Lifelong Potluck Failure Wants to Step Up

July 10, 2010 12:35 PM

I have been asked to bring the equivalent of dinner for 8 to a potluck-style meal: a main course, salad or vegetable, and dessert. I do not traditionally bring dishes to potlucks because I'm a loser that way. Guidance needed.

I have been asked, along with all other local singers, to bring a main dish, a salad or veggie side, and a dessert, to an all-day Sacred Harp singing, enough of each to serve about 8 people. It's a relatively small local group that will be hosting 90-100 singers, hence the large order.

Traditionally, I am a failure at potlucks. I never know what to bring and end up bringing nothing. I would like to step up in this case, so please tell me what to bring that is:

1. relatively easy to cook or assemble for a decent but not inspired cook.
2. does not need to be re-heated at mealtime
3. Will keep in a cooler for 5-6 hours.
4. Will not wilt or melt in the heat of a non-air-conditioned room.
5. Is not a crappy box of bakery cookies, grocery store veggie tray, and a cheese-and-cracker platter. Sacred Harp singers are proud about their food; the meals are legendary, and people bring their special famous dishes and stand around looking humble while everyone admires them. I don't need to be that amazing, but I don't want to stand out as the local loser, either.

posted by not that girl to Food & Drink (21 answers total)

You should bring the delicious rice salad that I had at this dinner this week. It is simple, festive, tasty and interesting enough that people won't be all weird about it. I think it went something like this

- cooked rice [brown rice if people are crunchy-types and it also ups the protein]
- roasted corn [you can even take freezer-bag stuff and just roast it up in a pan]
- small chunks of ripe avocado
- cooked black beans
- cucumber chunks
- 1/4-1/2 t cumin [this part is KEY]
- salt & pepper
- good olive oil, lime juice and some rice wine vinegar if it's too sweet

You can also add, depending on the crowd: cilantro or other small green thing for color, red pepper flakes for spice, red pepper chunks for color, toasted almonds for crunch.

My favorite thing about this dish is that it's easy to make a lot of it, it's easy to adjust ratios, it doesn't have touchy food people won't like, it's totally vegan and usually people don't bring it. You can google "rice salad" recipes and look for ones ith lime, cumin or olive oil to look at some variations, btu I am determined to make this my potluck dish from now on. Good luck.
posted by jessamyn at 12:56 PM on July 10, 2010 [22 favorites]

You could focus on cooking two of the three items, and then buying the third. For example, if you make a salad and main dish, then you could buy a cheesecake and serve it with fresh berries.

That said, if seafood is acceptable, I vote for boiled shrimp as either the appetizer or main dish. You buy the frozen raw shrimp (raw, not the already cooked ones!), boil them for about two minutes in various liquids (beer is good, but not required), then chill. Serve with dipping sauces. As long as the cooler has plenty of ice, they will keep just fine. This is the recipe I use.
posted by cabingirl at 1:08 PM on July 10, 2010

Jessamyn's rice salad sounds delicious. Bring some tortillas chips to serve on the side. If keeping it vegan is not a concern, adding a crumbly cheese, like Cotija or queso fresco. If you bring a good amount of it, I would count it as your main and side. Along the same lines, to combine a main and side, a pasta salad with protein (chicken, for example) would work well as your main and side.

This salad also works well for potlucks.
posted by TrarNoir at 1:10 PM on July 10, 2010

I personally would take a Mediterranean cue for this. I would bring a caprese salad (ripe tomatoes and mozzarella layered in slices, drizzled with olive oil and topped with some basil - SUPER easy), a lemon-parsley orzo salad (many excellent recipes on google and a very tasty dish) and some cannolis. I would purchase the cannoli. Easy, elegant and tasty.
posted by sickinthehead at 2:07 PM on July 10, 2010

Do you have a loaf pan? If so, there are some really easy dessert quickbreads to be thrown together. This Caribbean banana lime bread is fantastic. Just, if you want to make that, make sure you buy the bananas a few days ahead of time so they have time to get nice and ripe.
posted by wondermouse at 2:13 PM on July 10, 2010

Ambrosia
My mom used to make this for potlucks. It's not the most inspired food, but it's tasty, and people seem to like it. It's easy to make because you just dump it all into a bowl and stir. Make it the night before, and serve chilled.

1 c pineapple chunks, fresh or canned, drained
1 can (11 oz) mandarin orange slices, drained
1 c sweetened shredded coconut
1 c seeded green grapes
1 c miniature marshmallows
1 c sour cream
fresh mint leaves for garnish (optional)

Dump Cake
Here's another recipe that is pretty well known, and designed to be easy to make. It's not particularly highbrow (esp. if you serve it with coolwhip), but people seem to like it. It's also good with vanilla ice cream. Serve it like a cobbler, hot or cold.

