Pot Luck (Winchester: how much, buy, club)

[NoVA_Lurker]

Hi All -

I have to attend a family reunion somewhere out near Winchester this weekend (not my family), and I believe it is a pot luck event at a local park.

I'm looking for suggestions of what might be a good dish to share. I don't cook a lot, but would be willing to make something simple (was thinking about pasta salad).

However, I'm also interested in suggestions of pre-made/catered dishes or platters from Wegman's, Giant, Sam's Club, Costco, or other local places that people have tried and might be a good option to take. I don't think there will be a way to keep things warm, so probably room temp or cold dishes will work best. Even cookies or something like that.

Any ideas? Anything that's been a big hit at your recent party? I always hear how much people love Wegman's, but I don't go there too much, so I don't know what the "must try" things would be.

Thanks in advance!

[peanutrach]

Wegman's has really good brownie bites that were a hit at our recent party. Tasted homemade and were super cheap! They are located near the baked breads section.

For the same party I also made a quiche, which went over well. Served cold and very simple to make (I made the ham/cheese kind). I just cut it into small pieces. You could also buy a quiche if you didn't want to make one.

You could also bring a fruit salad, which was a HUGE hit at our last party. I bought a few of the Wegman's club packs of fruit that was already sliced. I bought watermelon, cantalope and pineapple. Fantastic and healthy!

[NoVA_Lurker]

peanutrach -
All great ideas! Thank you. That's exactly the kind of stuff I'm looking for!

[tsuric]

Look through either food.com or allrecipes.com

They have tons of recipes uploaded by anyone and they can be reviewed by anyone (detailed reviews, 5 stars). You can sort it by reviews so that you have tried and tested recipes. You can glance through the recipes to see how easy it is. You can also read through the detailed reviews so that you can see alternate ways they followed the recipes.

I recently had to cook something fast in 3 hours (including gathering the ingredients) so I found something quick and easy on food.com and took it through 2 rounds. It only used three ingredients and yet everyone was raving about it....man talk about minimum input and maximum output.

With no cooking experience I have used a total of 4 different recipes from those sites in potlucks and every time people rave about my cooking.

[weezycom]

Grab a big platter of cold spicy chicken wings, clean up & cut a full stalk of celery into sticks, a package of crumbled blue and a bottle of ranch dressing (and a disposable bowl to mix them together). Maybe bring a container of hummus as well.

[NoVA_Lurker]

Originally Posted by tsuric

Look through either food.com or allrecipes.com

They have tons of recipes uploaded by anyone and they can be reviewed by anyone (detailed reviews, 5 stars). You can sort it by reviews so that you have tried and tested recipes. You can glance through the recipes to see how easy it is. You can also read through the detailed reviews so that you can see alternate ways they followed the recipes.

I recently had to cook something fast in 3 hours (including gathering the ingredients) so I found something quick and easy on food.com and took it through 2 rounds. It only used three ingredients and yet everyone was raving about it....man talk about minimum input and maximum output.

With no cooking experience I have used a total of 4 different recipes from those sites in potlucks and every time people rave about my cooking.

Thanks. I'll take a look at those sites - it's been awhile since I've looked for recipes.

Care to share what the three-ingredient (and fast) recipe was? That sounds like one I might be able to handle

[Bull Run Paradise]

Cheese plate (nice cheese selection at Whole Foods) with grapes and French bread

Green Salad with Strawberries & Goat Cheese

Cabbage rolls (sold at Wegmans or make them yourself)

If you can warm them up and store them in an insulated container these should work...

Tamales (ready made at Mexican supermarkets)

Sweet dumplings with vanilla and/or plum sauce

[Pandoras]

I am the one who usually brings the plates or sporks to a potluck due to my lack of culinary skills. However, I have had occasion to bring actual food and here are my emergency go to places for party platters:

Costco-turkey wraps platter

BJs Club-rugelach

CVS-sporks

[NoVA_Lurker]

Originally Posted by Pandoras

I am the one who usually brings the plates or sporks to a potluck due to my lack of culinary skills. However, I have had occasion to bring actual food and here are my emergency go to places for party platters:

Costco-turkey wraps platter

BJs Club-rugelach

CVS-sporks

Sporks might be the winner!!! Hmmm...I wonder what kind of food there will be that we can eat with sporks?!

All - thanks for the great ideas. I'm leaning toward making a pasta salad or caramel apple salad (a visit to food.com reminded me of this old recipe that I have), but we'll see by the weekend how lazy I'm feeling and if a trip to the grocery store for ingredients turns into a trip to pick up already prepared food