicle all morning. The crowd was appreciative.
The next, I wanted to top myself so I made strawberry and kiwi fruit sushi as a dessert, with coconut rice pudding, chocolate crepe wrappers,(*) and apricot sauce. It was a total pain in the ass but a huge hit.
* - There’s that Oxford comma.
They’re talking about doing a crock-pot-luck for Christmas this year where everyone brings their favorite slow cooker/instant pot recipes. I’m not sure what I’ll do if that happens. We made killer ribs in the instant pot (and before that in the slow cooker) but there’s only a countertop pizza oven here, not sure its up to the broiler step.
In past, when I still socialized (had to, because other humans were where I worked), I brought pecan brittle. I’m very allergic to peanuts, and find walnuts boring, but I really love pecans.
Here’s a nice general recipe. Use whatever nuts you like.
Nut Brittle
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 Tbs. water
1 cup nutmeats
1 Tbs. butter
1 tsp. baking soda
Cook sugars and water until syrup spins a thread. Add butter and nuts. Cook until caramel color (light brown). Remove from heat, and stir in baking soda. Pour onto buttered baking sheet, and cool. Shatter with knife handle.
As I recall, it’s best to be careful with the baking soda addition, if you’re an inexperienced cook, since it will boil up upon adding it. No sense making a mess. I don’t think this recipe works well with filberts or brazil nuts, but it’s very good otherwise. Sorry about the corn syrup, but I no longer bother making up simple syrup, and cannot imagine anyone doing so for this recipe.
I’ve also brought gingerbread, and gingersnap cookies. If it doesn’t rot your teeth, or add five pounds, what good is it?
@Shrdlu pecan brittle is delicious. You can also add chocolate chips when it’s still warm, wait a minute and then spread it across the back. Break when cool.
Pickle roll-ups. They’re always gone.
I had a mini crockpot, and made pumpkin pie dip (pumpkin pie filling, cream cheese, and sour cream) with ginger snaps and apple slices for dipping.
Always popular.
@kdemo yes! I’ve had that. very tasty!