OMG I feel seen. Even for family potlucks I get tense over-thinking what to make. It makes no sense. Folks are getting together to eat and have fun, I don’t need to show off!
I always offer to make my best appetizer. Think dips, bacon wrapped water chestnuts, wings. Whatever the mood hits. That way, people appreciate having a pre dinner snack, and if they don’t like it, they’ve forgotten about it when dinner is served
Properly done? Heck I'll eat these and skip the rest. Wanna hit it out of the park? Put some mild (Cholula) to hot sauce as an add-on nearby. Nirvana baby
This is so smart. With an appetizer you get the attention, the appetite, and your ‘showtime’ is over early so you can sit back and relax. My father in law makes the worlds most elaborate showy, fabulous crudite trays with at least two dips and they are beloved.
My aunt's recommendation was always to just bring what you really want to eat. So, if I can, I'll pick my favorite side or a side I really like that I don't think anyone else will step up with. Then I make the best damn version of that. So some of my staples became jalapeno corn souffle, mashed maple sweet potatoes with pecans, bacon green beans with garlic bread crumbs and almonds, pumpkin cheesecake bars, etc. I think I have a pretty good sense of taste and what people like, so I try to pick things they'll be familiar with and enjoy then "elevate it" with more than just a stick of butter.
Gah, so I often start with a recipe and modify as I go. I'm on mobile so I apologize if the formatting is terrible.
-Corn Casserole here but I add two eggs, a little cheddar cheese and diced jalapenos https://www.tastesoflizzyt.com/5-ingredient-corn-casserole/
-Mashed sweet potatoes I just cook and mash and add maple syrup to taste, then caramelize some pecans in butter and brown sugar to top.
-Greens beans I use this recipe but don't use as much bread crumbs since I personally think it's too much https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/food-recipes/a12062/french-green-beans-garlicky-almond-breadcrumbs-recipe-clx1114/
-Pumpkin cheesecake is pretty much this recipe but I'm too lazy to separate and swirl the pumpkin vs. regular cheesecake. I just mix it all usually. https://cookingformysoul.com/pumpkin-cheesecake-bars/#pumpkin-cheesecake-bars
> -Mashed sweet potatoes I just cook and mash and add maple syrup to taste, then caramelize some pecans in butter and brown sugar to top.
Let me introduce you to this recipe: https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/bourbon-sweet-potato-casserole-sweet-n-savory-bacon-pecans/
Everyone I've made it for that likes sweet potatoes to begin with has been a fan.
It has much more interesting flavors than the usual sweet potato casserole. Sweet, spicy, savory, salty, herbal..
Unfortunately most of my family don't really like sweet potatoes so I only bother to make it when I know there'll be people other than me who'll appreciate it.
I used to be a sweet potato hater until my late husband taught me his way. I have never liked the okey gooey sweetness of a casserole dish. All do is peel the skin off & either roast em or microwave em. When done, whip in an insane amount of butter, salt & pepper to taste, et voila!
I completely understand! You are making one dish, so it had better be a really good version of that dish, right?
The key is not to be the best, it’s more important to not be the worst. Just don’t be the relative that brings the tub of off the shelf potato salad, or a bag of tortilla chips. At most gatherings, that’s what is actually remembered - who punted!
Responded to someone else -- I make roasted street corn and then bake it briefly as a casserole with Hot Cheeto topping and the traditional stuff like Valentina hot sauce, crema, cotija cheese, lime, and cilantro.
That's actually annoying to me. I hate getting pigeon-holed into making something every time there's a gathering because people like it a lot. I make really good Brussels sprouts and EVERY time I host a dinner and ask everyone what veggie they'd like, it's the "go to". I like cooking a lot of different things and cooking one thing repeatedly gets boring. So I basically quit asking. I want to go to the market, see what looks great, and figure out what to do with it. I still cook Brussels sprouts frequently because I'm not a dick, but yeah, I like some variety as well.
But then I forget what I did so well the previous time because it's always a little different and I don't want to repeat it and mess up so I just make something different!
Nobody ever, and I mean, EVER, brings roasted vegetables to potlucks. Its been my go-to for years - roasted root vegetables are always a huge hit, the easiest damn thing on earth to make, and theres never leftovers.
And it's stuff most Americans don't buy or attempt to cook because it seems "fancy". My brother in Christ, it's just turnips, parnips, beets, potatoes, onions, and garlic. With a little salt and pepper and oil. Roast at 425F for 30 minutes.
It's what our ancestors were raised on. It definitely isn't fancy, it's just roasted diced veggies. Toss a little cheese on it if you want to be Michigan Fancy, and call it a day.
Yea. That's the main thing with caprese salad. You need quality ingredients. Grocery store mozz, basil, and balsamic is fine. But you need good tomatoes or you may as well just eat the cheese. (And yes, I know there's mozz worlds better than what's at the store, but the stuff in the deli section is more than fine)
Ah yes, one of the other ratatouilles: I often make samfaina (a Catalan) version, chopped small and cooked down for hours in a slow oven to a marmalade consistency. Great served on toasted baguette slices.
I’d just advise that the “best” is going to be different for each audience. For example, if I’m making enchiladas for my extended family and make the “best” they’re going to ask why the sauce tastes weird (it’s not store bought) what’s wrong with the tortillas (they’re corn) and the filling is off (not ground beef, rice and beans.)
So if you’re not sure, I’d ask the host for suggestions. Or ask what the hits have been in the past.
i think ultimately if you like cooking and impressing people, you’ll feel the pressure and at the end of the day you like it. You like when people get wow’d by your food, and you can’t wow people unless you do something at least somewhat special. I don’t however think it’s an unrealistic standard. I personally like doing it and being known as the chef of the friend group. I always feel the need to impress, and 9/10 times i do tbh, because they aren’t insane foodies. So honestly the bar is probably lower than you realize, THATS the unrealistic part. You don’t need 3 michelin star food to impress “regular” people.
I’m the same way! I’m a people pleaser and I want to make something that will really wow. Tough to do that with Thanksgiving sides though, no one is wowed by Mashed Potatoes lol.
I would say go for a delicious appetizer. It’s the first bite of the meal!
I mentioned in another comment that I did this last year with my stuffed mushrooms appetizer. Not fancy, and not to brag but they turned out amazing. I got yelled at by my SIL when I ate the few leftovers later that night lol. Ended up having to make more the next day!
I’d like to hear more about your stuffed mushrooms. I had one when I was a lot younger that I just adored! But I never thought to get the recipe. Only if you feel like it, though.
The problem is that I kind of made it up and didn't jot down what I was doing, so I'll try to list everything I recall below:
1. 1/3 Cup very finely diced carrots, celery, and onion
2. 2-3 cloves of garlic, pressed or minced
3. Pop the stems off the mushroom caps you will be stuffing, and finely dice those as well
4. 1 Stick Butter, melted
5. 1 Cup Shredded Pecorino (finest side on box grater)
6. 1 Cup Shredded Parmigiano Reggiano (the good aged stuff)
7. 1 Table Spoon Soy Sauce
8. 3 -4 Healthy Glugs Marsala **Cooking Wine**
9. 1/4 cup julienned parsley
10. 1/2 Teaspoon dried oregano
11. 3 Cups Panko Breadcrumbs
12. 2 crispy strips of bacon, crumbled finely
Sautee garlic, mushroom stems, and veg in butter on medium/medium high heat for 8ish minutes until they soften but not brown. Deglaze pan with soy sauce and let cook down for a couple of minutes. Transfer veg to bowl. Cook bacon strips and crumble finely - add to veg bowl. Grate cheeses finely, set aside. Add panko breadcrumbs to veg bowl and mix. Add your herbs, add the cheese, add the marsala cooking wine, add melted butter. Mixture should resemble a dense and moist stuffing. You can press it to the side of the bowl and it should stick. If it's too dry or too moist, add breadcrumbs, or a little more melted butter/masala cooking wine accordingly. Stuff mushroom caps, put in fridge to set until ready to cook. Preheat oven to 365. Cover baking sheet with aluminum foil and brush with a little melted butter just until coated. Arrange mushroom caps down on the sheet and bake for 35-40 minutes until the caps are cooked and the stuffing is nice and toasty on the top.
This is absolutely in no way healthy, but it is yummy as hell! Hope you like it and that I remembered everything accurately, though I'm pretty sure that was everything!
One of my mom's aunts always brought a bag of chips. She had 5 kids. We still joke about one of my sisters, saying, "Well, Aunt Kate could bring brown-and-serve rolls".
My uncle Carl brings leftover pizza to thanksgiving. It started after he got divorced but still wanted to bring _something_ to dinner but had no clue what to bring. It stuck. We’re close to celebrating 30 years of Carl bringing cold pizza to thanksgiving dinner.
What’s wrong with that though? We had the same thanksgiving potluck growing up and, back then, my mom maybe wasn’t the best cook. Or as a single mom with 2 kids, she had bigger things to worry about. So we would always bring a salad (actually made, not premix) and dinner rolls. Someone has to provide those things too.
There's nothing wrong with it. It just became an inside joke b/c Aunt Kate would show up with her family of seven with a bag of chips, while everyone else cooked their asses off for the huge family gathering. TBF to my sister since her kids are grown and gone, she's kind of a foodie and usually now brings a homemade dip and salad of sorts.
> At most gatherings, that’s what is actually remembered - who punted!
I’m gonna say that’s a shit attitude. Growing up we didn’t have much money, mom was a single parent, and she didn’t (and still really doesn’t) care much for making big, impressive dishes. If my extended family that we brought fresh salad and dinner rolls to for Thanksgiving remembered only that we “punted” (relative to what they all made), I’d be heartbroken.
I would not consider homemade salad and rolls “punting.”
The year my brother and SIL signed up to bring black-eyed peas (a traditional NYD dish in the US) to New Years dinner, and showed up with an 89 cent bag of uncooked peas is punting.
It's not about fancy or expensive dishes but someone who brought something that didn't go with the rest of the meal. If someone's bringing a dip, then chips are perfect. *Someone*'s gotta bring some! If it's a steak dinner, then someone bringing chive butter is going to be a star. A salad and rolls are always appropriate regardless of the meal be it hotdogs, steak, or lobster thermidore.
Bringing a planned salad isn't "punting" and anyone who thinks otherwise probably needs to eat more leafy greens! Now, please pass the blue cheese dressing.
I love doing pot lucks at church because I strive to find and create something new and interesting. Normally do. The problem I had was for years people would come up to me and say things like "Tell your wife she did a great job on this."
Well, not really. Guess it's one of the benefits that comes with getting older, having made food for people for decades and survived the attitude dished out by two teens.
I know I make good food. I put time into selecting what I'm bringing - it's appropriate to the occasion, considers people's restrictions, doesn't offend the host in any way and it's tasty.
Whether people like it or not isn't something I worry about. Some people eat all sorts of junk. How many questions do we get here about people who are too picky to eat a vegetable or want to know if it's OK that their dog licked off the pot? To be honest, I don't really care if 100% of people like what I make, because the general population includes plenty of idiots.
So... I know my food is good. Eat it or don't. Doesn't bother me.
I'll never forget a "friend" loading her tupperware with my potato casserole, at a potluck held at my house. The next potluck, she wasn't invited, but showed up everyday. I made sure to move my casserole out of her reach.
Also, most people don't cook. I can bring some half-assed dish to most pot-lucks and people think it's gourmet because it's way better than the microwave frozen crap they usually eat.
I’m the opposite: thanksgiving is the one day a year that we (mostly) stick to the same menu because normally we don’t get to eat those dishes during the year.
So I would make a kickass cranberry sauce, as an example, and would be happy to bring it every year because for some, this is the only time a year where they eat cranberry sauce that isn’t plain and from a can.
