I love traveling, but even I can't travel all the time. First of all, I don't want to, and second of all, I don't have the money to do that. I have a lot of friends who like to get together for random things, and who also love to travel, but don't have money to do more than a trip or two every year. So, I came up with something to satisfy our cravings: Destination potlucks.
This last weekend, we held our first one. The concept is simple. You choose a region or country and everyone brings beverages, entrees, sides or desserts from that place. Our first potluck covered Scandinavia, so we included Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Iceland. Several of our friends brought more than one dish, and I made two as well as a beverage.
Sorry for the terrible lighting on this video
In addition to food, I did a tiny bit of research and made up fun facts handouts, a map along with travel tips, and dressed up my Snape stand-up with a Scandinavian folk hat that I made out of heavy duty paper and ribbons, as well as giving my large "portrait" with a traditional holiday headdress, along with the history of it. I felt it only made sense if we learned things as well as made some cool dishes that we may or may not like.
Here's a list of some of the dishes we had:
- Kalpudding - a Swedish meatloaf and cabbage dish that was pretty easy make and also pretty tasty.
- Cucumber salad - I make this regularly, except without the tons of dill it calls for, so I was pretty confident in this dish.
- Saft - A drink where you basically make your own fruit concentrate and then mix with sparkling water.
- Kantareller og Geitost - A lovely dish made with chanterelle mushrooms and goat cheese that you can serve on crostini.
- Ovnbagte aebler med log - Roasted onions and apples that are sliced and use lemon and elderflower. This is creamy and an awesome side.
- Salmon chowder - If you like a hearty soup, this is fantastic.
- Aebleskivers - I've made these little round doughnuts before, but I don't have a pan to make them now. My friend made three different kinds.
- Kroppkakor - Potato dumplings with bacon and onion in the middle, which can be served with jam or gravy. Either way, they are yummy, and easily a main all by themselves.
- Krumkaker - A cool cone-shaped thin waffle that can be filled with whipped cream and topped with candy, fruit, and/or sprinkles.
We had several other things, including a cheesecake dessert, candies, and drinks, and this was with just a dozen people. Everything was very filling, so I would suggest fasting a bit if you go with this region. So many carbs, but also so very delicious.
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| a better view of Snape's folk hat :) |
Everyone was so into this theme and can't wait until our next one. We haven't chosen a region yet, but we're leaning towards British/UK foods, so we can include Scottish and Irish foods as well as Indian (because there is a huge population in London and the official dish is chicken tikka masala). That way we can also ease into more ethnic foods for future potlucks. I'd also love to include some regional games and possibly have others bring 3 facts they thought were interesting from our destination.
Have you ever had a destination party of any kind? Share, so we can all have more ideas!
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