Potluck-a-licious
I love me a good potluck dinner. Lucky us, there’s a potluck dinner as part of a friend’s wedding tomorrow. I am bringing 2 lasagnas. My recipe is pretty top secret.
But I am not really here to talk about top secret recipes or lasagna. I wanted to talk about potlucks.
I’ve taken the liberty of compiling what I consider to be some of the best reasons to love potluck dinners:
The abundance of food. A potluck supper is a lot like a buffet. Except it isn’t Chinese food. You can take as little or as much as you want. You can go back for seconds and there will probably be more there than when you went for firsts.
The variety. You can take a bit of everything, go for the old favorites like perogies, lasagna, meatballs, etc. You can effectively eat food from almost every corner of the world if you have the right mix of potluck food-makers.
The intrigue. There’s always going to be a few dishes where you aren’t quite sure what exactly it is, or even what is in it. There is something about taking a scoopful of mystery casserole, or trying the jellied concoction layered with meat that adds to the excitement and experience of potlucking it. Maybe you’re into the mystery desserts – although rarely can you go wrong there.
The pride. This is probably going to make me sound so snobby and (gasp!) conceited but I am going to be honest here. I actually love to make outstanding, even if its difficult or complicated, dishes to bring to potlucks. I want to look impressive. I want people to be excited to eat the food I bring. There is nothing sweeter than taking home a completely cleaned out dish which was empty long before the crowd could go back for seconds.
So tell me, what is your signature potluck recipe?
Tasty Food Fail
It happens to the best of us. Dare I say, even the experts and professionally trained culinary geniuses screw up. Welcome to the Tasty Food Fail.
I am no perfectionist. In fact, I don’t even mind making a few mistakes because usually I learn.
Sometimes I’ll share my epic food failures here. Sometimes I will sweep them under the rug and hope nobody ever finds out about them.
Today – the very first Tasty Food Fail: grilled asparagus aka black charcoal stick of death
This would be somewhere between never wanting to admit this happened to having to share it here because it’s pretty damn funny.
I love grilled vegetables. I had a bunch of asparagus in the fridge and 2 small zucchinis I had to use up. So I sliced the zucchini, trimmed the asparagus, drizzled in olive oil and seasoned lightly. Ready to go on the grill.
image courtesy of woodleywonderworks on flickr
I don’t really grill. Might be partly because I step near the grill and someone (not mentioning names – ahem Levi) takes over. I don’t want to blame Levi for this or anything but… they came out looking pretty interesting – and semi-blackened. (I love you Levi. haha)
I am all for a little char on my veg. In fact, the flavor can be quite good. But if all you taste is char, not so much. I regret not taking a picture of my supper last night, or my leftovers at lunch today.
Note to self/lesson for next time: Cook asparagus less. Like maybe don’t put it on at the same time as a chicken breast. Just sayin’.
“Gluten?…oh there’s no sugar in this”
Seriously.
I don’t expect everyone in the entire world to know and understand what gluten is. But, being as it is one of the top food intolerances out there, you’d like to hope/think that not everybody is living under a rock.
Levi, my husband, has Celiac Disease. He also has a secondary gluten-intolerance condition (a form of Celiac Disease) called Dermatitis Herpetiformis. He has had these conditions his entire life. As an adult he was properly diagnosed and after a while he made the decision to stick to a gluten-free diet seriously.
Gluten-free living is a challenge. I won’t deny that. But I have to be honest I have really embraced the idea of living a healthful, gluten-free life and keeping a gluten-free home. I like to think – self-centeredly – that I make it easy for Levi to live gluten-free. He may or may not agree with you. 🙂
You’ll notice that from time to time I will talk about gluten, gluten-free products, gluten-free recipes, eating out gluten-free, etc. This is not a gluten-free blog. There’s enough awesome ones out there that I don’t even need to bother. But I will add my own perspective, and Levi’s too, where I feel like it.
The quote I used as the title of this blog post might sound outrageous but it actually happens more than you might think.
“Is there gluten in this frogurt (frozen yogurt)?” “Ummm, well we do have a sugar-free one.”
“Is there gluten in this sauce?” “It’s a savory sauce, not sweet at all.”
“Can you let me know if you have a gluten-free menu?” “Oh are you diabetic?”
Literally. Seriously.