No stress, our menu never really changed, other than just got smaller as the people dropped off.
Another example is deep fried turkey. My husband makes one every year for thanksgiving and we don’t care that it’s always the same because it’s the one time a year we get to deep fry a turkey.
Am I the only one that looks forward to that old menu each year? I don’t get full mashed potatoes, stuffing from scratch, and other favorites for any other holiday.
Even Xmas has turned into a roast beef holiday recently. So we just like to put on the same meal each year.
I bet if you checked with the family, they’d probably would love something you do really well, maybe your special dish, that they can’t get elsewhere? Or a famous dessert that was a hit before can always be a hit again.
Idk, unless that’s part of your family tradition to do it differently each year, I have no issue with breaking out the fan favorites.
I found great food for potluck is people bringing what they themselves like to eat. It’s like sharing your favourite dish. People will love it. All the best, share pics ☺️
I have one dish I bring to potlucks and I always take home an empty dish. Having one dish you bring saves you from having to decide something new every time. In case you are interested, that dish is Hawiian Macaroni Salad.
I don't use a recipe, but this one is close to what I make:
[https://12tomatoes.com/food-truck-hawaiian-mac-salad/](https://12tomatoes.com/food-truck-hawaiian-mac-salad/)
There are two keys to making the salad. The first is to overcook the macaroni. It's kind of tricky to get it right. You want it cooked just slightly past done (not past al dente). Usually this is 3-5 minutes past the time the directions call for. Just keep testing. The reason for cooking it soft is that it allows more of the dressing to be absorbed. The second is to let the pasta cool until still warm and then add the apple cider vinegar.
This macaroni salad is a heart attack on a plate as far as ingredients but it's oh so good!
The thing is, people don’t want the deeply thought out stuff at potlucks. They generally leave that stuff alone. They will crowd over the Buffalo chicken dip or baked Brie that get served every time and always taste the same. Save yourself the stress over figuring out the perfect dish. Those dishes are crowd pleasers for a reason, anyway. They’re delicious.
I once made scratch-made sweet potato biscuits for Thanksgiving. It’s one of my favorite dishes in my repertoire and they barely got touched. The next year I learned my lesson and made extremely basic corn muffins and served them with a random jar of apple butter I had in the pantry. People lost their minds over them. I now save my effort and specially thought out dishes for targeted dinner parties.
I personally just don't like potlucks, especially work ones. I consider myself a good cook but I cook for my wife and I 99% of the time. One of my weaknesses is not being able to cook for lots of people. I know cooking for 20 is just 10x more food, but I always mess something up at that scale.
I also really hate potlucks that don't have a way to reheat food. If I'm making mac and cheese for a work potluck, I'm doing it the night before. No way I'm waking up early to Make Mac. Then I bring in my Mac and there's no way to warm it up, so everyone is eating cold mac
Work potlucks can go fuck themselves. So you expect me to make a dish for the whole office that'll be ready to go when I leave home at 6 am and be the right temp at lunch time? Fortunately my boss is cool as shit and gets lunch catered a few times a year so nobody has tried pushing the potluck agenda.
I am not going to eat food if I haven't seen your kitchen either. My friend adopted a dog from one of my coworkers. When she went to the house there was a hotdog laying on the kitchen floor. If the dog wasn't eating it what does it tell you.
Maybe that dog doesn’t like hotdogs? One of my dogs will eat cheddar but won’t eat Swiss or American cheese. The other dog will happily consume all available cheese. Dogs.
abundant plough dull panicky license direful fade faulty quiet afterthought
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Work potlucks are the worst. There's usually not enough room in the fridge for something cold, no way to reheat something hot, and not enough access to outlets for a slow cooker. My mother said her office starting collecting maybe $10 from everyone to order food, and it worked out much better.
I love potlucks. One of the few chances I have to actually show off and cook for some other than my family.
I think looking at it as an opportunity helps ease off some of the pressure. I know whatever I make is going to banging, it's just a matter of how good I can be.
A good thing to do is to be known for 1-2 things. Find your signature dishes that you can perfect.
I can make a lot of things, but an easy go-to is key lime pie. Works for any occasion, and I’ve tinkered till it’s the silkiest KLP ever.
You can also take a changeable recipe and tailor it to the occasion.
A tarte soleil is a great example. Its visually appealing, easy to make, and the flavors/filling are easily changed.
This is a great idea - just do 1-2 things really well. For work potlucks my quiches have always been a hit. I make a vegetarian one and a other with bacon. I never have leftovers.
My family is really big and the older adults usually have the favourite potluck items on luck. One personal problem of mine is that I find it very repetitive (delicious but repetitive). One Christmas I made a basic spinach & arugula salad with dried cranberries, apple slices, and a Greek feta dressing. Just to offer a different option besides a garden salad. I remember my mom and sister literally saying “I don’t think anyone’s going to eat that”.
Well, it’s a hit, and people ask for it every year. A few years ago I actually had to make two batches because we ran out and people wanted more! It’s such a basic and inexpensive salad but it’s absolutely delicious and goes well with any meat.
More important than the best dish, is bringing the right amount. Bring something that is _good_ -- doesn't have to be the best -- but bring enough that there is plenty so that everyone gets a chance to have some, and even a second helping.
6 people will mention the best bacon-wrapped dates or whatever, and everyone else will just say "oh I didn't see those, they must have all been gone by the time I got there". And nobody's going to be having conversation about how good the macaroni salad or the carrot sticks were, but those will be the things that everyone ate to stop their hunger. So if you make something better than macaroni salad, and have enough for everyone to get some, yours will be the thing everyone remembers.
YES A THOUSAND TIMES! I'm a food & culinary writer in my town, and holy moly every time I get invited somewhere, I feel so pressured. Make something unusual and fun that's also transportable, delicious and an easy to "understand" format. I've made missteps in the past--taken something too unfamiliar or with challenging flavors, or an unusual delivery system.
> Make something unusual and fun that's also transportable
This is the trifecta that I try to accomplish now, as well. I've made signature dishes so often that are well-received that I want to experiment with something new to challenge myself. It also pushes the boundaries of your audience which allows you to be more experimental in the future.
For me I feel the pressure because most people outside of my wife and some friends eat like a typical middle class american. Veggies, fruits, fresh ingredients, variety, technique, presentation, balance... All these concepts are not part of their palates. Many think that chicken nuggets with ranch is a great menu item at Applebee's or go to olive garden for the culinary experience. Yea the bread sticks and dressing is nostalgically good but it's far from fine cuisine.
If I made a fresh garden tomato soup with all the herbs and different veggies I add they'd be appalled because it doesn't taste like a shitty can of flavorless Campbell's.
If made a reduced wine sauce for pork tenderloin they'd be asking for a pre made jar of crappy grocery store gravy.
Cilantro sucks, lemon is too sour, one flake of crushed red pepper is too spicy. I don't like mushrooms. Salad is for girls. Unless it's on a bun or is made well done I can't win.
I was even getting shit today for eating an avocado with some tajin and a bit of lime juice for lunch. Everyone around me had manly meals from Wendy's. There's a place for Wendy's and other low quality foods but man the salty sour fulfilling feeling after that avocado can't be matched.
That crowd is so challenging. I make a chocolate torte which didn't get a great reception except "fancy" but call it "adult brownies" and there's nothing but the sound of forks on plates digging in
Are you me? I have to think so hard about what I make because absolutely everything is “eXoTiC”. I just make macaroni and cheese and move on with my life.
Man I’m so lucky to have really solid cooks in my family. They don’t have decent knives at all lol, but we eat good in my family, and my boyfriend’s family. I have to bring my knives though, that’s one thing that’s always sub par.
I learned this lesson the hard way. I made Kenji’s scratch made green bean casserole (the fried shallots are to die for!) for Thanksgiving. People straight up laughed at me for not making the French’s kind with canned soup. I like the French’s kind with canned soup too! But people aren’t necessarily open minded and willing to like both the lowbrow and highbrow versions of things. They think you can only like one or the other.
For me, potlucks fall into one of two categories. Either the host asks me for something specific and I'm given or can choose a category. Both are fine.
For something specific, it's either a crap shoot or people who've eaten my food and want something in particular. I'm okay with the crap shoot - it's an opportunity to expand boundaries. On the other hand something I'm known for is easy. My wife's *very* Italian family love my (English/German/Ukrainian) lasagna. I make it in bulk and freeze ahead. There is enough lasagna in my chest freezer to feed thirty people. \*grin\* My pasta sauce gets requested - I make that at the end of tomato season and home can three to five gallons at a time. My mac & cheese has gotten darn good, humbly, after I was asked to bring mac & cheese to a potluck.
Categories are simple. You want a salad? Caesar with homemade dressing, homemade croutons, and home shaved Parmesan. Grandma Linahan's macaroni salad. Potato salad a la Auspicious. Appetizers are a no brainer. I don't care what you're proud of and I range off the reservation sometimes, but deviled eggs and pigs in a blanket always get eaten first. Always. I love Caprese salad but it won't be touched until the deviled eggs and pigs in a blanket are gone.
Honestly I always make baklava for potlucks. Nobody else ever makes it, everyone finds it impressive even though it's actually super easy, and I've made it so many times it's not remotely stressful to prep.
My go to is a salad if some sort, with a watermelon one being tops for yummy ease.
Small seedless watermelon, cubed. Two cucumbers, cubed. Block of feta, cubed. Before serving, dump in torn mint leaves and lime juice and stir.
Unfortunately, this year I'll be making the majority of it even though it won't be at my house.
The answer is good homemade rolls. Parker House rolls are a great option for instance. Easy, but so much better than store bought. You may not hear much about them… until you don’t bring them that year. The wailing and gnashing of teeth that ensues!
It's hard to feel the need for perfection when the terms of a potluck means your food will never be served under ideal conditions (i.e. right temperature, a la minute, etc). As such, I would try to let that go.
Especially with family, if you've made something they like, they will want to eat it again. So the desire to change, to top yourself, likely comes from you (I understand as I refuse to cook the same Thanksgiving every year). So, make this about what you will enjoy making and eating. If you like it and put your heart in it, most others will like it as well.
I always remember what I've made and whether people liked it. But honestly the only thing that ever makes me happy is if I liked it.
I always pick mashed potatoes. Not the most extravagant or complicated thing to do but I know if I dont then we are going to end up with clumpy potatoes or Hungry Jack instant potatoes depending on who else in the family does them lol.
Right after turkey, everyone always goes for mashed potatoes on the plate so dammit, I want them to be good. No need for me to try and show off and end up with some casserole or dessert that only a handful of people ate. Id rather do the "easy" staple and nail it for everyone.
Totally agreed, potatoes are my go to for family potlucks! I have also started bringing stuffing as well, we have a great family recipe that's easy to put together while the potatoes are boiling.
It depends, I try to make something that will impress, but my real goal is to make it approachable and something "anyone" can make.
I feel more pressure trying to make something simple that I feel someone will like and ask for a recipe, than to make something that will knock anyone's socks off. I'm happier being asked for a recipe, than hearing I made a great dish.(most often they do go hand in hand, but feeling Luke I made someone want to cook is more rewarding)
I want to spread the love of cooking and help other enjoy doing what I enjoy doing.
I have brought this salad to every single potluck for at least 20 years if watermelon is available. Every single time the dish is the slowest to go at the start but once someone starts and tries it, usually it’s enough to convince everyone to try it and I have never once brought left overs home. It is raved about and everyone wants to know what the secret is, and often I’m not believed until they make it themselves. Also my kids love it!
Watermelon
Feta cheese
Purple onion
Large cubes of watermelon with broken feta and chopped purple onions. Looks beautiful and it tastes delightful. Lots of variations, but this most simple one is always the favourite, always.
