No potluck about it….Dinner Club just couldn’t survive that way; at least not for our group! When I think of potluck, first I think “Yum!” I love them. Don’t think I’m bashing the good ol’ Sunday afternoon church potluck, or the good natured neighborhood get-together. I’m certainly not! I love potlucks because you’re exposed to so many new things – or new ways of making things- that you never considered before. You show up with the surprise of finding new casseroles to try and re-visits of old favorite salads that you forgot you loved!
The problem with potluck – at least in terms of Dinner Club – is the “luck” part of the word; as in “lucky if everything goes together”. When you’re at a church gathering, picnic in the park or some other such social activity you don’t care about how well the meal jives, you just want to sample a little of everything there is to offer. But with Dinner Club, the food not only matching your chosen theme, but the dishes matching one another simply must figure in. When we show up there’s no “luck” about it. Each dish has been chosen to complement one another.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that we adore every element of every meal we put together…. A particular Japanese gelatin-like dessert comes to mind; but we don’t leave it up to chance that the meal will have flow either. The other part about selecting dishes together ahead of time is that everyone has input on what is essentially a group-driven decision process. We leave ultimate control up to the couple that must prepare and bring the particular dish, but we all offer suggestions during meal planning of what we think would work well.
This month’s menu is an excellent example of how choosing the dishes for the meal in advance, as well as TOGETHER, helps avoid meal-time disaster. This month is an ingredient-based theme as opposed to a locale-theme, a costume function or a historical time period. Our “Cheese Inspired Menu” will be delicious without being overly heavy (as long as we practice some modicum of portion control!) and each dish will lead well into the next. Cheese doesn’t have to be smothering; sometimes it’s present, but only suggesting itself, as in the “tomato and smoked gouda