1 can (20 oz) crushed pineapple, undrained
1 can (21 oz) prepared cherry pie filling
1 box (18¼ ounces) yellow cake mix
2 sticks of butter, each cut into 12 slices
¼ c chopped nuts (your choice - optional)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (325 for glass baking dish). Have a 9 by 13-inch baking pan ready. Dump undrained pineapple baking dish or pan and spread it out evenly. Using a spoon, dump globs of cherry pie filling evenly on top of the pineapple. Sprinkle the cake mix evenly over the cherry and pineapple layers. Cut butter into slices with a butter knife and place slices evenly over cake mix. Sprinkle nuts on top if you're using them. Bake for one hour.
posted by crunchland at 2:13 PM on July 10, 2010

Jessamyn's suggestion is a good one. As a touchy food person, the only thing in it that I wouldn't touch are the peppers.
posted by lover at 2:14 PM on July 10, 2010

I've made the following recipe for a number of potlucks, and my sister had adopted it as one of her standards as well.

You can transport the green bean mixture in one container, and the vinaigrette (an empty jar with a screwtop lid works well) in another, and toss before serving. I usually don't end up putting all the vinaigrette onto the salad because it's a little too soupy for me.

Green Bean, Walnut, and Feta Salad

salad
4 pounds fresh green beans, trimmed
2 small purple onions, thinly sliced
2 packages (4 ounces each) crumbled feta cheese
2 cups coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans, toasted

vinaigrette
1 1/2 cups olive oil
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Cut green beans into thirds, and arrange in a steamer basket over boiling water. Cover and steam 15 minutes or until crisp-tender. Immediately plunge into cold water to stop the cooking process; drain and pat dry.

Toss together green beans, onion, cheese, and walnuts in a large bowl. Cover and chill 1 hour.

Whisk together olive oil and next 5 ingredients; cover and chill 1 hour.

This black bean and couscous salad is also nicely colorful - good for potlucks.

I don't bake much but I made these date-nut bars a few times and my husband and coworkers scarfed them all up.
posted by Squeak Attack at 2:19 PM on July 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

Pasta salad? Perfect for long-lasting cooler containment and open to endless variations.

Here's mine:

1 lb fusilli pasta (or more)
2 cans tuna in olive oil (omit if inadmissable)
small red onion, chopped
green bell pepper
chopped parsley (I prefer the flat-leafed kind for this but whatever)
a couple of italian tomatoes, chopped or sliced, seeded or not depending on your energy level
baby spinach--just a little so you don't clog it up

dressing (make it separately or throw it one ingredient at a time into the salad--it doesn't matter):

mayonnaise, of course
smaller amount Dijon
still smaller red wine vinegar
splash of trusty olive oil
s&p and some dried oregano and basil

and there you are!

For a side I suggest purchased hummus and pita chips, can't go wrong there and goes with the
Mediterranean (basically Nicoise via California) salad. Good luck!
posted by emhutchinson at 2:19 PM on July 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

oops, meant to say that the Green Bean salad as listed serves 16.
posted by Squeak Attack at 2:21 PM on July 10, 2010

Here's a really good and really easy appetizer. You need cherry tomatoes, a big block of mozzarella cheese, olive oil, garlic, other spices, and a bunch of fresh basil leaves.

Chop the cheese into bite-sized wedges. Dump the tomatoes and cheese into a large bowl. Drizzle liberally with olive oil. Crush some garlic, sautee it, and dump it in. (Or just use garlic salt.) Add oregano, parsley, any other spices you feel like. Toss everything in the bowl until the tomatoes and cheese are well-coated.

Take some toothpicks and make little skewers. Each one gets a cherry tomato, a chunk of cheese, and a fresh basil leaf or two. That's it, you're done! Just make sure you make a lot as these will be popular.
posted by PercussivePaul at 3:26 PM on July 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: This is all great--I'm a very picky eater myself, with a limited range, so there's a lot of stuff I just don't think of that other people would love, and I'm getting so many good ideas here.
posted by not that girl at 3:28 PM on July 10, 2010

Lemon Bars are an incredibly easy and delicious dessert.

My favorite easy salad to take to a potluck is BLT Salad:

BLT Pasta Salad
• 1 lb. bow-tie pasta, cooked and rinsed in cold water
• 1 bottle Ranch dressing
• 2 tomatoes, diced
• 1 lb. bacon, diced and cooked crisp
• 1/2 head lettuce, diced

In a large bowl, toss together pasta, Ranch dressing and black pepper. Stir in tomatoes and bacon. Refrigerate until serving then stir in the lettuce until coated. Or, stir in the lettuce and serve immediately.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 3:34 PM on July 10, 2010 [2 favorites]

Here are my two favorites:

Rainbow Peanut Noodles-- always a hit. A similar dish with tofu instead of chicken can be found here.