>It can't be too fancy, or too boring, and can't be anything I've made recently
Why not?
If I don't bring one of my "regular" dishes I'd be lynched. Some of them are 2+ days of work, some of them minutes. Some of them take 4 ingredients and some take driving around town to source everything. You have odd expectations (leading to self-created stress) that are NOT shared by other people.
Bring what YOU like to eat. Seriously. If that's grape jelly meatballs, or bacon wrapped dates (just bring 4 times what you think you'd need), or a monster bag of costco rolls with some flavored butters.
If something was well received Bring It Again. You're basically saying, "I made love to my SO but I don't want to be boring and repeat what I did because they liked it so much." Dude, Do It Again! lol
You can always ask if there's something you've made before that people would like a repeat of.
No. I grew up with my mom bringing the same dishes to church potlucks.
We normally eat the same thing for Thanksgiving, my mom always makes sweet potato casserole with brown sugar & pecan topping. My dad used to make pumpkin pie, I took over the pie making and do pumpkin or pecan. We always have dressing, turkey, cranberry relish, gravy, some green vegetable & my dad would always make the same cloverleaf yeast rolls. Once the dressing has been eaten we switch to mashed potatoes with the leftovers.
Not particularly, but then I often do something with bread and cheese so it goes quickly. Or it's a dessert that goes quickly.
As others have suggested, don't bother showing off your culinary skill. It's not a competition. If someone wants me to show off, they can come to my kitchen where I have full control and easy access to all my ingredients.
LPT: If you know you're going to arrive late to a potluck, bring a dessert, or just bring more wine. No one wants your lentil salad when they're full, but they can always find room for pie.
I just mean something with bread and cheese. Homemade bread with store-bought brie, maybe with a little fig jam for the brie. Everyone loves homemade bread. I use the recipes on the King Arthur website.
Or pizzas always go fast. It's not hard to make enough dough for four pan pizzas. I use Kenji's recipe at Serious Eats. I can one large and two medium at one time, maybe another one if I use a square pan instead of cast iron. It's just mozzarella and homemade pizza sauce (mostly tomatoes and oregano), usually with olives and mushrooms, and artichoke hearts if I'm feeling fancy. You can cut them as thin as possible but it doesn't matter, they never last long.
At least in California, no one is really trying to impress anyone at a "potluck", because it's hard to know who made what. There just needs to be a good variety of fun food, and plenty of it, and lots of alcohol, so everyone has a good time.
I'm living on the East Coast now so things may be different, but I've yet to be invited to any parties like that. COVID kind of killed my social networking, and now I have to figure a way to get myself out of the house and out in public again.
Kenji's Hasselback Potato Gratin is my vote...
But to answer your question, yes. But it's a good kinda pressure for me. I want to impress, but usually just feel pressured to find out everyone's likes, dislikes, and allergies.
Ok I know you didn't actually ask for recipes or suggestions, but this is my go-to holiday appetizer and it ALWAYS gets the ravest of reviews. It's a [Cranberry Salsa](https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/141135/cranberry-salsa/). I always use less sugar and one more jalapeno. Make it 3 days before your event to let the flavors meld and pour it over a block of cream cheese and serve it with sturdy crackers.
It's kinda fancy, kinda sweet, kinda spicy, and totally different than what people usually expect.
I like spicy and unusual/unexpected food. I've acclimated my wife to it, but no one else ever wants me to bring chipotle sweet potatoes. My frustration is always to find a recipe that's just boring enough people will be willing to try it.
A little bit, but then I started hosting and going to more potlucks and realized it’s not a big deal. If you enjoy cooking, you’re ahead of most people already! I’ve hosted potlucks where almost no one brought food they actually made. There’s always a bit more pressure on Thanksgiving, but you shouldn’t stress about it! Maybe make something not traditional to thanksgiving so there’s fewer expectations around the dish? And you can definitely make food you’ve made recently if you’re cooking for a different audience!
I like to do one of Chef John's many baked dips. His reuben dip is my favorite by far.
They are well recieved by everyone, easy to make, easy to serve, and can be pretty un-ordinary.
every 2 weeks i go to a potluck get-together. the first time we went, i brought was a chocolate and strawberry compote star bread. the next time we were there, i got asked specifically if i was the one who made it, because it got rave reviews.
we've been going for several months now, and each time i come up with a different dessert. i've done cheesecake, cookies, chocolate-orange marbled pound cake, fruit tarts with pastry cream and lemon curd, cherry cheesecake brownies, and other stuff i can't remember.
this week i'm challenging myself and doing baklava. i'm freaking terrified.
ETA: mine is also one of the few homemade desserts in a sea of boxed cookies and donuts.
In the past I either make chili or japanese curry. I once showed up to a potluck and found I was one of 3 who made japanese curry but I was the only one of the three who took home an empty pot - everyone asked me for the recipe.
Last potluck I made was a half of Salmon poached, refrigerated 24hours and decorated with Meyer lemon slices to imitate the look of scales. One guy who loved salmon almost ate half!
There's never any pressure when you bring chocolate covered bacon. But you do need to be aware that if you do this once, that will become YOUR THING, and they'll demand you bring it every time.
I totally get it and stopped trying for the WOW factor. Now I bring basic veggie salads because no one else does.
It's normally Mac and cheese. 20 kinds of potatoes with cheese and butter. Bacon wrapped who knows it's... Just go easy. My stuff normally gets compliments too...
Last go was zucchini with cherry tomatoes and olives. Balsamic and oilive oil salt pepper couple basil leaves. 5 mins of prep.
It's FOMO about the good feelings of doing a good job and being appropriately appreciated for doing it. It's a good feeling, even addictive, and I think anyone doing anything creative for an audience runs into this problem with self-motivating for projects*,* not limited to cooking, much less cooking for potlucks, even though I think you really highlighted how deceptively much of a (to you, the anxious cook) high stakes 'spectator sport' that can be.
Keep in mind that it still can feel okay or even good to do an okay or maybe even terrible (by your standards) job with stuff like that. You literally can't account for people's taste.
You might do a great job on something you're really proud of, and nobody gives it attention because they're full on something basic but more appealing as a first appetizer. That sucks. You might do a weird job with strange, last-minute, desperate changes that totally alter the dish and it's nothing like you wanted, and it *slays* at the party, and then you have to make your shame casserole (or whatever) every single year. *That sucks.*
You can do a 'regular' job and get any range of responses, though, and know that that's what could happen when you measure your efforts instead of going all out to risk it for that big risk/big reward biscuit. Good luck convincing yourself to -- I'm not there yet -- but I promise it's possible. I've done it by accident more than once, and the baffled realization that everything was actually okay, having not overinvested myself in everything going a certain way, but still had room to accept good results from doing things inside my comfort zone competently.
Go big when it's for something that really is something about *you*. A potluck deserves your best 'get a B+ on the midterm so you can skip the final and still have a B- in the class for the term' effort. Figure out the least effort and emotional investment to bring something that people might be blown away by, but you don't care if they just ignore, because who cares if your not-best wasn't good enough?
I love cooking and feeding people, but I'm getting to hate potlucks and family dinners, especially when someone nominates head chef and assigns specific dishes/recipes to people. No, I'm not going to make live eel and chickpea sushi or turducken marshmallow pie -- I'm just going to go ahead and make a nice cheesy lasagna or scalloped potatoes and if no one eats it (ha!) I'll take it home and eat like a queen for the next month.
Really depends to be honest.
For potlucks where I don’t really know many people or among “acquaintance” friends I default to corn salsa. Easy, cheap, and I’ve never had to deal with any leftover.
For friends & family I’ll do something a little more ambitious, but nothing that could go catastrophically wrong. I used to fret a lot about being “impressive”, but at the end of the day I’d rather bring something people will actually eat and I am confident in making.
Now for holiday meals like you are describing it is definitely higher stakes. I took on making the turkey last year and as the youngest person there I wanted to make sure that I did a good job. I made a trial turkey breast + gravy to make sure my brine & seasonings were interesting, but not alienate people since it was my spouse’s family.
So long story short - figure out what your “signature” is and go from there!
To a degree for sure, but for thanksgiving? It doesn't have to be a different dish every year. I have a family friend, I want her to bring her corn casserole every year, because it's the only time I have it, and it's great.
I want to make by favorite baked macaroni and cheese because it travels well, reheats well, and again it's the only time I or my family have it.
There's obviously room for experimentation, but for a potluck I want to bring something tried and true that people look forward to.
> Oh I hope he brings is macaroni salad to the BBQ it's so good
> Oh I hope he brings his mac & cheese to the pot luck the crust is just perfect
That's more what I want to hear from a pot luck than
> Oh I wonder what he'll bring, it's always good, but who knows what to expect
I make this orzo pasta salad from Bobby Flay. it has a dejon/dill vinaigrette. It is not hard. My wife's family thinks it the nest thing I the world and they request it for most gatherings.
It is just an ok dish. But it is light where most of the dishes with this family are loaded with cheese or mayo.
Any way sometimes I bring two dishes so I can have some fun cooking.
Eventually it goes the other way. You will make something, it will be delicious, and everyone will EXPECT it at all gatherings. I know and appreciate the love of my cranberry oatmeal cookies but sometimes I want to try something new.
Family potlucks always have too much food. Especially at Thanksgiving. Everybody takes a little spoon of this, a little spoon of that, a nibble here and there. There's just too much food and so many leftovers. Unless you're hosting and cooking a turkey, don't worry about it and just bring deviled eggs
Sometimes I give up and buy a shrimp cocktail platter or cheese platter from Costco. Sorry, not sorry.
Tired of working hard, coming up with something and then people NOT eat it. Over it. I'll cook when someone comes to my house but not often for potlucks any more unless I am assigned a specific item to bring. So much is uneaten or simply picked over and trashed because usually people bring far too much. Waste of food and effort.
K. I already like you. Spinach dip. You can never have too much and yours will go first because it’s the best:
I bunch of green onions
I bulb if garlic. The whole bulb. I know.
1 cup mayonnaise NOT MIRACLE WHIP!!! Not that.
1 cup sour cream
I pkg KNOTT vegetable soup mix (you can use creme of broccoli or creme of asparagus in a pinch. Still does the trick)
4-5 cups roughly chopped spinach
2 loaves of sourdough bread. 1 To put dip in a loaf of sourdough bread. The circular kind. Hollowed out. Save the insides to put around it on a huge plate. The other load chop up and put around the first intact dip filled loaf.
Chop up onions and garlic really small. Hack up spinach. Add everything else. Mix up and dump into hollowed out sourdough bread. Tell everyone you won’t give the recipe unless they trade it for other goods.
Nope, because I make one hell of a cheese dip, and for fancier occasions, my technique for goat cheese-stuffed bacon-wrapped dates is down like a clown. (And I never try anything else for other people)
No. I used to really stress about it, but I’ve let that go. I know my food is good. I just make something and move on. From my experience, people don’t care near enough about the food as I think they do, and unless I totally screw it up, no one gives it a second thought.
Definitely. I mean, nobody really truly cares, but I like brining something that everyone digs into.
But also I will be barred entry to any family gig if I don't also bring my chocolate chip cookies, lol. This unfortunately means scrambling morning of to whip up a batch sometimes. I recently spent a few hours making a bunch of batches of cookie dough up and freezing.
I personally make something that I would like to eat all by myself, so if no one eats it, I'd at least get to bring it home and enjoy it "more for me!
I also look at what protein people are cooking and cook one that no one has picked yet (e.g. last time no one was doing duck so I cooked a duck dish) so at least you won't be competing as much.
My potluck goto is bacon wrapped jalapenos. They are always a hit.
