The POTLUCKEN

So this last weekend we had a Family Get Together a.k.a.  POTLUCK.  I brought the meatballs... that my mom made. Oh, and the chips... that my mom bought.


As you can see, I'm not that good at potlucks. I've only recently entered Potlucken*.


I'm pretty good at bringing things to a Party. I can BYOB with the best of them, and I can even bring a snack to share... that one is easy, cause I love snacks. Unfortunately, I usually eat part of the snack before I get there, and then I'm mowing down on it the rest of the time... it is the sharing part that gets lost.


I've noticed in the last few years that I've attended a lot more of these Potlucks, and even write them in my calendar as a planned event. This last weekend, I had an opportunity to SKIP the family potluck, but I didn't. In fact, I even came back to help clean up later. Don't tell anyone, but I had a reasonably good time. Howktown family reunions are generally conspicuously absent of 16-30 year olds. One or two will brave the fire, but usually because they have children that want to play with their 2nd and 3rd cousins.


I determined that I must have entered that phase of life commonly referred to in Howktown as Potlucken. Which is a word I made up, but since I rule this town, and have final say over the Howktown Lexicon... well you get the picture.

Potlucken - noun. A phase of life usually entered into in late 20's to early 30s for women, and mid 30s for men, where things that you couldn't be bothered with before suddenly are entered in pen in your calendar and take priority over nights on the town. e.g. "Sorry, I can't stay out all night at the "New Moon" Premiere, I have a potluck to go to, and I said I'd bring the meatballs. Yeah, I know that I'd have dropped everything to wait in line for 3 days five years ago, but since then I've entered into Potlucken"

Side effects of Potlucken often included exaggerated use of the regional dialect, don'tch ya know. An increase in hot dish recipes in your repertoire, and thinking that pickled herring, sauerkraut, and liverwurst aren't really that bad when you come to think about it.

Maybe next year I'll actually make a salad or hotdish... I have a few more in my recipe box this year.