Raising the Potluck Standard

I'll be the first to admit that I spent a few years in a slump, bringing more than my share of canned vegetables, cookies from the freezer, and bags of baby carrots to our monthly church potluck. Several months ago, though, I became embarrassed about my own under-achieving behavior (Let's call it laziness! No! Failure to plan! No! Both!) and began to turn it around.

Potluck is its own institution, with its own rules. Lora shall bring her big Tupperware bowl of broccoli slaw; Maureen shall bring angel hair pasta with fresh basil; Barbara, blackberry cobbler and a pot roast. Ideally. But somehow we had all been slipping, and relying heavily on the takeout containers of Wal-Mart fried chicken.

Having repented, I have begun referencing my calendar when I make out my menus and grocery list. What do you know, potluck is right in there and I can shop and cook for it now! (Keeping the cardinal Potluck Rules in mind: 1. Food must look like what it is. 2. No surprise ingredients. 3. Try to present attractively.)

For this Sunday I brought a pan of manicotti (went a little wild on the dairy with Giles out of town!) with sauce from scratch, Clara's all-butter pound cake nicely glazed with lemon and presented on a rimmed cut-glass platter, and my very own new potluck signature, a romaine salad on a deep robins'-egg blue platter, with an arrangement of tomato and avocado slices on the top, all drizzled with Schoolhouse Vinaigrette dressing.

And guess what? At the end of dinner, there was lots of Wal-Mart chicken left over.