30 Themed Potluck Parties
30 Themed Potluck Parties
Random Observation/Comment #717: All that cooking during the pandemic has prepped me for the upcoming set of neighborhood cooking competitions. Challenge accepted.
Why this List?
It’s time to party! We’ve been stuck inside for way too long and now we are ready to host and be hosted. Most of these ideas are just foods I want to eat all the time.
Boozy brunch – We just did this one! Frittatas take about 30 min to make and can be prepped ahead of time. Waffles and tater tots are super easy for kids.
Bloody Mary buffet – Everyone bring a topping for the skewer. Just saw a party with mini sliders and burritos, so I think they can get pretty awesome and creative.
Ramen party – Cook different broths or pick and choose across different toppings. I think next time I’ll make the char sui and have people grill their own outside. It’d be great to bring your own bowls and toppings.
Brew day with BBQ – Most of brew day is cleaning and waiting for things to boil or cool. Lots of time to taste different beers and perfect for eating some BBQ.
Special ingredient supper club – Pick an ingredient like pineapple (Iron Chef style) and everyone bring their own dish to share with this ingredient.
Make your own pizza – Bring ingredients and use one of those ovens that get up to 900 degrees and makes pizza in 90 seconds. Little personal pizzas are great.
Italian themed dishes – Consider bringing your own bib as sauce is bound to get everywhere. I’d make a red sauce, alfredo, clam sauce, and basil based sauce. Make your own adventure. Lots of micro-planed Parmesano Reggiano. Not too hard to make your own pasta.
Sliders party – I could think of some nice customization with different types of meat and vege sliders. Crab cakes? Caprese? Meatball? Lamb?
Grilled cheese party – Needs lots of butter, cheese types, and lactaid. Seems like it could be fun for testing out grilling recipes. I’d buy a few standing grills for this so people can make their own. Maybe a panini press?
Dumpling making party – Perfect Chinese New Year activity. So much fun to fold your own shapes. Steaming or boiling with a chicken soup.
Indian themed party – I should totally get a tandoori clay oven and just do a Naan making party with a base of basmati rice. We can then each make some interesting Indian cuisines like palak paneer.
Hot pot / shabu shabu party – Everyone bring their own set of raw dishes. I would keep this a smaller group and I’ll need to buy some hot pot portable stoves.
Korean bim bim bap party – I would even extend this to any dish made in clay pots. Time to buy some clay pots.
Taco party – Bring your own fillings with a choice of chicken, ground beef, or pork. Tacos and margaritas go hand in hand. I’ll bring the Clase Azul!
Chili cook off – Maybe 3 types of chili with some bread bowls, cheese, and sour cream. Need to add hot dogs so we can make some chili dogs.
Baked potato party – Loaded baked potatoes are so yummy. This isn’t a low calorie party. Reminds me of going to Turkey and having those street cart mashed potatoes. Also had ridiculous mashed potato hot dog in Sweden and Brazil.
Congee and wonton noodles – Super simple Hong Kong style lunch. There are some easy frozen wontons that taste great. Congee I can make with a plain base and boil with different toppings and the fried donuts.
Pretzel making party – I’ve never made my own pretzel, but this also seems fun. I wonder if you can bake them in the pizza oven.
Spanish Tapas party – I’d love to look up different types of Spanish tapas recipes and split up a few. Might be hard to get good seafood, but it could be yummy.
Paella party – I don’t have the expertise or pan for this, but maybe one day this could be a thing
Clam/seafood/lobstah bake – Need to buy a huge lobstah pot. This could be a fun way to deliver some seafood and make a huge pot of it. Gotta eat it on top of newspapers and bring some mallots for the new England experience.
Fancy Truffle party – I like nice things and I can see myself buying a whole truffle and mandolin slicer to make a theme out of it. Might as well add some caviar to it.
Stir fry-day – Obviously needs to be a Friday and we just make quick types of stir-fry on fried, white, or brown rice.
Layered/stacked food – Constructing a layered food is pretty fun. It’s actually how I got into cooking when I was younger. Lasagna, eggplant parm, multi bean dip, and cakes.
Poutine construction – I guess I’d have to make my own fries here and custom gravy. Lots of different cheeses and toppings like pulled pork.
CBD infused foods – Seems like this could be dangerous and experimental, but I’d totally do this. I’ll take a professional cooking class with the extracts first
Foods that are a specific color – Maybe a lot of green dishes for St Patty’s day. It’d be better if these were foods that are normally a different color, but we just dye everything.
Sushi / poke bowl pot luck – Good reason to buy a new knife for cutting sushi. I do like making rolls, but maybe this might be a bit hard to do. Need to learn how to make good sushi rice first and then source some fresh fish. Poke bowl is a good alternative with some different toppings and ponzu sauces.
Wings party – Would love to make wings with different dressings and try out new flavor combos. Ranch and blue cheese a must. Need that Frank’s hot sauce for the Buffalo wing base.
Salad party – Just kidding. You can’t make friends with salad.
After coming up with these ideas, I can see myself gaining a lot of weight even if this was every two weeks or a month. I need to implement a parallel workout plan with this one…. or let’s just all get fat together. #dadbodftw
~See Lemons Meet Neighbors
—
Originally posted on seelemons.com