THE OTHER HOLY PLACE
drizzly day, and we decided to bring all our leftovers to
my boat for a potluck. I’ll never forget being faced with
two large kielbasa, a rind of cheese, loaves of stale
bread, some fresh spinach, a jug of red wine, canned
white beans, a pound of pasta, and several cans of
chunky vegetable soup and wondering what on earth
could be concocted from it all. An hour later, eight of
us were sipping red wine and dining on a thick and
savory sausage minestrone with toasted garlic bread.
It was the perfect dinner for a damp autumn day.
When faced with a group larger than three or four
boats, I like to plan potlucks a little more carefully. An
unplanned potluck for a large group leaves room for
potential culinary disaster. You might end up with 10
salads and one entrée! At a potluck party ashore, I
asked everyone in my extended family of 15 to bring
their favorite potluck dish, but I made the mistake of
forgetting to ask what each would be bringing. The
result was a menu of four identical potato salads
(Grandmother’s recipe), 12 cupcakes, three pasta
salads, one small baked ham, 75 tollhouse cookies,
and three appetizers. I quickly defrosted beef and pork
tenderloins, lit the grill, and made a huge green salad
to balance things out.
Planning a large potluck party while cruising is fairly
simple. I usually ask that our friends on each boat sign
up to bring a specific type of dish: an appetizer, soup,
salad, entrée, side dish, bread, or dessert. To ensure the
proper proportion of entrée to appetizer to side dish
to dessert, I make a checklist that includes the number
of each kind of dish that we’ll need for the size of the
group. When a guest selects an item to bring, that
category of dish disappears off the “needed” list,
and I can get a count of who’s bringing what.
If we make plans for a potluck before we leave
for a cruise, we sometimes suggest a theme, such as
Southern, Mexican, or Mediterranean. We had lots of
fun once with a “creative burgers ’n’ dogs” potluck. I
asked everyone to bring their most inspired creations,
and I provided the rolls, condiments, appetizers, salads,
and dessert. Wow—I got buffalo and lamb burgers,
tuna burgers, bison and venison sausage, chorizo,