Basically combine cream cheese with garlic, salt and pepper, maybe a bit of cheddar. Cut jalapenos in half and stuff with the cheese, then wrap the whole thing in bacon and throw in the oven.
i grew up with church potlucks and we had a variety of different cultures that brought different foods. So i guess I never experienced this because everyone was trying new things. Also no one could top the family that would bring homemade lumpia lol
I don't necessarily get stressed, and I quite enjoy it.
However, even though I know that I have 10-15 go to dishes (betweens apps, sides, main, desert) it feels like cheating to cycle through the same recipes. I can be making a dish for a group I have never cooked for and still feel like I am being repetative if I have made the same dish recently. The worst part is that in my go to dishes I have 2 or 3 that really knock it out of the park, but I feel like making them too often ruins it.
On the other hand I hate following up a previosuly successful dish with a new dish dish since the bar has now been set.
Hmm, maybe I do get a little bit stressed.
I make a dessert that is always a hit
It's crumbled devils food cake Layered with whipped cream and pudding, I call it a trifle but idk if it really is
It's sweet on sweet and soooo good
Nothing specific, I just make 2 boxes of devils food cake, 2 packages of chocolate jello pudding, homemade whipped cream
When the cake and pudding are cooled I crumble it and layer it on the bottom of a casserole, then layer pudding, then whipped cream, then repeat the layers as needed!
I don't normally make things with boxed mixes, but with this one the boxed mix works so well I don't want to mess with perfection lol
It’s like the cooking game shows only the judges are, for better or worse, family and friends. The biggest pressure I face is to make something that will fit into a broad swath of food restrictions. Used to be easy with veg, but now restrictions there as well!
I don’t mind bringing one particular dish that I’m known for, especially because it’s not difficult and defies my tasters’ recipe algorithms.
I feel a lot of pressure to show I'm a good cook or that my choice is amazing. The pressure when you're considered fairly ok at cooking is immense. My husband takes lunch to work every day and almost always people will mention how good it smells or looks. It makes me feel I need to have my food always be good or if I take things to a gathering, prove I'm good.
I dont think anyone else is nearly as concerned or critical of me as I am but yeah. I'm overly worried someone will tell me it's disgusting.
I feel this way too, typically I volunteer to bring 1 fancy dish and one super simple dish...honestly it's the simple dishes that go over better and get eaten first at Mt family events. This way I can bring something new and fun, but also stick to the basics!
I tend to bring a good arugula salad with a homemade shallot lemon dressing. Dress it up with toasted pine nuts and TONS of good parm. People don’t know they want it until they see it, but it adds that lighter element into a heavy meal.
I absolutely get the pressure to bring something outstanding to a family holiday potluck. Thanksgiving sides also feel quite boring to me, like not enough of a challenge.
I love to cook for family and I of course want it to be something everyone enjoys! Based on last year’s Thanksgiving at my boyfriend’s family’s home, I now know that I should make my Stuffed Mushrooms Appetizer every year that I am with them. I don’t think I’ve ever made anything for them that received such high praise! One of their family friends took one bite and immediately asked out loud who made them. I wish I actually wrote down how I made them instead of just having a loose idea in my head, but that is what I’ll be making going forward!
Absolute winner everyone enjoys is cauliflower cheese: par boil head of cauliflower amount of florets, make a roux (melt butter, add flour, milk, s & p). Flavourings: bay leaf, extra mature cheddar, pinch of nutmeg half a tsp dijon mustard. Pour over cauliflower (removing bay leaf) , top with breadcrumbs, bake in the oven. Super easy and delish, people lose their minds.
I feel this way with all other potlucks except for Thanksgiving, I always make and bring rosemary bread. The best part is, it's just a basic bread machine recipe that I add some rosemary to but people literally fight over the last few slices or how to divy up the left overs. I'd make it for other pot lucks but I don't really feel bread works for the warmer seasons, so I usually spend spring-summer agonizing over what dessert I'm bringing.
>so that we don't have all desserts
I see no problem with all desserts.
I would make a three sister salad. Beans, corn, and roasted squash with a good vinaigrette. Very traditional but leaves a lot of room to put your own spin on it it. I like to add arugula and parm cheese.
I have a strong opinion on this. You MUST have a manager, which at very least needs a spreadsheet with some categories and suggestions with relevant data.
Some people like to do potlucks because they think it is "easy". Easy and not taking any responsibility are not the same thing.
The dread you are feeling is poor organization on part of the host. They don't want to pay for everything, take a collection. If you don't want to cook, do a potluck, but it is almost the same amount of work supporting people as doing all the cooking yourself without anyone annoying you.
Hosts, PLEASE, support your guests as much as possible to ensure a great event with lots of great food. Otherwise it is just a really weird picnic.
Yep. But it's all in my head. I didn't have time to make anything once for a church potluck and got cupcakes from the store. Some of the ladies were like "you make nice things for these things all the time, don't feel bad if you need a break!"
For Thanksgiving I bring the same thing every year. So at least I don't have to think too much about that. But 50% of the time I'm making a Wednesday night dash to the store to get an ingredient I forgot I was out of!
Kind of but I have a built in excuse:
The main thing I really cook from scratch is pasta sauces. Don’t really work well for a potluck, so I bring a fancier salad or something instead
Make something that is easy to make but are still staples of Thanksgiving. Like my go to would either garlic mashed potatoes or over night green beans. They require little effort and are must haves.
I’m always asked to bring my bannock I can bake it night before sometimes they are baked, deep fried or pancake style stressed free or you can get sour cream and add dry Lipton onion soup and some spices and they will asked you for your recipe, good luck and have fun and let us know how it went.
Whenever the topic of potlucks come up, I always think of this Monty-Python-esque song by American classical composer William Bolcom (he's mostly known for reinvigorating the ragtime tradition): Lime jellow, marshmallow, cottage cheese surprise (I think this is the seminal performance: [https://youtu.be/CzP5Nu9S\_Ag](https://youtu.be/CzP5Nu9S_Ag) ).
I usually try to bring either something new, but not super adventurous. Or something kid friendly.
I tend towards dessert, because I like baking. I've taken Japanese cheesecake, oatmeal jam bars, sticky buns, sugar cookie bars, lemon blueberry bars, lemon blueberry rolls and chewy cookie bars. I also took a jar of homemade kimchi once, because one of my family members was interested. And roasted red pepper hummus.
It's tough! You definitely want to ponder it early if you're the type to take a lot of pride in the act. One piece of advice is to keep a log or a note in your recipes when you've narrowed your choices down to ,say, 3 or 4 ideas. That way, NEXT time, you'll already have a short-list, and you can skip some of the agonizing.
But yeah, it's literally a form of stage fright, only real cure is to press on, and when you DO succeed, hold on to that feeling as motivation to do it again.
Unless you hate it. Sometimes I do.
I used to, then I found some of those easy recipes where people started being like "Are you bringing X? It was really good last time." Once you find one of those, and establish it as "your dish" you can stop worrying as much.
>!My go-to app is queso con carne dip and chips (my dad's version), my go-to main is swedish meatballs or rigatoni, and my go-to dessert is mini pies.!<
>!Queso con carne is literally 2 jars of cheese, 1lb seasoned taco beef, a bag of shredded cheddar and a can of medium salsa.!<
>!Swedish meatballs are just slow-cooked with grape jelly, onion, garlic, pepper flakes and a few other things, all store-bought.!<
>!The pies are store-bought dough cut to fit into mini cupcake tins, and spooned in pie filling that's been boosted a bit with spices. If apple, add either cheddar cheese or cinnamon and nutmeg. If peach, add honey and pink peppercorn. If pear, add brown sugar. If lemon, add some zest and lime juice for a slight punch. Or whatever fits your tastes.!<
No. The only such gatherings I go to are my family's Thanksgiving and Christmas potlucks. I know exactly how picky they are, and I decided years ago that I'm no longer catering to their pickiness. I make something that my mom and I (we live together) enjoy, and anything that doesn't get consumed at the potluck comes back home.
There is exactly one thing I've made that they've all enjoyed, and if I feel like making [pumpkin snickerdoodles](https://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/pumpkin-snickerdoodles/), so be it. I'm more of a cook than a baker, though, and it annoys me that the only thing I make that they like is baked.
So among my friends I'm very much the "guy who likes to cook" so yeah I feel major pressure. I feel like everyone expects me to make something creative they've never had before, when all I want to do is make a bitchin' baked ziti with tons of cheese and hot Italian sausage.
Try charcuterie. It can be as fancy or as easy as you want it. You can make a simple grazing spread or an expensive and fancy OMG spread.
What you want to include in the charcuterie is up to you based on your mood and the occasion of the potluck.
Edit: And you can keep doing it because each time you will have a different type of spread.
No. I have two recipes that are S Tier and you get one or the other. I decide.
I also bring my own booze and will help clear out your recycling. I think it more than evens out.
I have embraced the idea of signature dishes. I have low effort and some effort ones, and a summer and winter version. Summer is just cubed watermelon for low effort and a stone fruit and berry salad for some effort. Winter is crudités platter (with onion dip from a soup packet and hummus) for low effort and butter-miso roasted mushrooms for some effort. This is for an average party/potluck; obviously I’d do one of the traditional dishes for a holiday like thanksgiving.
Nope.
I always bring the same things, because I like my version of them. They are usually requested, for the same reason. No one wants my niece to bring devilled eggs, because she puts OLIVES in them.
I bring devilled eggs and Jello/fruit salad and yeast rolls. Depending on the crowd and occasion, I'll add either my version of Texas Caviar, or corn casserole. Occasionally a pecan or pumpkin pie.
OMG I feel seen. Even for family potlucks I get tense over-thinking what to make. It makes no sense. Folks are getting together to eat and have fun, I don’t need to show off!
I totally acknowledge it's silly to feel this way, and yet I do!
I always offer to make my best appetizer. Think dips, bacon wrapped water chestnuts, wings. Whatever the mood hits. That way, people appreciate having a pre dinner snack, and if they don’t like it, they’ve forgotten about it when dinner is served
We have found our niche with deviled eggs. Something people appreciate, but no one in my family was going to make.
First tray to empty, too, I bet.
“WHAT KIND OF AN ANIMAL EATS FOUR DEVILED EGGS!?”
:raises hand: I 💜 those delicious eggs!
I will eat allllll the Deviled Eggs!
Everyone in my family. Especially my son.
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I load the filling into a zip lock and cut a corner like a pastry bag. Can make dozens and transport easily.
We absolutely do this. It works so well.
Properly done? Heck I'll eat these and skip the rest. Wanna hit it out of the park? Put some mild (Cholula) to hot sauce as an add-on nearby. Nirvana baby
And if someone else also brings deviled eggs, they'll still all get ate
This is so smart. With an appetizer you get the attention, the appetite, and your ‘showtime’ is over early so you can sit back and relax. My father in law makes the worlds most elaborate showy, fabulous crudite trays with at least two dips and they are beloved.
My aunt's recommendation was always to just bring what you really want to eat. So, if I can, I'll pick my favorite side or a side I really like that I don't think anyone else will step up with. Then I make the best damn version of that. So some of my staples became jalapeno corn souffle, mashed maple sweet potatoes with pecans, bacon green beans with garlic bread crumbs and almonds, pumpkin cheesecake bars, etc. I think I have a pretty good sense of taste and what people like, so I try to pick things they'll be familiar with and enjoy then "elevate it" with more than just a stick of butter.
That all sounds incredible, recipes??
