Jeez, I hate potlucks! In my opinion, every PERSON should bring a dish. It’s not a freakin’, “free lunch,” for all your family members and homies, folks! Oh, and when preparing food for the consumption of others, get the cat out of the kitchen, wash your nasty hands, don’t pick anything, and pull your hair back!  That is all and, “thank you.”

Potluck justice.  I love it.

On the other hand, couples do not generally receive individual gifts at holidays and celebrations - it’s usually a ‘couple’ gift...something for the house or a single bottle of wine. (Or, y’know, I have cheap friends and relations)

I guess I’m always living in the grey.  We bring one dish, and it’s enough to feed 10 people.

Oh, and good call on the gift thing, Kate.  Gift Injustice is a harsh reality of marriage.

I don’t go to potluck dinners. I guess they’re fun for some people, but not me. I’ll either cook it all myself or go to a restaurant. Much easier.

Same with BYOB parties. John and I always make sure to bring TWO bottles. Hello.

‘What is this? I don’t know what this is. It’s certainly not justice. It must be something else entirely.’

it’s tuna noodle cassorole, most of the time.  but sometimes, it’s nine-layer dip.

Hey, shoot me, but I think this is a gender issue. Women are all, “What do you need?  I was going to bring artichoke frittata, but if you need a non-chocolate dessert, I could do THAT...” and guys are all, “Uh, I brought napkins and some beer.” So if a couple brings only one thing, it’s gonna be a peach crisp for ten, and all you lose is the napkins (because he drank the beer himself anyway.) I love potlucks, because without potlucks I would never have tasted Vietnamese Fish Jello, which was nasty but has provided much comic mileage over the years.

In the south we call them “covered dish dinners.” My experience here is that couples bring one large “covered dish,” and the singles bring paper products, beer, wine, the stuff you can grab on the way home. The thing is, we don’t go to them because Mr. Wonderful will not eat food cooked in someone else’s kitchen. Yeah, like mine is so clean. He does eat in restaurants, laboring under the misconception that THEY are sanitary. He’s never worked in a restaurant.

Wow.  The idea that people you ostensibly know/trust have kitchens that are less sanitary than restaurants is beyond deluded.

I would never put full faith to a couple-collaborate Ambrosia Salad.  This delicate (and often dangerous) concoction can only be prepared under extreme conditions.  Too many hands in the project will most likely skew the Jell-O, fruit, coconut, and marshmallow proportions—too risky, indeed. 

i had a thought, but it has completely abandoned my tiny head in the wake of VIETNAMESE FISH JELLO.

i think i’m going to have nightmares.  jesus.

And of course I sat right next to the kindly woman who had made it.

Every. Single. Bite.

OMG fish and jello should never ever be joined. what an unholy matrimony that must be.
ugh.

It’s not like anybody brings a single serving. I could see it if it was sort of a ‘secret-santa-style’ potluck. Obviously, then there is a need for each tragic half of every rotten couple to bring a serving. As a ‘covered dish’ will generally serve several, it should really even out.

Really, what is up with a single person that will even sit in a roomful of couples and covered dishes? You might as well bring an empty chair, half-heart locket (empty, of course) and ‘missing-spouse’ place setting.

I have a few friends that cannot convince me to eat food prepared in their homes. Sorry, I’ve been there and seen the proximity of your catshit-eating dog to your ghastly oven/mousehouse. I’d honestly prefer licking the hair fresh off of your dogs back if I had to choose.

BTW, I wonder why nobody ever invites me to potlucks anymore...*huge grin*

“Marriage is when two people are joined together to become one desperately boring person.” ~Ardal O’Hanlon.
Thus, it is fitting that they only bring one dish and only get one present. 

I’m the lowest of the low. I bring fruit.

It’s kinda like how people with CHILDREN get to leave work first when there’s a late-night project because somehow the lifestyle choice to have CHILDREN trumps the lifestyle choices people who don’t have CHILDREN make.

Well, sometimes parents have to leave early to pick up their CHILDREN because CHILDREN can’t drive themselves home from DAYCARE.

Uh...er...HEY!  Anyone want some chicken casserole?

and sometimes CHILDREN should just shut up and pick up their DADDIES at the TAVERN, cause damn it, he ain’t spendin’ another night in JAIL.  It’s just a little give AND take.

Chicken casserole?

Any jello in that?

I thought that was why after people couple off they drift away from their single friends.  Can’t stand the shame of single-dish-from-two-to-pot-luck-suppers.  (I never remember gifts for anyone, so noone ever feels left out).

and please note: if you ask a vegetarian to bring a desert plate, lettuce DOES NOT count as a main meal.

uh, that was .. dessert .. plate

No, thank you. I’ve already had BREAKFAST.

hey, I thought of an amicable solution.  couples bring one dish and singles bring a half dish.  because they’re clearly half of a whole couple to be.

bring on the hate mail.

Preach on, pot-luck-justice guy!
Actually, the last time I went to a pot-luck, I teamed up with another single guy who was going and said, “Let’s bring devilled eggs.” Problem solved.  And no one asked why the two of us only brought one dish between us.  Although that could be because we couldn’t find any paprika, and used red pepper instead because, hey, it was the right color at least.  They probably didn’t want to be forced to indulge in any other cooking experiments or meals made entirely from leftover condiments.

“Wow. The idea that people you ostensibly know/trust have kitchens that are less sanitary than restaurants is beyond deluded.”—Greg

Greg --

You are exactly right. I cannot point this out to Mr. Wonderful because then we would NEVER go out to dinner. This problem of his springs from a deeply disturbed childhood. His mother and his aunts, who lived across the street, were absolute slobs. Their kitchens were filthy. I am a neat freak, a clean freak. You could eat off my toilets. Not that you’d want to.

I keep telling him “The Health Dept. keeps up with all the restaurants so we know they’re plenty safe.” So far, it’s worked.

Yeah. So far.

so very hungry now.

Wow… there is an overwhelming amount of thought going into this issue… you can think about other stuff after you see a table full of food?  Weird. 

reminds me of my old office holiday parties… there was a ‘spouse’ gift (always lame as hell) but those of us who are single, and have to take care of every goddamn aspect of our life ON OUR OWN, get nothing?

i mean, the singles are never celebrated.  or are they?  am i working for the wrong people?!?!?

damn the man! 

forget the whole couple / single thing.
People should bring at least as much mass to the table as they expect to consume.

And it’s about weight, not volume. If you think that a bag of Jay’s potato chips will merit you a chicken leg, potato salad, and a slice of banana bread, think again.