I've been attending several holiday parties and really enjoying the fact that I'm not doing all the cooking. I do love to cook, but discovering new food combos through other people's recipes is a real pleasure (most of the time).
The inventiveness of people in their potluck party foods never ceases to amaze me. I would not have considered putting sweet potatoes into a black bean salad, but they were the absolute right complement to a slighty spicy dish and addied a nice dollop of color as well. The white chocolate chip cookies were studded with sweet chips, but the little red nuggets I took initially for dried cranberries turned out to be dried cherries, and it just elevated the entire cookie.
My sister has a knack for simple dishes that seem a lot more complicated, given their full flavor. Maybe it's not rocket science to add feta cheese to a block of cream cheese and top it with some great fresh herbs, but it's a cracker or bread spread that lets the individual flavors soar. It's nice to have a twist on the standard dip and chip offerings that are going strong where I live.
The other interesting aspect of potlucks is how certain dishes suddenly are seen everywhere. I think of the quintessential pistachio pudding/canned pineapple/almonds/marshmallow creme fluff that surfaced many years ago and is still wildly popular, with various flavors of pudding subbing in for the original green version. It's really dessert, but everyone serves it as a salad course, and I guess that's okay, because it does have pineapple in it. But where did it come from?
The other night, I saw a lovely platter of sauteed baby bok choy, with an arrangement of thinly sliced disks, each sporting five or six small holes. I had never seen anything like this: was it edible? Oh yes, it was lotus root, and those little holes serve as straws, of a kind, to bring in water to the body of the lotus plant. They are indeed edible, and though not strongly flavored, they were an attractive tan counterpoint to the green and white bok choy. Another interesting possiblity for future cooking adventures.
Every time I return from a potluck or a party where someone else has furnished the food, I have new inspiration and new energy to lift my daily cooking a notch or two. Even the predictability of a church dinner (big cheesy ground beef casserole, rolls and butter, green salad, chocolate brownies) can deliver a surprise now and then. I think fondly of a fabulous rhubarb and strawberry pie, when I was fortunate enough to be at the front of the line when it appeared, and have since tried and tried to duplicate its spring-fresh flavors and light-as-air crust.
In this season of giving, food is one of the best gifts we can bring to others. It doesn't have to be elaborate or exotic, but if it's prepared with care and a soupcon of creativity, it just soars. And even if it's same old same old, giving food is warmly received. Always.