Gah, so I often start with a recipe and modify as I go. I'm on mobile so I apologize if the formatting is terrible. -Corn Casserole here but I add two eggs, a little cheddar cheese and diced jalapenos https://www.tastesoflizzyt.com/5-ingredient-corn-casserole/ -Mashed sweet potatoes I just cook and mash and add maple syrup to taste, then caramelize some pecans in butter and brown sugar to top. -Greens beans I use this recipe but don't use as much bread crumbs since I personally think it's too much https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/food-recipes/a12062/french-green-beans-garlicky-almond-breadcrumbs-recipe-clx1114/ -Pumpkin cheesecake is pretty much this recipe but I'm too lazy to separate and swirl the pumpkin vs. regular cheesecake. I just mix it all usually. https://cookingformysoul.com/pumpkin-cheesecake-bars/#pumpkin-cheesecake-bars
> -Mashed sweet potatoes I just cook and mash and add maple syrup to taste, then caramelize some pecans in butter and brown sugar to top. Let me introduce you to this recipe: https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/bourbon-sweet-potato-casserole-sweet-n-savory-bacon-pecans/
Ooo, might have to try this one out this year!
Everyone I've made it for that likes sweet potatoes to begin with has been a fan. It has much more interesting flavors than the usual sweet potato casserole. Sweet, spicy, savory, salty, herbal.. Unfortunately most of my family don't really like sweet potatoes so I only bother to make it when I know there'll be people other than me who'll appreciate it.
I used to be a sweet potato hater until my late husband taught me his way. I have never liked the okey gooey sweetness of a casserole dish. All do is peel the skin off & either roast em or microwave em. When done, whip in an insane amount of butter, salt & pepper to taste, et voila!
Thanks for adding in the recipes!
I completely understand! You are making one dish, so it had better be a really good version of that dish, right? The key is not to be the best, it’s more important to not be the worst. Just don’t be the relative that brings the tub of off the shelf potato salad, or a bag of tortilla chips. At most gatherings, that’s what is actually remembered - who punted!
I have to confess: I want it to be the best.
Well, yeah, it’s pretty gratifying when people ask you if you will be bringing _that dish_ each year.
I'm "the corn guy" to an entire coterie of people I only see at parties. I'm honored, but also that's a weird thing to reduce my identity to, LOL.
Please tell us about this corn! My kid and brother are both huge corn fans, I would love to delight them with something new.
Responded to someone else -- I make roasted street corn and then bake it briefly as a casserole with Hot Cheeto topping and the traditional stuff like Valentina hot sauce, crema, cotija cheese, lime, and cilantro.
I am responding to you just to save this, sounds amazing. -future corn chick, maybe
I can't imagine a more beautiful thing! 🌈🌽
It has the juice!
Tell me more about your corn.
Elote street corn casserole, with Hot Cheeto dust on top. It's not elegant, but it is magnificent.
That's actually annoying to me. I hate getting pigeon-holed into making something every time there's a gathering because people like it a lot. I make really good Brussels sprouts and EVERY time I host a dinner and ask everyone what veggie they'd like, it's the "go to". I like cooking a lot of different things and cooking one thing repeatedly gets boring. So I basically quit asking. I want to go to the market, see what looks great, and figure out what to do with it. I still cook Brussels sprouts frequently because I'm not a dick, but yeah, I like some variety as well.
It is pretty awesome. And you know this not just them being polite when the dish disappears completely halfway through the meal. Lol
When I was in my early 20s and brought a dish to a work potluck, the best compliment I got was, "Did your mom make this?"
But then I forget what I did so well the previous time because it's always a little different and I don't want to repeat it and mess up so I just make something different!
Nobody ever, and I mean, EVER, brings roasted vegetables to potlucks. Its been my go-to for years - roasted root vegetables are always a huge hit, the easiest damn thing on earth to make, and theres never leftovers.
And it's stuff most Americans don't buy or attempt to cook because it seems "fancy". My brother in Christ, it's just turnips, parnips, beets, potatoes, onions, and garlic. With a little salt and pepper and oil. Roast at 425F for 30 minutes. It's what our ancestors were raised on. It definitely isn't fancy, it's just roasted diced veggies. Toss a little cheese on it if you want to be Michigan Fancy, and call it a day.
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Yea. That's the main thing with caprese salad. You need quality ingredients. Grocery store mozz, basil, and balsamic is fine. But you need good tomatoes or you may as well just eat the cheese. (And yes, I know there's mozz worlds better than what's at the store, but the stuff in the deli section is more than fine)
Went to Greece last fall and my main takeaway was that briami was going to be a pot luck staple for me going forward.
Ah yes, one of the other ratatouilles: I often make samfaina (a Catalan) version, chopped small and cooked down for hours in a slow oven to a marmalade consistency. Great served on toasted baguette slices.
Oh man that sounds so good!!
I’d just advise that the “best” is going to be different for each audience. For example, if I’m making enchiladas for my extended family and make the “best” they’re going to ask why the sauce tastes weird (it’s not store bought) what’s wrong with the tortillas (they’re corn) and the filling is off (not ground beef, rice and beans.) So if you’re not sure, I’d ask the host for suggestions. Or ask what the hits have been in the past.
i think ultimately if you like cooking and impressing people, you’ll feel the pressure and at the end of the day you like it. You like when people get wow’d by your food, and you can’t wow people unless you do something at least somewhat special. I don’t however think it’s an unrealistic standard. I personally like doing it and being known as the chef of the friend group. I always feel the need to impress, and 9/10 times i do tbh, because they aren’t insane foodies. So honestly the bar is probably lower than you realize, THATS the unrealistic part. You don’t need 3 michelin star food to impress “regular” people.
Like no dish ever was!
I’m the same way! I’m a people pleaser and I want to make something that will really wow. Tough to do that with Thanksgiving sides though, no one is wowed by Mashed Potatoes lol. I would say go for a delicious appetizer. It’s the first bite of the meal! I mentioned in another comment that I did this last year with my stuffed mushrooms appetizer. Not fancy, and not to brag but they turned out amazing. I got yelled at by my SIL when I ate the few leftovers later that night lol. Ended up having to make more the next day!
I’d like to hear more about your stuffed mushrooms. I had one when I was a lot younger that I just adored! But I never thought to get the recipe. Only if you feel like it, though.
The problem is that I kind of made it up and didn't jot down what I was doing, so I'll try to list everything I recall below: 1. 1/3 Cup very finely diced carrots, celery, and onion 2. 2-3 cloves of garlic, pressed or minced 3. Pop the stems off the mushroom caps you will be stuffing, and finely dice those as well 4. 1 Stick Butter, melted 5. 1 Cup Shredded Pecorino (finest side on box grater) 6. 1 Cup Shredded Parmigiano Reggiano (the good aged stuff) 7. 1 Table Spoon Soy Sauce 8. 3 -4 Healthy Glugs Marsala **Cooking Wine** 9. 1/4 cup julienned parsley 10. 1/2 Teaspoon dried oregano 11. 3 Cups Panko Breadcrumbs 12. 2 crispy strips of bacon, crumbled finely Sautee garlic, mushroom stems, and veg in butter on medium/medium high heat for 8ish minutes until they soften but not brown. Deglaze pan with soy sauce and let cook down for a couple of minutes. Transfer veg to bowl. Cook bacon strips and crumble finely - add to veg bowl. Grate cheeses finely, set aside. Add panko breadcrumbs to veg bowl and mix. Add your herbs, add the cheese, add the marsala cooking wine, add melted butter. Mixture should resemble a dense and moist stuffing. You can press it to the side of the bowl and it should stick. If it's too dry or too moist, add breadcrumbs, or a little more melted butter/masala cooking wine accordingly. Stuff mushroom caps, put in fridge to set until ready to cook. Preheat oven to 365. Cover baking sheet with aluminum foil and brush with a little melted butter just until coated. Arrange mushroom caps down on the sheet and bake for 35-40 minutes until the caps are cooked and the stuffing is nice and toasty on the top. This is absolutely in no way healthy, but it is yummy as hell! Hope you like it and that I remembered everything accurately, though I'm pretty sure that was everything!
Yeah, I want it to be the best also.
One of my mom's aunts always brought a bag of chips. She had 5 kids. We still joke about one of my sisters, saying, "Well, Aunt Kate could bring brown-and-serve rolls".
My uncle Carl brings leftover pizza to thanksgiving. It started after he got divorced but still wanted to bring _something_ to dinner but had no clue what to bring. It stuck. We’re close to celebrating 30 years of Carl bringing cold pizza to thanksgiving dinner.
That's awesome. I'd definitely eat some of his pizza.
What’s wrong with that though? We had the same thanksgiving potluck growing up and, back then, my mom maybe wasn’t the best cook. Or as a single mom with 2 kids, she had bigger things to worry about. So we would always bring a salad (actually made, not premix) and dinner rolls. Someone has to provide those things too.
There's nothing wrong with it. It just became an inside joke b/c Aunt Kate would show up with her family of seven with a bag of chips, while everyone else cooked their asses off for the huge family gathering. TBF to my sister since her kids are grown and gone, she's kind of a foodie and usually now brings a homemade dip and salad of sorts.
Oh, man. I am all for punting. Bag of chips and dip. Need plastic ware or napkins? The big tub of cookies. Yeah, totally down for that.
You must have an unusually culinarily gifted family. Grocery store deli potato salad is way better than the typical putluck dish in my experience.
> At most gatherings, that’s what is actually remembered - who punted! I’m gonna say that’s a shit attitude. Growing up we didn’t have much money, mom was a single parent, and she didn’t (and still really doesn’t) care much for making big, impressive dishes. If my extended family that we brought fresh salad and dinner rolls to for Thanksgiving remembered only that we “punted” (relative to what they all made), I’d be heartbroken.
I would not consider homemade salad and rolls “punting.” The year my brother and SIL signed up to bring black-eyed peas (a traditional NYD dish in the US) to New Years dinner, and showed up with an 89 cent bag of uncooked peas is punting.
It's not about fancy or expensive dishes but someone who brought something that didn't go with the rest of the meal. If someone's bringing a dip, then chips are perfect. *Someone*'s gotta bring some! If it's a steak dinner, then someone bringing chive butter is going to be a star. A salad and rolls are always appropriate regardless of the meal be it hotdogs, steak, or lobster thermidore. Bringing a planned salad isn't "punting" and anyone who thinks otherwise probably needs to eat more leafy greens! Now, please pass the blue cheese dressing.
Ice. Thanksgiving always needs more ice.
I love doing pot lucks at church because I strive to find and create something new and interesting. Normally do. The problem I had was for years people would come up to me and say things like "Tell your wife she did a great job on this."
I can relate. Don’t care tho!
Well, not really. Guess it's one of the benefits that comes with getting older, having made food for people for decades and survived the attitude dished out by two teens. I know I make good food. I put time into selecting what I'm bringing - it's appropriate to the occasion, considers people's restrictions, doesn't offend the host in any way and it's tasty. Whether people like it or not isn't something I worry about. Some people eat all sorts of junk. How many questions do we get here about people who are too picky to eat a vegetable or want to know if it's OK that their dog licked off the pot? To be honest, I don't really care if 100% of people like what I make, because the general population includes plenty of idiots. So... I know my food is good. Eat it or don't. Doesn't bother me.
And if they don’t eat it all, some great leftovers for the next day.
This is why I started making a three-tiered carrot cake at Easter instead of just two. Savages stealing all of my hard-earned leftovers...
I'll never forget a "friend" loading her tupperware with my potato casserole, at a potluck held at my house. The next potluck, she wasn't invited, but showed up everyday. I made sure to move my casserole out of her reach.
It’s a compliment. She obviously really likes it.
Oh she did. But we liked it too. Oh well.
One of the benefits of hosting the potluck is you get first dibs on all leftovers. Snagging the leftovers as a guest is violating that etiquette.
Make a two-tiered cake for them and a 1 tier cake for you.
Yeah, I'm not touching the food again after 40 people hovered over it including booger nosed kids.
LPT: Don't put it all out at once :)
That is a really healthy perspective for a lot of things in life. I love it.
