What is your favorite potluck dish?

[houseelf]

What do you make for your favorite carry in dish?

I have several:

Loaded Nachos: cheese, chips, hamburger or shrimp, jalopenas, tomatoes, lettuce, etc.

Caeser Salad: 1/2 cup olive oil, 1-2 cloves fresh garlic, 1 tsp lemon juice, dash salt and pepper, torn romain lettuce, grated parmesean cheese, and caeser croutons. Leave salad dressing in separate container until the party and toss when ready.

Ham and Cheese pinwheels: Lay out contents of refrigerated tube of croissants. Spread a layer of chive onion cream cheese over top. Layer a slice of ham and swiss cheese on top. Roll this up and slice into quarter inch portions (silver dollar size). Cook according to directions on package of tube of croissants.

Kelly

[DCJenn]

Cherry tomatoes with those small balls of mozzerella, spiked on toothpicks drizzled with olive oil and balsmic and sprinkled with frresh chopped basil. Looks like a huge deal- but if you can get an assembly line going, you're golden.

Candied bacon ... don't judge me until you've tasted it. Amazing.

Put uncooked bacon in a bag of brown sugar and shake to coat. Put bacon on well-lined cookie sheet (if you ever intend to use it again) and bake at 400 for 8 minutes on ea side.

It's as addicting as crack.

[DCJenn]

OMG, Jenn- I'm ready to run to the Safeway right now... I HAVE to coat my bacon with my syrup when I have pancakes...Is there any other way?

(Bacon is the entire reason why I can't ever go totally vegetarian. I'm like that dog in the commerical that screams BACON. Love the stuff. and four years at college with a Jewish room-mate? You know that every break I was a pork chop, bacon eating fiend. Even now to piss her off all I have to do is make a pig nose face and she's all wigged out. It's hilarious.)

Jenn

[Sheherezade]

Any food as addicting as crack MUST be tried.

I usually do a greek pasta salad in the summer -- rotini pasta, black olives, feta cheese, red and green peppers and pine nuts tossed with a scallion vinegrette (scallions, vinegar, olive oil, spices). In the winter, I do a lasagna with Italian sausage, spinach and carrots. The recipe is unbelievably complicated and completely in my head, but I'll try to post it later. It was my children's favorite food as toddlers. One dish, all food groups. The pasta salad is a harder sell for kids - but all the grownups usually like it.

[SueC]

I must try that bacon!
I usually bring corn casserole. It's super easy--you dump a can of cream corn, a can of regular corn, 2 eggs, box of Jiffy cornbread mix, and 1 c. sour cream into a pan and bake. Good stuff and it always gets eaten.

[migirl]

Sue,

I want to try that corn casserole! How long/what temp do you bake it (do you just follow the general directions on the box of cornbread mix?)?

I usually bring 7 layer dip because it's super easy....beans, sour cream (mixed with taco seasoning), guac, salsa, cheese, olives, chopped green onions with tortilla chips on the side.

The corn casserole sounds yummy!

[SueC]

Sue,

I want to try that corn casserole! How long/what temp do you bake it (do you just follow the general directions on the box of cornbread mix?)?

I cook it at 350 for about 45 minutes. It cooks best in a 9X13 (greased) so that it isn't as thick.

[Auspicious]

So I'm sincerely asking this: What kind of potluck events do you go to? Are these family events, church things, kids' organizations stuff? How am I missing the potluck boat? (Probably the same way I missed the "buy-my-junk parties" boat. I had no idea that that one had become so huge, either.) What would be an example of a time when you'd bring a carry-in dish?

[SueC]

What are you saying Julie, that we aren't classy people??? Just kidding. Every year, dh's department has a summer party and a Christmas party, to which we bring a potluck. There is also the neighborhood picnic every summer.

[Sheherezade]

Neighborhood parties here - and school things. Maybe it's family related? I didn't have any pot luck functions until we had kids. Sometimes work parties are potluck, mostly not. I have only gone to one "buy my junk" thing --and it was a potluck!

[spotty_dog]

I was sitting here trying to think of the last time I went to an event where the grub was provided. When we get together with other med students, it's generally a barbeque potluck. "Bring the buns" or "You're on beer duty" is the way we arrange a social gathering.

We also have events at work that are potluck style, like the International Foods Potluck with contributious from our multi-cultural graduate student population.

Other than the above mentioned arrangements ("Could you pick up a pack of brats?") I like to bring rum-glazed yams if I'm trying to impress someone or contribute to Thanksgiving dinner or something. It reheats well. I once did strawberries over angel food cake with Cool Whip for one of those med student get-togethers, and my GOSH did those strawberries take forever to slice! But the angel food cake and Cool Whip were bought, so that was the only work I had to do for a dessert that won everyone over.

[Rapunzel]

Our potlucks are with our church congregation. Generally, I bring lasagna or baked ziti. Very easy and feeds a ton of people.

Jennifer

[DCJenn]

Potlucks from residency were along the lines of the Beer and Brats parties. But we do a lot of family potlucks so one person isn't stuck cooking for a ton of people.

Jenn