I also love a good corn salad:
4-6 ears corn, cooked and kernels cut off cob
one pint grape tomatoes, sliced in half
4-6 scallions, thinly sliced crosswise
1 avocado, cubed
1 red bell pepper, diced
8-10 basil leaves, shredded
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

mix dressing together:
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (or other vinegar)
juice of one lime
1 tsp. cumin
salt and pepper to taste

put all ingredients in bowl and toss with dressing. Let sit for at least 30 min. before eating. Yum!
posted by picklebird at 4:27 PM on July 10, 2010

A crumble makes a great and super easy dessert. I recently made this one for a picnic, and it was a hit. You can easily swap in whatever fruit/berry combo (or just pick one) you have.
posted by grapesaresour at 4:34 PM on July 10, 2010

Smash Potatoes:

Ingredients:
Small red potatoes (smaller the better, like the size of a golf ball)
Oil? Butter?
Seasonings.

Boil small red potatoes till they're soft. A few per person. 20 minutes or so. Maybe less. But you should be able to poke a fork through it. Drain well and lay them on a baking pan. Take a potato masher and a fork and push down with a firm but gentle hand (that's what she said) a couple times. You know, push down one way, then turn the fork or the masher and turn the other way. What you're going for is a potato that's kinda flat but still together. Brush with olive oil, but maybe you don't have a brush so put some olive oil on a paper towel and use that. Break out the salt. Lots of it. The chunkier the salt the better. Salt the mothers down. Then pepper. And then you can get fancy with some herbs. Rosemary's pretty common. Your neighbor probably has some growing that s/he won't miss. It grows like a weed. Whatever, the herbs are so you can say, "Oh this? Just some rosemary encrusted smash potatoes, like they serve in Provençal." You can throw in the word heirloom; no one is going to know. The more herbs you throw in, the better the dish sounds, but the taste starts to get weird. But whatever you do, don't forget the accent mark in Provençal. I mean, the phrase is technically incorrect, but they're either not going to know or come across like douches and then you laugh and say, yeah, that was the joke, so they look like double douches.

So you've got this pan now and this pre-heated 450 degree oven. Oh right, you forgot to preheat the oven? Yeah, just turn it on and then go change your shirt because you're probably sweating a bit or you know, maybe just one cigarette. Just one. So then the oven's 450 and you put the smash potatoes in (or do it at the host's house because then the dish is hot and crunchy and awesome and you come across as this guy pulling a hot dish out of the oven which your host undoubtedly needs for their own dish, but man, you're committed to food and you don't want to be one of those amateurs pulling out Tupperware or fiddling with Saran Wrap and that's just another thing to wash when you could be using the host's serving dishes instead.

So they're in the oven now for 10 minutes, and you open the door up because that window is useless and grimy, and they're maybe a little brown, and you're like, this recipe says they should be crunchy but how crunchy should they be? What does that look like? To which I say, I don't know. They're probably not done yet. Maybe another 10 minutes. You're looking for a serious crunchy exterior and maybe a little bit of a pillowy interior, but by the second drink you don't really care anymore and are playing Duck, Duck, Fuck with the guests at the dinner party.
posted by AmitinLA at 6:04 PM on July 10, 2010 [4 favorites]

This Garlicky Sesame-Cured Broccoli Salad is so freaking good and easy to make. I've brought it to several potlucks always -- always -- someone asks for the recipe. I use about half the olive oil she does, and a tad less garlic.

Sooo good. Make it the day before; it's better after it sits.
posted by The corpse in the library at 6:34 PM on July 10, 2010 [3 favorites]

For your vegetable, you can make roasted sweet potato chunks. They're fine hot or at room temperature and no threat of spoilage in your timeframe. Just get a reasonable number of sweet potatoes, peel, cut into bite-size chunks, toss with a tiny bit of oil and salt and pepper (other spices are nice too, but for a crowd, might want to stick with the basics), pour into a pan big enough that they can lay in a single layer, and roast at 400 degrees, stirring around every 15 minutes or so, until they're tender all the way through and dry-ish on the outsides. It's best not to use a dark-colored pan for this; tends to lead to burning.

For your dessert, people get inordinately excited about brownies with anything interesting mixed into the batter. I think the new pretzel M&M's might be really neat here, but that may not be gourmet enough for this crowd. Chopped pistachios and dried mango bits, maybe.
posted by lakeroon at 9:13 PM on July 10, 2010

Fruit salad is always a hit.

Go to the store. Buy whatever fruit is on sale (last week, it was apples, mango, blueberries, peaches, strawberries). I skip the bananas. Cut it up into smallish pieces and toss with a little lemon juice.
posted by leahwrenn at 10:28 PM on July 10, 2010

Response by poster: My God, I didn't even know about pretzel M&M's. This thread yields unexpected nuggets of joy.

Thanks for the great ideas, people. I'm feeling so empowered I have a crazy notion I might take food for both days of singing. I could give many of you best answers.
posted by not that girl at 10:28 PM on July 10, 2010

That rice salad was delicious, jessamyn! Thanks for sharing.
posted by terrapin at 4:31 PM on July 11, 2010 [1 favorite]