We provide the main dish and each of our friends bring a side or beverage.

Last weekend we provided chili, rice, and iced tea. Our friends brought the rest of the fixings. Everybody had a great time and we gamed until 2am. It cost us less than $20 and our guests spent anywhere from $3 to $10 on their contributions…since most of our friends are having money issues right now, we are more than fine with the balance!

I’m thinking that next month’s theme will be a frozen pizza party…everybody brings a frozen pizza of their choice and we serve all of them up buffet style. No one should need to spend more than $5 that way…

The dinner is themed around the country hosting the GP. The hosts provide the main, and everyone else does nibbles, entree (appetiser for US), sides, dessert, and drinks. We have a spreadsheet on google docs where we say if we’re coming and put our names down for each course.

It’s really fun and it gives you a chance to try cooking new things as well.

Up until about 25 families very little direction is needed in the circles I am talking about. When it gets below 8 families we tend to get nervous and mention the size.

Over 25 families it becomes easier to prepare one main dish and then have people bring salads, deserts, etc. The reason for this is serving line efficiency.

It always amazes me how well balanced the selection is. Very seldom is there an imbalance. But keep in mind, the people I speak of do this thing a lot. My lovely wife and I just came off a 6 month stint being in charge of the potlucks for…

…our Mennonite church!

(Well, Quasi-Mennonite might be more accurate. Most of us have deep roots in the Mennonites and we are still a sorta-kinda-Mennonite church.)

So yeah, this intrigued me.

1) It’s often easiest if the host provides the main course, esp. for large parties.
2) Soup and chili parties are easy – we borrow some stockpots and/or crockpots to keep things warm – and ask people to bring appetizers, sides, salads, and desserts.
3) Stock up on takeout containers – dollar store, party stores even, have inexpensive ones. I often send leftovers home with poor graduate students .
4) If someone tells you they’ll be late and asks what to bring, make sure they’re not responsible for stuff people eat early – chips, salsa, dips, etc. Sometimes they show up with what stuff anyway. Oh well.
5) Stock some index cards and pens/markers so people can label their dishes vegetarian, contains nuts, whatever.
6) If people show up with deli containers, transfer the potato salad/coleslaw/whatever to something slightly nicer. It seems to help to get the stuff eaten.

In addition to food potlucks, you can do other kinds too. One of my favorites is a beer potluck. Everyone brings 6-12 of their favorite beers, and you put all the bottles in one of those little kid swimming pools. Tomorrow one of my friends is hosing a “record party”. It’s basically a music potluck where everyone brings a couple of records over to play.

In general, potlucks are a great way to get together without putting too much of a burden on any one member/couple in the group.

When we set it up we did so in a way that made sense. We bring tables and chairs out into the hallway/common areas and cram in and have a great time. But from what I understand a lot of groups just put out the food and go back to their offices with a plate.

I’ve found it gets easier each time. You know how much food to bring, how to set things up conveniently, what kind of food will just be snatched up, and what kind of food you wind up with a lot of (green chile stew is huge here). People often ask me for recommendations on what to bring and experience really helps.

Another idea I would throw out is encouraging people to form their own sub-groups. Around here two or three people will pick complimentary items: ham and German potato salad, or green chile stew and tortillas.

The host’s dish should never be something that requires too much attention. Lasagna or paella as someone mentioned above – perfect!

One of the side benefits, for us, to doing something like this regularly is the incentive to get out the good china and actually eat at the dining table, instead of in front of the TV!

We have various kinds of potluck things at work, too. Some I remember are:

* pie contest (with pie described as something sweet with a crust) – no organization is done here except for having the contestants choose a number from a hat with which to label their pie.

* chili cook-off – some people sign up to bring chili (as with the pie contest), and there is a list of other things to bring like cheese, corn chips, drinks, and you can sign up to bring one of these or something else.

* holiday lunch – the sponsor brings a turkey and each person brings something from their heritage

* trick-or-treat – bring Halloween treats while a monster movie is playing in the background

* birthday parties – people bring random treats

whew

I can hardly believe I did it.

If you have a group of 12 people, and *everyone* brings enough food to feed 12 people, you end up with 12 times too much food. In other words, don’t bring much more food than you/couple would eat at a meal. If everyone does that than waaaay too much leftovers.

Actually we were once invited to a very fun dessert potluck. That might be nice for Valentines Day. At my husband’s work they hosted a lunchtime chili party. It was a huge success. They used it as a charity fundraiser, but it would be a good alternative to having group lunches out.

I have found that establishing a few very “loose” groundrules can help.

Otherwise, you might end up with some pretty wild dishes.

Great post

Great post Kris.

If you find yourself always hosting potlucks, maybe you could invest in some extra serving spoons, warmers, etc.

I was going to explain about a similar tradition I used to have that we called a ‘supper club’, but it ran too long, so I moved it to my blog here.

JD: if you’re like me and most of the writers I know, something about having a cover makes it ‘real’. Congratulations!

It’s the dressing that makes the salad, so I have a few good homemade ones to choose from for a potluck.

I just moved to a new town, so I don’t have much of a base yet. I look forward to meeting new people so that I can host another potluck!

My advice, if you have a potluck in the park: make sure there are enough grills! I had a fabulous potluck a few years ago with 70 people, and we had more than enough food. However, we did not have enough charcoal nor enough grill space, so the salads and chips went much faster than all the shish-kabob supplies I picked up.