A covered-dish meal. Anyone know what that old-fashioned word means?
Potluck, as in potluck dinner.
Potlucks have been around for centuries. A quick etymological search of the word potluck confirmed most of what I remembered from who-knows-where-or-when. Potluck is a word that comes, albeit arguably, from two sources. A sixteenth-century concept of eating whatever had been prepared in the cooking pot, or "luck of the pot", which evolved into the concept of a shared meal in later centuries or evolving from a native North American word potlatch which revolves around a ceremonial shared meal and ceremonial customs.
There is nothing like a good, old American potluck. Sharing of food and fellowship seems to bring people together like nothing else can. The beauty of a potluck meal is that there is little, if any, pretense involved in potlucks. You find tableware ranging from the cheapest of paper plates to fancy cardboard partitioned plates to rectangular-shaped plastic "plates" designed to hold a multitude of different foods apart from each other. These plastic "plates" have spaces labeled "cold beverage", "hot foods" and a specific oblong section in which to place your "silverware". The "silverware" ranges from plastic cutlery to personal cutlery from home to special brightly colored knives, forks and spoons designed especially for picnics. That's just what one eats with.
Then there is the food. Ah, the food.
Potluck food comes in every flavor, shape, texture and temperature, as the does the type of container it is served in. Plastic or metal seem to be the favored types of containers in which to bring potluck food, probably so if it is dropped the crisis is not nearly as extreme as if one dropped a Wedgewood bowl or plate. Of course, most potluck serving dishes or pans have the obligatory piece of tape afixed to the bottom with the owner's name scrawled on it.
Food choices are aplenty. You'll usually find the basics: baked beans, some type of BBQ'd meat and accompanying buns, several hot casseroles - usually containing cheese, rice and often broccoli. Noodles are somewhere in the mix as is ground beef and potato salad. Most potluck desserts are still homemade, although you will probably find a store-bought pie somewhere on the table, depending on the geographic location of the potluck. In some areas of the country women wouldn't be caught dead bringing a dessert not "scratch"-baked from home.
Jello. Always a potluck mainstay, usually with two or three flavors represented and almost always it is the strawberry flavor that contains sliced bananas with Cool Whip on top. In years past this would have only been real whipped cream but few potluck preparers take time with real whipping cream any more. Such a shame.
Today's potluck was missing one dish that I almost always see - Kraft macaroni and cheese. In fact, there was no noodle and cheese dish there today. Such a shame. I guess we'll just have to organize another potluck and put out the call for more attention to tradition.
Sounds like a plan.
Ancora imparo
