Do you drain the can of regular corn?
My favorite potluck dish is a basic pasta salad – colored rotini, Italian dressing, and whatever add-ins sound good: bacon and/or chicken, lots of veggies, sunflower nuts, olives, etc.
A lot of desserts mentioned already, but my standby is Ina Garten’s peanut butter and jelly bars.
I love baked beans at a cookout–you could jazz up some canned beans with onion, bacon, bbq sauce . . . whatever – and put them in a crock pot. I’d eat it!
A real crowd pleaser is my stuffed cherry tomatoes. They are a pain in the ass to make, so I do it only for people I like, but they are yummy and scarfed up immediately. Will dig out the recipe if anyone wants it.
(My link didn’t work on preview, but just search the Food Network site.)
I do that quite often, also. Easy to make, satisfying to eat. I used to make lumpia for almost every potluck, but that was by demand. I’ve probably made 10,000 of those things in my life. Come to think of it, I have a package of wrappers in the freezer. . .
I have some packages of frozen lumpia for dinner tomorrow. What do you serve it with? Do you use the sweet chili sauce?
Salad:
3 granny smith apples
2 cans red beans - drained and rinsed really well
1 can garbanzo beans (or white beans - mostly for some contrast)
Green, yellow, and red bell peppers
sweet red onion or vidalia onion
Extra virgin olive oil
white balsamic vinegar (raspberry or pear infused is yummy)
little salt
fresh cracked pepper, fine
Sorry I don’t have better amounts, I made this up and add ingredients by sight. Pretty much 1 large apple to 1 can of whatever beans, 1/4 should end up peppers, and less than that, onion. The rest to taste, just to coat.
Dessert:
1 bag frozen halved strawberries
1 bag frozen sweet black cherries
1 bag frozen peach slices
Splash about 1/4 bottle Marsala and 1/4 cup sugar over the fruit in a bowl the night before the event. Refrigerate. Slice up pound cake when time for dessert, spoon fruit and sauce over the cake, and add whipped cream on top. Sprinkle cinnamon to be really fancy.
Ooh, yeah. I’m going to have to make this again the next time I visit my boyfriend. If I make it around him, I won’t have the opportunity to eat the whole damned thing!
I believe you meant to say “any of it.” You’re welcome. 
I used to make sweet & sour from a package mix, chop up a few scallions into it and pretend it was homemade. People loved it. I actually prefer them cold the next day with either some mustard or a bit of A-1 Sauce. Heresy, I know. I’ve tried the premade lumpia from the frozen food section, but they just don’t measure up to ones you put together yourself (but few things do).
Quoth overlyverbose:
Wow, my mom makes that, too, with almost the exact same recipe (except I think hers also has some sour cream in it, too). I’ve made it a few times myself, too, and between when I’ve made it and when she does, I’ve never seen any leftovers. And Auntie Pam, you don’t drain either of the cans, just dump everything in and mix it.
What I make depends on the potluck. When I’m invited to a Thanksgiving dinner, I always bring pies, because I know for a fact that there won’t be enough pies (this is a statement that remains true no matter how many pies there actually are). For the physics department’s annual [del]Nerd Party in the Woods[/del] Physics Fall Party, it’s become traditional that I always make sloppy joes. For other potlucks, it depends on what I’m in the mood for, and what I know about what others are making, and whether there’s a theme for the party, and on what recipes I happen to have lying around that I haven’t tried yet.
Deceptively easy and wicked popular…may I present, my berry trifle:
Angel food cake, cut into 1-inch cubes.
Kool Whip.
Vanilla pudding (prepared)
Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries (fresh is much better than frozen)
A fancy (but cheap, ~$10) trifle bowl (required for presentation)
Line the bowl with cake cubes
Add a layer of pudding.
Add a layer of Kool Whip.
Add a layer of berries.
Repeat until you get to the top. Finish with a layer of Kool Whip, then carefully-arranged berries. Served chilled
Seriously, folks talk about this dish for days afterwards.
This isn’t my recipe, but here is a good idea of what the finished dish looks like:
I have two that usually go over well.
