Try potluck, for easy entertaining
At this time of year, many people turn to dining at home as a way to socialize with friends without breaking the bank. But hosting a dinner can be stressful and it can easily become expensive. Turning the dinner into a casual potluck supper can fix all that.
Plan for successful suppers
Follow these tips for potluck perfection:
- Unless you want to risk having all desserts and no entrées, ask each guest to cover a specific course. Consider doubling up on the entrée.
- Tell each person how many are attending, and whether theirs is the only dish in a particular course, so they can plan quantities.
- Consider whether you will have a theme. This could be a national inspiration (France, Italy, Thailand), a type of food or cooking (from the sea, vegan, locally grown), a flavour (garlic, chocolate, fruit) or a more general theme (literary inspirations, favourite foods).
- Be sure to inquire about allergies, and inform all the cooks in advance.
- Ask guests to tell you of any cooking or prep requirements so you can resolve potential space issues (such as everyone needing the oven) before people do their shopping. Ask them to let you know of any special equipment they may need to use or to bring.
- Make sure you have enough place settings. If not, ask someone to help by bringing extras.
- Be prepared for leftovers by having spare containers to send home with guests.
Start the club
Your potluck supper may be so successful that everyone wants to make it a regular thing. Consider starting a potluck supper club.
Start by agreeing on a regular pattern of meetings, such as the first Saturday of each month, or the first Friday of every other month. Decide ahead of time whether you will only hold the supper if everyone can make it, or you’ll go ahead provided at least half the group is in attendance.
If one person in your group has a particular ability for corralling the others, ask if he or she will become the unofficial ring-leader.
Be sure to come up with a catchy name for your potluck club. That way, when you see the name in an email subject line, everyone will know there's another exciting dinner to look forward to!