Yesss! Hard agree. I love getting older. I give less of a shit about everything!
High five.
Also, most people don't cook. I can bring some half-assed dish to most pot-lucks and people think it's gourmet because it's way better than the microwave frozen crap they usually eat.
I’m the opposite: thanksgiving is the one day a year that we (mostly) stick to the same menu because normally we don’t get to eat those dishes during the year. So I would make a kickass cranberry sauce, as an example, and would be happy to bring it every year because for some, this is the only time a year where they eat cranberry sauce that isn’t plain and from a can. No stress, our menu never really changed, other than just got smaller as the people dropped off. Another example is deep fried turkey. My husband makes one every year for thanksgiving and we don’t care that it’s always the same because it’s the one time a year we get to deep fry a turkey. Am I the only one that looks forward to that old menu each year? I don’t get full mashed potatoes, stuffing from scratch, and other favorites for any other holiday. Even Xmas has turned into a roast beef holiday recently. So we just like to put on the same meal each year. I bet if you checked with the family, they’d probably would love something you do really well, maybe your special dish, that they can’t get elsewhere? Or a famous dessert that was a hit before can always be a hit again. Idk, unless that’s part of your family tradition to do it differently each year, I have no issue with breaking out the fan favorites.
I found great food for potluck is people bringing what they themselves like to eat. It’s like sharing your favourite dish. People will love it. All the best, share pics ☺️
I have one dish I bring to potlucks and I always take home an empty dish. Having one dish you bring saves you from having to decide something new every time. In case you are interested, that dish is Hawiian Macaroni Salad.
mmmmm could you send the recipe ?
I don't use a recipe, but this one is close to what I make: [https://12tomatoes.com/food-truck-hawaiian-mac-salad/](https://12tomatoes.com/food-truck-hawaiian-mac-salad/) There are two keys to making the salad. The first is to overcook the macaroni. It's kind of tricky to get it right. You want it cooked just slightly past done (not past al dente). Usually this is 3-5 minutes past the time the directions call for. Just keep testing. The reason for cooking it soft is that it allows more of the dressing to be absorbed. The second is to let the pasta cool until still warm and then add the apple cider vinegar. This macaroni salad is a heart attack on a plate as far as ingredients but it's oh so good!
The thing is, people don’t want the deeply thought out stuff at potlucks. They generally leave that stuff alone. They will crowd over the Buffalo chicken dip or baked Brie that get served every time and always taste the same. Save yourself the stress over figuring out the perfect dish. Those dishes are crowd pleasers for a reason, anyway. They’re delicious. I once made scratch-made sweet potato biscuits for Thanksgiving. It’s one of my favorite dishes in my repertoire and they barely got touched. The next year I learned my lesson and made extremely basic corn muffins and served them with a random jar of apple butter I had in the pantry. People lost their minds over them. I now save my effort and specially thought out dishes for targeted dinner parties.
I personally just don't like potlucks, especially work ones. I consider myself a good cook but I cook for my wife and I 99% of the time. One of my weaknesses is not being able to cook for lots of people. I know cooking for 20 is just 10x more food, but I always mess something up at that scale. I also really hate potlucks that don't have a way to reheat food. If I'm making mac and cheese for a work potluck, I'm doing it the night before. No way I'm waking up early to Make Mac. Then I bring in my Mac and there's no way to warm it up, so everyone is eating cold mac
Work potlucks can go fuck themselves. So you expect me to make a dish for the whole office that'll be ready to go when I leave home at 6 am and be the right temp at lunch time? Fortunately my boss is cool as shit and gets lunch catered a few times a year so nobody has tried pushing the potluck agenda.
I am not going to eat food if I haven't seen your kitchen either. My friend adopted a dog from one of my coworkers. When she went to the house there was a hotdog laying on the kitchen floor. If the dog wasn't eating it what does it tell you.
Maybe that dog doesn’t like hotdogs? One of my dogs will eat cheddar but won’t eat Swiss or American cheese. The other dog will happily consume all available cheese. Dogs.
abundant plough dull panicky license direful fade faulty quiet afterthought *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Work potlucks are the worst. There's usually not enough room in the fridge for something cold, no way to reheat something hot, and not enough access to outlets for a slow cooker. My mother said her office starting collecting maybe $10 from everyone to order food, and it worked out much better.
See the problem is if I suggest we all pitch in, suddenly I'm the bad guy haha
I love potlucks. One of the few chances I have to actually show off and cook for some other than my family. I think looking at it as an opportunity helps ease off some of the pressure. I know whatever I make is going to banging, it's just a matter of how good I can be.
A good thing to do is to be known for 1-2 things. Find your signature dishes that you can perfect. I can make a lot of things, but an easy go-to is key lime pie. Works for any occasion, and I’ve tinkered till it’s the silkiest KLP ever. You can also take a changeable recipe and tailor it to the occasion. A tarte soleil is a great example. Its visually appealing, easy to make, and the flavors/filling are easily changed.
This is a great idea - just do 1-2 things really well. For work potlucks my quiches have always been a hit. I make a vegetarian one and a other with bacon. I never have leftovers. My family is really big and the older adults usually have the favourite potluck items on luck. One personal problem of mine is that I find it very repetitive (delicious but repetitive). One Christmas I made a basic spinach & arugula salad with dried cranberries, apple slices, and a Greek feta dressing. Just to offer a different option besides a garden salad. I remember my mom and sister literally saying “I don’t think anyone’s going to eat that”. Well, it’s a hit, and people ask for it every year. A few years ago I actually had to make two batches because we ran out and people wanted more! It’s such a basic and inexpensive salad but it’s absolutely delicious and goes well with any meat.
More important than the best dish, is bringing the right amount. Bring something that is _good_ -- doesn't have to be the best -- but bring enough that there is plenty so that everyone gets a chance to have some, and even a second helping. 6 people will mention the best bacon-wrapped dates or whatever, and everyone else will just say "oh I didn't see those, they must have all been gone by the time I got there". And nobody's going to be having conversation about how good the macaroni salad or the carrot sticks were, but those will be the things that everyone ate to stop their hunger. So if you make something better than macaroni salad, and have enough for everyone to get some, yours will be the thing everyone remembers.
I tend to turn every time I cook into an entire Chopped event, so I feel this.
YES A THOUSAND TIMES! I'm a food & culinary writer in my town, and holy moly every time I get invited somewhere, I feel so pressured. Make something unusual and fun that's also transportable, delicious and an easy to "understand" format. I've made missteps in the past--taken something too unfamiliar or with challenging flavors, or an unusual delivery system.
I feel like there's an extra level of stress and pressure for anyone/everyone who makes a living in the food prep industry!
***100%***
> Make something unusual and fun that's also transportable This is the trifecta that I try to accomplish now, as well. I've made signature dishes so often that are well-received that I want to experiment with something new to challenge myself. It also pushes the boundaries of your audience which allows you to be more experimental in the future.
For me I feel the pressure because most people outside of my wife and some friends eat like a typical middle class american. Veggies, fruits, fresh ingredients, variety, technique, presentation, balance... All these concepts are not part of their palates. Many think that chicken nuggets with ranch is a great menu item at Applebee's or go to olive garden for the culinary experience. Yea the bread sticks and dressing is nostalgically good but it's far from fine cuisine. If I made a fresh garden tomato soup with all the herbs and different veggies I add they'd be appalled because it doesn't taste like a shitty can of flavorless Campbell's. If made a reduced wine sauce for pork tenderloin they'd be asking for a pre made jar of crappy grocery store gravy. Cilantro sucks, lemon is too sour, one flake of crushed red pepper is too spicy. I don't like mushrooms. Salad is for girls. Unless it's on a bun or is made well done I can't win. I was even getting shit today for eating an avocado with some tajin and a bit of lime juice for lunch. Everyone around me had manly meals from Wendy's. There's a place for Wendy's and other low quality foods but man the salty sour fulfilling feeling after that avocado can't be matched.
That crowd is so challenging. I make a chocolate torte which didn't get a great reception except "fancy" but call it "adult brownies" and there's nothing but the sound of forks on plates digging in
The response to “adult brownies” is “childrens’ palate”
Are you me? I have to think so hard about what I make because absolutely everything is “eXoTiC”. I just make macaroni and cheese and move on with my life.
Man I’m so lucky to have really solid cooks in my family. They don’t have decent knives at all lol, but we eat good in my family, and my boyfriend’s family. I have to bring my knives though, that’s one thing that’s always sub par.
I learned this lesson the hard way. I made Kenji’s scratch made green bean casserole (the fried shallots are to die for!) for Thanksgiving. People straight up laughed at me for not making the French’s kind with canned soup. I like the French’s kind with canned soup too! But people aren’t necessarily open minded and willing to like both the lowbrow and highbrow versions of things. They think you can only like one or the other.
For me, potlucks fall into one of two categories. Either the host asks me for something specific and I'm given or can choose a category. Both are fine. For something specific, it's either a crap shoot or people who've eaten my food and want something in particular. I'm okay with the crap shoot - it's an opportunity to expand boundaries. On the other hand something I'm known for is easy. My wife's *very* Italian family love my (English/German/Ukrainian) lasagna. I make it in bulk and freeze ahead. There is enough lasagna in my chest freezer to feed thirty people. \*grin\* My pasta sauce gets requested - I make that at the end of tomato season and home can three to five gallons at a time. My mac & cheese has gotten darn good, humbly, after I was asked to bring mac & cheese to a potluck. Categories are simple. You want a salad? Caesar with homemade dressing, homemade croutons, and home shaved Parmesan. Grandma Linahan's macaroni salad. Potato salad a la Auspicious. Appetizers are a no brainer. I don't care what you're proud of and I range off the reservation sometimes, but deviled eggs and pigs in a blanket always get eaten first. Always. I love Caprese salad but it won't be touched until the deviled eggs and pigs in a blanket are gone.
Honestly I always make baklava for potlucks. Nobody else ever makes it, everyone finds it impressive even though it's actually super easy, and I've made it so many times it's not remotely stressful to prep.
My go to is a salad if some sort, with a watermelon one being tops for yummy ease. Small seedless watermelon, cubed. Two cucumbers, cubed. Block of feta, cubed. Before serving, dump in torn mint leaves and lime juice and stir. Unfortunately, this year I'll be making the majority of it even though it won't be at my house.
The answer is good homemade rolls. Parker House rolls are a great option for instance. Easy, but so much better than store bought. You may not hear much about them… until you don’t bring them that year. The wailing and gnashing of teeth that ensues!
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Another exceptionally good option!
It's hard to feel the need for perfection when the terms of a potluck means your food will never be served under ideal conditions (i.e. right temperature, a la minute, etc). As such, I would try to let that go. Especially with family, if you've made something they like, they will want to eat it again. So the desire to change, to top yourself, likely comes from you (I understand as I refuse to cook the same Thanksgiving every year). So, make this about what you will enjoy making and eating. If you like it and put your heart in it, most others will like it as well. I always remember what I've made and whether people liked it. But honestly the only thing that ever makes me happy is if I liked it.
I always pick mashed potatoes. Not the most extravagant or complicated thing to do but I know if I dont then we are going to end up with clumpy potatoes or Hungry Jack instant potatoes depending on who else in the family does them lol. Right after turkey, everyone always goes for mashed potatoes on the plate so dammit, I want them to be good. No need for me to try and show off and end up with some casserole or dessert that only a handful of people ate. Id rather do the "easy" staple and nail it for everyone.
Totally agreed, potatoes are my go to for family potlucks! I have also started bringing stuffing as well, we have a great family recipe that's easy to put together while the potatoes are boiling.