Onions Celeste
Slice three or four big onions (Vidalias, whatever) and cook them in the microwave until they are limp.
Into the onions, stir a can of condensed cream of chicken soup (undiluted, and fat-free works fine), grated Swiss cheese, and seasoned croutons of some variety. Sprinkle some more cheese on top and bake in a 350 degree oven until bubbly and browned on top. It’s sort of like French onion soup casserole.
Texas Caesar Salad
Into your salad bowl put romaine, a diced red pepper, sweet corn cut off the cob (raw), parmesan cheese, and croutons. For the dressing, take bottled Caesar dressing (light is fine) and pour about half of it in the food processor. To the dressing, add a generous handful of fresh cilantro, half or more of a fresh jalapeno, and the juice from half a lime. Whomp until blended. Pour of the salad and toss. If you make it in advance, add the croutons right before you dress the salad so they don’t get soggy.
harvard beet wraps.
Peel some fresh red beets. Rub them with a mixture of brown sugar, seasoning salt, pepper, lemon, a generous dash of Balsamic vinegar, and wrap them individually in tin foil with a pat of butter and yet another dash of balsamico, a wedge of lemon and a teaspoon of dark brown sugar. Throw them all individually wrapped into a 13X9 cake pan, roast for around 60 minutes in a 400F OVEN depending on size and quantity.
Trifle of any flavor but my favorite is chocolate/toffee.
Hammered Chicken.
Take boneless, skinless chicken breasts, or tenders if you prefer. Get the el-cheapo generic chicken; it really won’t matter. Beat the everliving crap out of the chicken with a meat tenderizer until it’s about a quarter-inch thick. Triple-dip (flour, egg, flour) in your favorite seasoned flour — I use Big Spring Mill, but that’s hard to find outside this area. Skillet-fry in EVOO with a touch of lemon pepper.
Anywhere I’ve taken it, it has never failed to be a hit. Sure, everyone loves fried chicken, but the it’s the hammering that makes this dish shine (seriously, it tastes different than regular pan-fried chicken — bolder, more snacktastic flavor). Cooks up nice and quick, too.
I make something similar, but I infuse a little garlic in the oil and cook a few strips of bacon first, leave off the breading, then brown the chicken in the olive oil and bacon dripping. Add a cup of white wine, and braise till done, then serve with sauce and crumbled bacon on top. Never a scrap left.
I should say that the Harvard Beet Raps is not my go-to. Simply an idea, whether it works or not, well…
Recipes aren’t written in stone as Alton would lead you to believe. They are a language and a constant, pulsating, genetic, cultural, geographic, and psychological Propaganda della Boca, Tasty!
Chicken marsala without the gravy.
Hashbrown casserole:
1 30 oz bag frozen hashbrowns (shredded, not patties), thawed
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 onion, diced fairly small
1 pint sour cream
8 oz. shredded cheddar
1/2 stick butter, melted
1 Tablespoon dried parsley.
Mix it all together. Put it into a 13x9" pan. Bake at 350 for one hour, until browned on top. Make 2 of these. One for the potluck, one for home. Add some to scrambled eggs for breakfast. My son will eat half a pan of this if I don’t control him.
You mean Hotdish?
I take this to my department picnic every year, where it’s a big hit. It’s easy to make, no cooking needed. You need a big bowl, and you need to make it the day before you serve it.
Bev’s Chinese Salad
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup white distilled vinegar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 packages Oriental flavor Ramen Noodles
1 lb shredded cabbage (just use a bag of cole slaw mix from the store)
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 cup sunflower seeds (unsalted)
1 cup sliced almonds
Break up noodles into 1-2 inch chunks and put in large bowl with cabbage and green onions. In a small bowl, mix the sugar, vinegar, oil, and contents of seasoning packets from the Ramen Noodles. Add this mixture to the large bowl and stir well – you want everything, especially the noodles, coated. Cover with plastic and let stand in the refrigerator overnight. The next day, check the noodles once or twice to make sure they’re softening up. If they aren’t, break them up some more and stir them in again to coat them.
Right before serving, stir in the almonds and sunflower seeds. Enjoy!