All Potlucks Are Not Created Equal

STORYTELLING | by MOLLY MARTIN

COMING FROM A FAMILY OF EIGHT that celebrated birthdays and holidays together for most of my adult life, I think I’ve been to at least 360 potlucks (so far).

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Holidays tend to get our traditional themes, of course, such as Oma’s cranberry-orange relish with turkey at Thanksgiving, and at Christmas Aunt Annie’s Salad, a kind of ambrosia with a back story — years after Aunt Annie left us, we learned 1) that the recipe was actually from her daughter Jeanne, who 2) had never been too pleased with its name.

But after about 275 potlucks or so, we had the novel idea to come up with a theme at least some of the time, since we all seem to like pretty much every kind of food:

• Some have built-in themes: At my nephew’s annual Bourbon & Blues gathering, only barbecue seems fitting.
• Some are timely: About the time the Zone Diet took off some years back, we had a lowfat theme, which was surprisingly tasty. And surprisingly not repeated.
• Some are yet to be tried: When we were planning last Easter’s potluck, my sister Mame said that as hosts, they’d provide lamb and yam. This prompted one of us to propose a theme featuring foods with “am” in the name. Jam would be OK. Then Spam came up. That theme’s not on the calendar yet.

One of our best has been the appetizer theme. Just as in restaurants, appetizers often offer more interesting and adventurous cuisine than entrees. Because they’re smaller, everyone can try more of them. And despite our best intentions that an appetizer theme will provide a lighter potluck, we manage to have more than enough. Just like all the others.