Gatherings in the Storm: Potluck Extraordinaire

As I write this on a snowy Friday afternoon, schools are closed, the kids are home from school, people are staying indoors, our local movie theater is closed for the night. As I look out the window at a landscape covered with a blanket of new white powder, I am reminded of a time when Mrs. Farmboy and I were first married and living in a rather remote spot on the windswept coast. Times like these called for storm parties. I was the envy of all my friends. Picture this: three women who were all chef-level cooks and me. And the spreads upon the table were spectacular.

The beauty of these stormy days is that these cooks would coordinate early in the day to decide what they had available and what they wanted to cook. Then they concocted a multi-course menu that would make a restaurant proud. They would spend the afternoon putting these elements of the feast together, sometimes separately, sometimes jointly. (This was pre-email and texting; they did it by phone, imagine that.) Their refrigerators and pantries typically produced tasty appetizers, a main course with salad, and a fantastic dessert. At one meal, I recall homemade pasta with an unbelievable homemade white clam sauce: canned clams and bottled clam juice, garlic, white wine – simple. As for the desserts, these ladies exhibited exceptional creativity with the ingredients on hand: apples and frozen cranberries for pie, eggs for zabaglione, baking essentials for pound cake with sautéed pears. And since one of these friends was a wine buyer, we always had both variety and quantity of vintages for these meals. As the snow and wind swirled outside, we enjoyed humanity’s greatest event: excellent food and fellowship.

A good excuse for a spontaneous party

There’s a lesson here. It might be cold and the ground covered with snow, but it when it clears, you can tromp over to the neighbors’ house, as we did, or maybe drive a short way when the roads are plowed. As we are back to cocooning, there’s nothing to stop us from a spontaneous challenge to some trusted friends to join in a hyper-local potluck dinner party.

Tonight, for example, instead of trekking out to the supermarket for end-of-the-week supplies, we’re making a homemade pizza with things we have available in the fridge and the cupboards: leftover salami from holiday charcuterie, chopped olives, artichoke hearts, Parmesan cheese. That pizza stone comes in handy, but a baking sheet will do; we make our own pizza dough, but frozen will do in a pinch. Tomorrow, we’ve invited nearby friends to play cards and eat chili. I have ground hamburger and corn in the freezer, and onions, garlic, dried beans, canned chipotles, and pickled jalapenos in the pantry.

During other inclement days, we’ll assess what’s available right here. The beauty of an Instant Pot is that I can make a great meal with a frozen pork or beef roast, as long as I plan a little ahead to defrost it. That could mean a tagine, a pot-au-feu, Hungarian gulyas, or Goan beef curry, depending on my mood and the other vegetables in the crisper drawer.

A fine time for creative cuisine

You get the idea. We knew last night that schools and businesses would be shut down, and the snowfall was expected to be 6 to 8 inches by the time it was over in late afternoon. That’s the perfect time to think about an instant party with your pod. Maybe suggest pooling resources to try a new cuisine, or experiment with something you’d always wanted to but never made. Maybe even try a riff on something like a Southeast Asian version of vindaloo. Or a German curry. Take this dish: verdure con fagioli. Someone in your pod will likely have some spinach or kale or another strong green vegetable. This dish is simple: some sauteed aromatics, combined with wilted greens, some interesting beans, and finished by simmering in a pleasant broth. What else could you want on a snowy day? I’m sure you could come up with some others who would join in this storm-driven spontaneous potluck party.

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