I see this asked on Facebook all the time:  what do I bring for a potluck, how do I do that?  The homemade food always disappears first and everyone is impressed when it’s made from love.  

Easy!  Bring your favorite church, picnic, and neighborhood gathering dish, ask yourself can it be frozen and kept in the ice chest cool for a few days?  

Can it be heated up in my Crockpot, microwave or trailer oven, or cooked in a Dutch oven?

Meatballs, little sausages in BBQ sauce, stews, chili, and soups.  All can be frozen and made ahead of time and warmed up.  

Bundt cakes are perfect, as are muffins, cookies, sweet bread, and all can be made ahead the weekend or weeknights before you leave and frozen.

Salads – Potato, Cole slaw, cucumber, pasta salad, and my favorite: Broccoli salad!

Break the recipe down; separate your dry and wet ingredients, chop ahead and mix the dressing ahead.  

Broccoli Salad –

2 heads of Broccoli – chopped and steamed for 2 minutes makes it bright green and slightly tender. 

5 slices of crisp bacon chopped in a separate container, reserve grease

½ cup Raisins separate container 

½ cup of Peanuts or on the side

½ half of a red onion chopped in container  

Dressing mix in a container 

1 cup of Mayo, 1 TBS of vinegar, 1 TBS sugar, and 2 TBS of Bacon grease 

Mix the dressing together, it will keep for days. 

Mix all together an hour or 2 before dinner and watch it disappear. 

Easy potluck Egg Dishes:

Eggs and milk can be mixed together or pancake batter made up ahead on time. 

Sometimes I cook the bacon or sausage the weekend before making extra that Sunday morning and freezing some for a camp out a week or more ahead of time?

I also do a Chocolate cherry cheesecake in my Dutch oven; I mix the chocolate cake mix, water, oil and pour into a container.  Cream cheese, vanilla and sugar in a separate container and so on to layer into the Dutch oven. 

Think outside the box and have fun with it!  Always use plastic containers to reuse, I just pack up the dirty ones and throw in the dishwasher when I get home.

 Maybe soon I’ll post my French toast recipe famous in Texas and Oklahoma!