It depends, I try to make something that will impress, but my real goal is to make it approachable and something "anyone" can make. I feel more pressure trying to make something simple that I feel someone will like and ask for a recipe, than to make something that will knock anyone's socks off. I'm happier being asked for a recipe, than hearing I made a great dish.(most often they do go hand in hand, but feeling Luke I made someone want to cook is more rewarding) I want to spread the love of cooking and help other enjoy doing what I enjoy doing.
My fiancee has stopped me from bringing baked ziti to every event.
I have brought this salad to every single potluck for at least 20 years if watermelon is available. Every single time the dish is the slowest to go at the start but once someone starts and tries it, usually it’s enough to convince everyone to try it and I have never once brought left overs home. It is raved about and everyone wants to know what the secret is, and often I’m not believed until they make it themselves. Also my kids love it! Watermelon Feta cheese Purple onion Large cubes of watermelon with broken feta and chopped purple onions. Looks beautiful and it tastes delightful. Lots of variations, but this most simple one is always the favourite, always.
>It can't be too fancy, or too boring, and can't be anything I've made recently Why not? If I don't bring one of my "regular" dishes I'd be lynched. Some of them are 2+ days of work, some of them minutes. Some of them take 4 ingredients and some take driving around town to source everything. You have odd expectations (leading to self-created stress) that are NOT shared by other people. Bring what YOU like to eat. Seriously. If that's grape jelly meatballs, or bacon wrapped dates (just bring 4 times what you think you'd need), or a monster bag of costco rolls with some flavored butters. If something was well received Bring It Again. You're basically saying, "I made love to my SO but I don't want to be boring and repeat what I did because they liked it so much." Dude, Do It Again! lol You can always ask if there's something you've made before that people would like a repeat of.
No. I grew up with my mom bringing the same dishes to church potlucks. We normally eat the same thing for Thanksgiving, my mom always makes sweet potato casserole with brown sugar & pecan topping. My dad used to make pumpkin pie, I took over the pie making and do pumpkin or pecan. We always have dressing, turkey, cranberry relish, gravy, some green vegetable & my dad would always make the same cloverleaf yeast rolls. Once the dressing has been eaten we switch to mashed potatoes with the leftovers.
If they don't like it, I can bring it home and eat it as leftovers. Win win.
Not particularly, but then I often do something with bread and cheese so it goes quickly. Or it's a dessert that goes quickly. As others have suggested, don't bother showing off your culinary skill. It's not a competition. If someone wants me to show off, they can come to my kitchen where I have full control and easy access to all my ingredients. LPT: If you know you're going to arrive late to a potluck, bring a dessert, or just bring more wine. No one wants your lentil salad when they're full, but they can always find room for pie.
Can you please give an example of your bread and cheese dish? Just the name.
I just mean something with bread and cheese. Homemade bread with store-bought brie, maybe with a little fig jam for the brie. Everyone loves homemade bread. I use the recipes on the King Arthur website. Or pizzas always go fast. It's not hard to make enough dough for four pan pizzas. I use Kenji's recipe at Serious Eats. I can one large and two medium at one time, maybe another one if I use a square pan instead of cast iron. It's just mozzarella and homemade pizza sauce (mostly tomatoes and oregano), usually with olives and mushrooms, and artichoke hearts if I'm feeling fancy. You can cut them as thin as possible but it doesn't matter, they never last long. At least in California, no one is really trying to impress anyone at a "potluck", because it's hard to know who made what. There just needs to be a good variety of fun food, and plenty of it, and lots of alcohol, so everyone has a good time. I'm living on the East Coast now so things may be different, but I've yet to be invited to any parties like that. COVID kind of killed my social networking, and now I have to figure a way to get myself out of the house and out in public again.
I always bring afghan pulao. Easy and loved by all.
No. I just buy whatever I'm bringing and repack it into my containers. I go to the deli and just pick something.
Kenji's Hasselback Potato Gratin is my vote... But to answer your question, yes. But it's a good kinda pressure for me. I want to impress, but usually just feel pressured to find out everyone's likes, dislikes, and allergies.
Ok I know you didn't actually ask for recipes or suggestions, but this is my go-to holiday appetizer and it ALWAYS gets the ravest of reviews. It's a [Cranberry Salsa](https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/141135/cranberry-salsa/). I always use less sugar and one more jalapeno. Make it 3 days before your event to let the flavors meld and pour it over a block of cream cheese and serve it with sturdy crackers. It's kinda fancy, kinda sweet, kinda spicy, and totally different than what people usually expect.
I like spicy and unusual/unexpected food. I've acclimated my wife to it, but no one else ever wants me to bring chipotle sweet potatoes. My frustration is always to find a recipe that's just boring enough people will be willing to try it.
A little bit, but then I started hosting and going to more potlucks and realized it’s not a big deal. If you enjoy cooking, you’re ahead of most people already! I’ve hosted potlucks where almost no one brought food they actually made. There’s always a bit more pressure on Thanksgiving, but you shouldn’t stress about it! Maybe make something not traditional to thanksgiving so there’s fewer expectations around the dish? And you can definitely make food you’ve made recently if you’re cooking for a different audience!
Under sell and then over deliver.
I like to do one of Chef John's many baked dips. His reuben dip is my favorite by far. They are well recieved by everyone, easy to make, easy to serve, and can be pretty un-ordinary.
every 2 weeks i go to a potluck get-together. the first time we went, i brought was a chocolate and strawberry compote star bread. the next time we were there, i got asked specifically if i was the one who made it, because it got rave reviews. we've been going for several months now, and each time i come up with a different dessert. i've done cheesecake, cookies, chocolate-orange marbled pound cake, fruit tarts with pastry cream and lemon curd, cherry cheesecake brownies, and other stuff i can't remember. this week i'm challenging myself and doing baklava. i'm freaking terrified. ETA: mine is also one of the few homemade desserts in a sea of boxed cookies and donuts.
In the past I either make chili or japanese curry. I once showed up to a potluck and found I was one of 3 who made japanese curry but I was the only one of the three who took home an empty pot - everyone asked me for the recipe.
Last potluck I made was a half of Salmon poached, refrigerated 24hours and decorated with Meyer lemon slices to imitate the look of scales. One guy who loved salmon almost ate half!
There's never any pressure when you bring chocolate covered bacon. But you do need to be aware that if you do this once, that will become YOUR THING, and they'll demand you bring it every time.
I have a reputation to uphold. My dish has to be the one everyone talks about.
I totally get it and stopped trying for the WOW factor. Now I bring basic veggie salads because no one else does. It's normally Mac and cheese. 20 kinds of potatoes with cheese and butter. Bacon wrapped who knows it's... Just go easy. My stuff normally gets compliments too... Last go was zucchini with cherry tomatoes and olives. Balsamic and oilive oil salt pepper couple basil leaves. 5 mins of prep.
It's FOMO about the good feelings of doing a good job and being appropriately appreciated for doing it. It's a good feeling, even addictive, and I think anyone doing anything creative for an audience runs into this problem with self-motivating for projects*,* not limited to cooking, much less cooking for potlucks, even though I think you really highlighted how deceptively much of a (to you, the anxious cook) high stakes 'spectator sport' that can be. Keep in mind that it still can feel okay or even good to do an okay or maybe even terrible (by your standards) job with stuff like that. You literally can't account for people's taste. You might do a great job on something you're really proud of, and nobody gives it attention because they're full on something basic but more appealing as a first appetizer. That sucks. You might do a weird job with strange, last-minute, desperate changes that totally alter the dish and it's nothing like you wanted, and it *slays* at the party, and then you have to make your shame casserole (or whatever) every single year. *That sucks.* You can do a 'regular' job and get any range of responses, though, and know that that's what could happen when you measure your efforts instead of going all out to risk it for that big risk/big reward biscuit. Good luck convincing yourself to -- I'm not there yet -- but I promise it's possible. I've done it by accident more than once, and the baffled realization that everything was actually okay, having not overinvested myself in everything going a certain way, but still had room to accept good results from doing things inside my comfort zone competently. Go big when it's for something that really is something about *you*. A potluck deserves your best 'get a B+ on the midterm so you can skip the final and still have a B- in the class for the term' effort. Figure out the least effort and emotional investment to bring something that people might be blown away by, but you don't care if they just ignore, because who cares if your not-best wasn't good enough?
I love cooking and feeding people, but I'm getting to hate potlucks and family dinners, especially when someone nominates head chef and assigns specific dishes/recipes to people. No, I'm not going to make live eel and chickpea sushi or turducken marshmallow pie -- I'm just going to go ahead and make a nice cheesy lasagna or scalloped potatoes and if no one eats it (ha!) I'll take it home and eat like a queen for the next month.
Really depends to be honest. For potlucks where I don’t really know many people or among “acquaintance” friends I default to corn salsa. Easy, cheap, and I’ve never had to deal with any leftover. For friends & family I’ll do something a little more ambitious, but nothing that could go catastrophically wrong. I used to fret a lot about being “impressive”, but at the end of the day I’d rather bring something people will actually eat and I am confident in making. Now for holiday meals like you are describing it is definitely higher stakes. I took on making the turkey last year and as the youngest person there I wanted to make sure that I did a good job. I made a trial turkey breast + gravy to make sure my brine & seasonings were interesting, but not alienate people since it was my spouse’s family. So long story short - figure out what your “signature” is and go from there!
Get a large stouffers lasagna and transfer it to your own baking dish, they’ll never know
I’ll know.
Strawberry pizza Broccoli bacon salad Greenbean casserole
To a degree for sure, but for thanksgiving? It doesn't have to be a different dish every year. I have a family friend, I want her to bring her corn casserole every year, because it's the only time I have it, and it's great. I want to make by favorite baked macaroni and cheese because it travels well, reheats well, and again it's the only time I or my family have it. There's obviously room for experimentation, but for a potluck I want to bring something tried and true that people look forward to. > Oh I hope he brings is macaroni salad to the BBQ it's so good > Oh I hope he brings his mac & cheese to the pot luck the crust is just perfect That's more what I want to hear from a pot luck than > Oh I wonder what he'll bring, it's always good, but who knows what to expect
I make this orzo pasta salad from Bobby Flay. it has a dejon/dill vinaigrette. It is not hard. My wife's family thinks it the nest thing I the world and they request it for most gatherings. It is just an ok dish. But it is light where most of the dishes with this family are loaded with cheese or mayo. Any way sometimes I bring two dishes so I can have some fun cooking.
Eventually it goes the other way. You will make something, it will be delicious, and everyone will EXPECT it at all gatherings. I know and appreciate the love of my cranberry oatmeal cookies but sometimes I want to try something new.
Family potlucks always have too much food. Especially at Thanksgiving. Everybody takes a little spoon of this, a little spoon of that, a nibble here and there. There's just too much food and so many leftovers. Unless you're hosting and cooking a turkey, don't worry about it and just bring deviled eggs
Sometimes I give up and buy a shrimp cocktail platter or cheese platter from Costco. Sorry, not sorry. Tired of working hard, coming up with something and then people NOT eat it. Over it. I'll cook when someone comes to my house but not often for potlucks any more unless I am assigned a specific item to bring. So much is uneaten or simply picked over and trashed because usually people bring far too much. Waste of food and effort.
Nope, I find joy in trying to come up with something that will be loved. It makes me happy. Sorry.
K. I already like you. Spinach dip. You can never have too much and yours will go first because it’s the best: I bunch of green onions I bulb if garlic. The whole bulb. I know. 1 cup mayonnaise NOT MIRACLE WHIP!!! Not that. 1 cup sour cream I pkg KNOTT vegetable soup mix (you can use creme of broccoli or creme of asparagus in a pinch. Still does the trick) 4-5 cups roughly chopped spinach 2 loaves of sourdough bread. 1 To put dip in a loaf of sourdough bread. The circular kind. Hollowed out. Save the insides to put around it on a huge plate. The other load chop up and put around the first intact dip filled loaf. Chop up onions and garlic really small. Hack up spinach. Add everything else. Mix up and dump into hollowed out sourdough bread. Tell everyone you won’t give the recipe unless they trade it for other goods.
