Another thread (which I haven’t read) complains that potlucks at work are not a ‘treat’. So speaking of potlucks…
My friend graduated from nursing school Friday, and her pinning ceremony was Saturday. It was a very informal affair that featured a large potluck spread. The line was huge (there were probably 300 people in attendance), so we waited over an hour to get into line. There was plenty of food, so nobody was going home hungry. A couple of observations, though:
Please eat what you take. I would have liked a piece of fried chicken. I noticed a fried chicken thigh in the trash, with just the top piece of skin removed. What a waste! Not that I’d have gotten a piece of fried chicken if that person hadn’t taken it. But someone who wanted to eat it would have.
Salt. Too much of it. Almost everything I tried was way too salty. (Friend’s potato salad wasn’t, since she didn’t add any salt. Some ingredients were already salty.) I’m not physically bothered by excess salt, but I know some people are. I wonder if these new nurses and their families were trying to provide job security by increasing people’s blood pressure?
The chocolate mousse pie looked like poo. But it tasted good.
I can’t address the “too salty” issue.
But yes, please, don’t take what you’re not sure you want to eat! Other people want to eat, too! AND. . .potlucks work best when someone is organizing to the extent that there’s a proportionate number of entrees to side dishes to desserts!
At the same time, though, if you have a limited diet for whatever reason (you’re diabetic, you’re vegetarian, you’re on Weight Watcher’s, whatever) please be sure to bring something that is suitable for you. I’ve been to too many potlucks where someone had dietary restrictions, brought food that didn’t fit those restrictions, and then bitched because there was nothing there for them to eat!
Where I used to work, the Director would decree a staff luncheon from time to time with the company picking up the tab. Two of my coworkers were vegetarian, so I always reminded him to order a vegetarian dish or two.
Change that to black pepper, and white pepper too. Some people love to grind and grind and grind pepper into dishes. Sometimes this is apparent, sometimes it’s not. I have very good medical reasons to avoid pepper, and if I take a serving of a dish, and it has pepper in it, then I’m going to leave all of that serving except for a single bite. This might or might not have been what happened to that chicken thigh. Some people do waste an appalling amount of food, if they don’t have to pay for it. But not everyone can eat everything, and not everyone even LIKES everything. I like my food to be pretty salty, but I never add salt when I’m cooking for anyone else, because I know that I tend to oversalt stuff. Anyone who wants their portion to be saltier can always add more salt, but if someone gets a bowl of my pinto beans, s/he can’t unsalt that bowl if I’ve salted it to my taste.
I’m trying to think of any recipe I’ve ever made for a main dish that doesn’t call for “salt and pepper to taste”. I think needing to avoid pepper might be one of those circumstances where you have to assume that everything has it unless someone has specifically made you a dish without it.