At first I used to get so annoyed. Like how could these people be so obtuse. Now it just makes me laugh. Just because I knew what gluten was before Levi was diagnosed doesn’t mean that the average population must, or that they even care about whether or not he has an intolerance to the stuff.
And just for everyone who thinks eating on a gluten-free diet is nasty and boring and tasteless…you’re so wrong. Otherwise I wouldn’t be posting about gluten-free on the TastyFoodBlog, now would I?
Working with what ya got
Considering I love to cook you’d think that one of my priorities would be making sure my kitchen was totally blinged out and gourmet. How I wish it were.
Maybe soon enough I’ll get my dream kitchen.
In the meantime, for the past 4 years I’ve been making-do. I am not so good with the whole square footage measuring stuff, but I would guess my kitchen is less than 100 sq ft. I have a 24″ electric stove that runs a bit hot in the oven, but overall works good. I am also blessed to have a fairly large fridge compared to other suites in our apartment building.
Three or four years ago my husband brought home an old harvest gold portable dishwasher. It has a butcher block top which has added to my useable work surface greatly. Plus, now I don’t have dishpan hands.
Why am I showing you my piddly almost pathetic kitchen?
I guess to make a point. You don’t have to have a gourmet kitchen in order to make good food. I don’t even have nice dishes or fancy pots and pans really. I would be willing to wager that there are a sad number of homes with gourmet or beautiful kitchens that go unused or are underused.
Take a look at my gourmet kitchen:
Now I am not saying that I would take my current kitchen over a gourmet kitchen. Let’s be honest, I’d trade up any day. Hopefully when we decide to buy a house it will have a great kitchen space, or potential to renovate and make the kitchen of my dreams.
Make your own cookbook – I did
We have a friend getting married this weekend. I am totally looking forward to the wedding. We haven’t had an opportunity to get our dance on in a very long time. Last week I attended the wedding shower for the bride.
I don’t want to brag or anything but I think my gift was the bestest ever.
I made a personalized, customized cookbook with my very own recipes (and a few from the future mother-in-law) using lulu.com. The book turned out amazing. I was so thrilled with the results.
Here’s a bit of how it worked out for me.
First off, I came up with the idea a bit late in the game. I should have attempted creating the cookbook sooner than 1 week before the shower. Even so, after spending some long hours in a row to get the book done in time to publish and ship the result was pretty spectacular.
I had some troubles figuring out the images when creating the book. It’s not that it was the fault of the lulu software at all. It was purely user dumbness, or the lack of not reading simple directions. Once I got the images figured out the book creation was quite smooth. They have specific templates for cookbooks which made it even easier to create.
Because of my late start I had to choose a faster shipping method, which cost quite a bit more than I expected to pay. But, it was well worth the extra cost since the book arrived the day before the shower, in time for me to oogle it and show it off to my friends before wrapping it up as a gift.
I highly recommend using Lulu.com for your cookbook creation projects. The cool thing with Lulu is that you can actually sell your books there too. I haven’t looked into that a whole lot at this point but for those serious foodies out there that might be a neat option.
For your viewing pleasure…a picture of me with my first ever in print cookbook ‘Food That Tastes Good’.
Brand spankin’ new
This is a new blog. It’s not my first foray into the blogosphere but I do intend on trying out some new things with this blog.
First, let me tell you what this blog is all about. I have high hopes of being able to share some great recipes, funny stories, anecdotes, wisdom, ramblings, and more. The title of the blog is TastyFoodBlog but there’s more than just actual ingredients that go into making real food real tasty.
I want to add that I am not a professional chef by any means. I have no formal culinary training. Scoff if you wish. Say you don’t believe I can help you with anything since I do not have a chef’s hat on, if you must. I still think I am good. People like my food. Mostly though, I like to make food an experience.
One other thing I want to make clear…I like to give my opinion. That’s what a lot of people do, but they probably aren’t so open about it. I am opinionated. I know that sometimes I say the wrong thing. I don’t think I care all that much about it. I have fun doing what I do and I look forward to bringing that fun to all my readers via this blog.
I have a great circle of friends who I hope to get involved in this blog a bit too, possibly with guest posts, appearing in some of my off-the-cuff videos, undercover restaurant reviews, etc. I have so many fun ideas and plans I can’t wait to get started.
Thanks for joining us and please return often. Leave comments, share your own opinions, and join in the conversation.
Ciao.
The Tasty Food Blog 