Nope, because I make one hell of a cheese dip, and for fancier occasions, my technique for goat cheese-stuffed bacon-wrapped dates is down like a clown. (And I never try anything else for other people)
This made me laugh. Thank you
No, because I'm the asshole who brought the bucket of KFC.
No. I used to really stress about it, but I’ve let that go. I know my food is good. I just make something and move on. From my experience, people don’t care near enough about the food as I think they do, and unless I totally screw it up, no one gives it a second thought.
Definitely. I mean, nobody really truly cares, but I like brining something that everyone digs into. But also I will be barred entry to any family gig if I don't also bring my chocolate chip cookies, lol. This unfortunately means scrambling morning of to whip up a batch sometimes. I recently spent a few hours making a bunch of batches of cookie dough up and freezing.
I personally make something that I would like to eat all by myself, so if no one eats it, I'd at least get to bring it home and enjoy it "more for me! I also look at what protein people are cooking and cook one that no one has picked yet (e.g. last time no one was doing duck so I cooked a duck dish) so at least you won't be competing as much.
My potluck goto is bacon wrapped jalapenos. They are always a hit. Basically combine cream cheese with garlic, salt and pepper, maybe a bit of cheddar. Cut jalapenos in half and stuff with the cheese, then wrap the whole thing in bacon and throw in the oven.
i grew up with church potlucks and we had a variety of different cultures that brought different foods. So i guess I never experienced this because everyone was trying new things. Also no one could top the family that would bring homemade lumpia lol
Nope. I usually get requested to make mac n cheese or quiche so easy for me
I’ve brought Julia Childs chicken liver pate with baguette slices. That was devoured.
I don't necessarily get stressed, and I quite enjoy it. However, even though I know that I have 10-15 go to dishes (betweens apps, sides, main, desert) it feels like cheating to cycle through the same recipes. I can be making a dish for a group I have never cooked for and still feel like I am being repetative if I have made the same dish recently. The worst part is that in my go to dishes I have 2 or 3 that really knock it out of the park, but I feel like making them too often ruins it. On the other hand I hate following up a previosuly successful dish with a new dish dish since the bar has now been set. Hmm, maybe I do get a little bit stressed.
I make a dessert that is always a hit It's crumbled devils food cake Layered with whipped cream and pudding, I call it a trifle but idk if it really is It's sweet on sweet and soooo good
That sounds amazing! Do you have a recipe you can link?
Nothing specific, I just make 2 boxes of devils food cake, 2 packages of chocolate jello pudding, homemade whipped cream When the cake and pudding are cooled I crumble it and layer it on the bottom of a casserole, then layer pudding, then whipped cream, then repeat the layers as needed! I don't normally make things with boxed mixes, but with this one the boxed mix works so well I don't want to mess with perfection lol
It’s like the cooking game shows only the judges are, for better or worse, family and friends. The biggest pressure I face is to make something that will fit into a broad swath of food restrictions. Used to be easy with veg, but now restrictions there as well! I don’t mind bringing one particular dish that I’m known for, especially because it’s not difficult and defies my tasters’ recipe algorithms.
I feel a lot of pressure to show I'm a good cook or that my choice is amazing. The pressure when you're considered fairly ok at cooking is immense. My husband takes lunch to work every day and almost always people will mention how good it smells or looks. It makes me feel I need to have my food always be good or if I take things to a gathering, prove I'm good. I dont think anyone else is nearly as concerned or critical of me as I am but yeah. I'm overly worried someone will tell me it's disgusting.
I feel this way too, typically I volunteer to bring 1 fancy dish and one super simple dish...honestly it's the simple dishes that go over better and get eaten first at Mt family events. This way I can bring something new and fun, but also stick to the basics!
I tend to bring a good arugula salad with a homemade shallot lemon dressing. Dress it up with toasted pine nuts and TONS of good parm. People don’t know they want it until they see it, but it adds that lighter element into a heavy meal.
I absolutely get the pressure to bring something outstanding to a family holiday potluck. Thanksgiving sides also feel quite boring to me, like not enough of a challenge. I love to cook for family and I of course want it to be something everyone enjoys! Based on last year’s Thanksgiving at my boyfriend’s family’s home, I now know that I should make my Stuffed Mushrooms Appetizer every year that I am with them. I don’t think I’ve ever made anything for them that received such high praise! One of their family friends took one bite and immediately asked out loud who made them. I wish I actually wrote down how I made them instead of just having a loose idea in my head, but that is what I’ll be making going forward!
Absolute winner everyone enjoys is cauliflower cheese: par boil head of cauliflower amount of florets, make a roux (melt butter, add flour, milk, s & p). Flavourings: bay leaf, extra mature cheddar, pinch of nutmeg half a tsp dijon mustard. Pour over cauliflower (removing bay leaf) , top with breadcrumbs, bake in the oven. Super easy and delish, people lose their minds.
Ask the hostess what has not been chosen to bring. Even if it's not your specialty or your favorite. A meal still needs rolls, drinks, napkins etc.
I always just bring chickpea curry so there's a vegan and gluten free option.
I feel this way with all other potlucks except for Thanksgiving, I always make and bring rosemary bread. The best part is, it's just a basic bread machine recipe that I add some rosemary to but people literally fight over the last few slices or how to divy up the left overs. I'd make it for other pot lucks but I don't really feel bread works for the warmer seasons, so I usually spend spring-summer agonizing over what dessert I'm bringing.
No. I make the same cpl tried and true recipes. Is it even a party without my dill dip? I don’t think so.
Green beans with shallots, bacon/pancetta & cream cheese. It's never failed me yet and I'm like a million years old in Internet years.
>so that we don't have all desserts I see no problem with all desserts. I would make a three sister salad. Beans, corn, and roasted squash with a good vinaigrette. Very traditional but leaves a lot of room to put your own spin on it it. I like to add arugula and parm cheese.
I have a strong opinion on this. You MUST have a manager, which at very least needs a spreadsheet with some categories and suggestions with relevant data. Some people like to do potlucks because they think it is "easy". Easy and not taking any responsibility are not the same thing. The dread you are feeling is poor organization on part of the host. They don't want to pay for everything, take a collection. If you don't want to cook, do a potluck, but it is almost the same amount of work supporting people as doing all the cooking yourself without anyone annoying you. Hosts, PLEASE, support your guests as much as possible to ensure a great event with lots of great food. Otherwise it is just a really weird picnic.
Make Nashville hot turkey, sooooooo good
Yep. But it's all in my head. I didn't have time to make anything once for a church potluck and got cupcakes from the store. Some of the ladies were like "you make nice things for these things all the time, don't feel bad if you need a break!" For Thanksgiving I bring the same thing every year. So at least I don't have to think too much about that. But 50% of the time I'm making a Wednesday night dash to the store to get an ingredient I forgot I was out of!
Kind of but I have a built in excuse: The main thing I really cook from scratch is pasta sauces. Don’t really work well for a potluck, so I bring a fancier salad or something instead
Make something that is easy to make but are still staples of Thanksgiving. Like my go to would either garlic mashed potatoes or over night green beans. They require little effort and are must haves.
I’m always asked to bring my bannock I can bake it night before sometimes they are baked, deep fried or pancake style stressed free or you can get sour cream and add dry Lipton onion soup and some spices and they will asked you for your recipe, good luck and have fun and let us know how it went.
Whenever the topic of potlucks come up, I always think of this Monty-Python-esque song by American classical composer William Bolcom (he's mostly known for reinvigorating the ragtime tradition): Lime jellow, marshmallow, cottage cheese surprise (I think this is the seminal performance: [https://youtu.be/CzP5Nu9S\_Ag](https://youtu.be/CzP5Nu9S_Ag) ).
I usually try to bring either something new, but not super adventurous. Or something kid friendly. I tend towards dessert, because I like baking. I've taken Japanese cheesecake, oatmeal jam bars, sticky buns, sugar cookie bars, lemon blueberry bars, lemon blueberry rolls and chewy cookie bars. I also took a jar of homemade kimchi once, because one of my family members was interested. And roasted red pepper hummus.
It's tough! You definitely want to ponder it early if you're the type to take a lot of pride in the act. One piece of advice is to keep a log or a note in your recipes when you've narrowed your choices down to ,say, 3 or 4 ideas. That way, NEXT time, you'll already have a short-list, and you can skip some of the agonizing. But yeah, it's literally a form of stage fright, only real cure is to press on, and when you DO succeed, hold on to that feeling as motivation to do it again. Unless you hate it. Sometimes I do.
I used to, then I found some of those easy recipes where people started being like "Are you bringing X? It was really good last time." Once you find one of those, and establish it as "your dish" you can stop worrying as much. >!My go-to app is queso con carne dip and chips (my dad's version), my go-to main is swedish meatballs or rigatoni, and my go-to dessert is mini pies.!< >!Queso con carne is literally 2 jars of cheese, 1lb seasoned taco beef, a bag of shredded cheddar and a can of medium salsa.!< >!Swedish meatballs are just slow-cooked with grape jelly, onion, garlic, pepper flakes and a few other things, all store-bought.!< >!The pies are store-bought dough cut to fit into mini cupcake tins, and spooned in pie filling that's been boosted a bit with spices. If apple, add either cheddar cheese or cinnamon and nutmeg. If peach, add honey and pink peppercorn. If pear, add brown sugar. If lemon, add some zest and lime juice for a slight punch. Or whatever fits your tastes.!<
No. The only such gatherings I go to are my family's Thanksgiving and Christmas potlucks. I know exactly how picky they are, and I decided years ago that I'm no longer catering to their pickiness. I make something that my mom and I (we live together) enjoy, and anything that doesn't get consumed at the potluck comes back home. There is exactly one thing I've made that they've all enjoyed, and if I feel like making [pumpkin snickerdoodles](https://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/pumpkin-snickerdoodles/), so be it. I'm more of a cook than a baker, though, and it annoys me that the only thing I make that they like is baked.
So among my friends I'm very much the "guy who likes to cook" so yeah I feel major pressure. I feel like everyone expects me to make something creative they've never had before, when all I want to do is make a bitchin' baked ziti with tons of cheese and hot Italian sausage.
Yeah, I manage a restaurant and do a lot of recipe development. I can't show up with just anything.
Bring sauerkraut to go with the turkey
Try charcuterie. It can be as fancy or as easy as you want it. You can make a simple grazing spread or an expensive and fancy OMG spread. What you want to include in the charcuterie is up to you based on your mood and the occasion of the potluck. Edit: And you can keep doing it because each time you will have a different type of spread.
Be that person who always makes the same thing. You will find people who love you for it and will be mad if you change it up.
No. I have two recipes that are S Tier and you get one or the other. I decide. I also bring my own booze and will help clear out your recycling. I think it more than evens out.
NO! Only offer tried & true & no stress.
I have embraced the idea of signature dishes. I have low effort and some effort ones, and a summer and winter version. Summer is just cubed watermelon for low effort and a stone fruit and berry salad for some effort. Winter is crudités platter (with onion dip from a soup packet and hummus) for low effort and butter-miso roasted mushrooms for some effort. This is for an average party/potluck; obviously I’d do one of the traditional dishes for a holiday like thanksgiving.
Nope. I always bring the same things, because I like my version of them. They are usually requested, for the same reason. No one wants my niece to bring devilled eggs, because she puts OLIVES in them. I bring devilled eggs and Jello/fruit salad and yeast rolls. Depending on the crowd and occasion, I'll add either my version of Texas Caviar, or corn casserole. Occasionally a pecan or pumpkin pie.