Nebraska Bred...Corn Fed!
This past weekend we attended a couple of social events known as a "potluck dinner". They can also be called "fellowship dinners" or "carry-in dinners". One was a carry-in dinner to honor a couple of friends' recent marriage. The second was a potluck dinner at church to give the congregation a chance to visit with a visiting missionary family.
I am not really sure how wide-spread a potluck dinner is in our culture, but in our community you can probably find one to go to at least once a week. Everyone arrives bearing at least one, if not three or four, dishes to share, meat items, casseroles, salads, desserts, dinner rolls, appetizers, relish items...the list of possibilities is only limited by your imagination!
Young women in our community are taught to cook. They learn from their mothers who learned from their mothers. Consequently, many of the dishes are made from recipes that have been handed down from generation to generation. For a potluck, everyone breaks out their best offerings to share.
It seems to be a cultural thing about having enough food...if you don't have at least half of every dish left over you become concerned that you didn't fix enough food. Leftovers are a sign that you have fed everyone well, which in our world means that everyone is stuffed to the gills!
A story from the first pot luck dinner we attended at our church: On the way to Burton that Sunday morning we passed a wagon train drive about 30-40 people deep which was a reenactment thing. After church during the fellowship dinner it began to rain at just the same time the wagon train was coming through Burton in a downpour. Pastor Gene went out and flagged them down and asked them to come in and join us for dinner. True story...we fed our entire church congregation plus the 30-40 wagon train people, and we still took home leftovers!
I always begin a potluck dinner with good intentions...I am going to take a little bit of just my most favorite dishes so as not to become overstuffed. But then someone brings some delicious looking meatballs or a big pan of lasagna or enchilada casserole. Oh, and someone brought fried chicken! So I am not even past the main dishes and my plate is full. Then we have dozens of salads to choose from. I favor lettuce-type salads, and there is usually taco salad (my favorite) or a layered lettuce salad. I can pretty much skip over the Jello salads. And by that time I am at the desserts, which is where I always go wrong. Someone brought sour cream raisin pie or scotcheroos or angel food cake or apple crisp so there there are choices to be made because after one overloaded plate of food there is limited space in my stomach for desserts. But I usually give it a good try and take at least two dessert choices. We joke that the pastor never preaches against gluttony on fellowship Sunday!
So now it's Monday, and we have survived two potluck dinners over the weekend. Not only survived but enjoyed them immensely. I have a hard and fast rule to never weigh on Monday morning, especially if we have overindulged at a potluck dinner. And after two dinners, I will probably wait until at least the middle of the week so that I can hopefully work off some of the food I ate this past weekend.
The thing with the potluck, fellowship, carry-in dinner is that it's not all about the food. If it's about food we could just stay home and eat the things we like the best. The main goal of the dinner is fellowship and sharing a meal with friends and family. The dinner on Saturday was to celebrate a happy occasion and to honor a couple who have joined their lives. We visited with people and enjoyed time with other members of the community. On Sunday it was to honor a couple and their children who are leaving the comforts of life in rural Nebraska and heading off into unknown lands. It was the best of all things, good friends, good fellowship and good food.
So today the diet starts in earnest. With any luck I will survive it at least until supper. And cooking should be a breeze this week as we have leftovers.
Now I just need to get out to the kitchen and clean up the mess I made of my kitchen this weekend. Hope you have a great week!
I am not really sure how wide-spread a potluck dinner is in our culture, but in our community you can probably find one to go to at least once a week. Everyone arrives bearing at least one, if not three or four, dishes to share, meat items, casseroles, salads, desserts, dinner rolls, appetizers, relish items...the list of possibilities is only limited by your imagination!
Young women in our community are taught to cook. They learn from their mothers who learned from their mothers. Consequently, many of the dishes are made from recipes that have been handed down from generation to generation. For a potluck, everyone breaks out their best offerings to share.
It seems to be a cultural thing about having enough food...if you don't have at least half of every dish left over you become concerned that you didn't fix enough food. Leftovers are a sign that you have fed everyone well, which in our world means that everyone is stuffed to the gills!
A story from the first pot luck dinner we attended at our church: On the way to Burton that Sunday morning we passed a wagon train drive about 30-40 people deep which was a reenactment thing. After church during the fellowship dinner it began to rain at just the same time the wagon train was coming through Burton in a downpour. Pastor Gene went out and flagged them down and asked them to come in and join us for dinner. True story...we fed our entire church congregation plus the 30-40 wagon train people, and we still took home leftovers!
I always begin a potluck dinner with good intentions...I am going to take a little bit of just my most favorite dishes so as not to become overstuffed. But then someone brings some delicious looking meatballs or a big pan of lasagna or enchilada casserole. Oh, and someone brought fried chicken! So I am not even past the main dishes and my plate is full. Then we have dozens of salads to choose from. I favor lettuce-type salads, and there is usually taco salad (my favorite) or a layered lettuce salad. I can pretty much skip over the Jello salads. And by that time I am at the desserts, which is where I always go wrong. Someone brought sour cream raisin pie or scotcheroos or angel food cake or apple crisp so there there are choices to be made because after one overloaded plate of food there is limited space in my stomach for desserts. But I usually give it a good try and take at least two dessert choices. We joke that the pastor never preaches against gluttony on fellowship Sunday!
So now it's Monday, and we have survived two potluck dinners over the weekend. Not only survived but enjoyed them immensely. I have a hard and fast rule to never weigh on Monday morning, especially if we have overindulged at a potluck dinner. And after two dinners, I will probably wait until at least the middle of the week so that I can hopefully work off some of the food I ate this past weekend.
The thing with the potluck, fellowship, carry-in dinner is that it's not all about the food. If it's about food we could just stay home and eat the things we like the best. The main goal of the dinner is fellowship and sharing a meal with friends and family. The dinner on Saturday was to celebrate a happy occasion and to honor a couple who have joined their lives. We visited with people and enjoyed time with other members of the community. On Sunday it was to honor a couple and their children who are leaving the comforts of life in rural Nebraska and heading off into unknown lands. It was the best of all things, good friends, good fellowship and good food.
So today the diet starts in earnest. With any luck I will survive it at least until supper. And cooking should be a breeze this week as we have leftovers.
Now I just need to get out to the kitchen and clean up the mess I made of my kitchen this weekend. Hope you have a great week!
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