Not Your Usual Potluck Contributions for Labor Day

If you are new to the potluck scene for your family or are tired of being the 4th person to pack a potato salad for the church picnic then you have come to the right place. Consider some of these substitutes instead.

Cookies are classic, and everyone loves them. But don't pack the same old chocolate chips - mix it up a little. Make a ¼ recipe each of chocolate chip, oatmeal, peanut butter, and shortbread or sugar cookies. You can mix up the peanut butter first and cook it last because the best ones sit in the fridge for at least 3 hours. Use chunky peanut butter for a spin - you will need about 1 tbsp more for a full recipe or reduce the flour by ½ tbsp. Then work on the oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies, while your peanut butter cookies are chilling you can start baking these. Finally you can start with the sugar cookies. Since your others are baking you can take extra time with the sugar cookies to make them fit the theme of your gathering. Finally, you can cook the peanut butter cookies while you decorate the sugar or shortbread cookies with icing. You want the sugar cookies cool but not cold, so you should ice them within 1 hour of removing them from the oven. Viola - 3 hours of cooking and you have enough cookies and variety to make your contribution worthwhile and commendable!

Maybe you prefer to make something you can really decorate. The newest fad for cakes is to make cupcakes that can be separated without cutting, but group them together to make a picture like a big cake. One thing I recommend, especially for those with big gatherings, is not to make big cupcakes. The Pampered Chef offers a mini-muffin pan which cooks 24 cupcakes at once. You can find mini cupcake sleeves at any grocery or craft store. You can easily make 3 batches of these from any cake mix or homemade recipe. My advice is to make it from scratch if you plan to make a design, your cupcakes will hold up better and, frankly, it does taste better. Line up your cupcakes as tightly packed as possible without smashing them. You want to make a generally rectangular shape but you can't have large gaps like you would find if you made nice neat rows. Kind of stagger them as shown:

X X X X X X X X X X
X X X X X X X X X
X X X X X X X X X X
X X X X X X X X X
X X X X X X X X X X

Once your cupcakes are together you can frost and decorate them just like a regular cake. The plus is that you don't have to frost the sides, the negative is that your cupcakes can individually tilt ruining your picture so transport with extra care. Your guests will appreciate the effort to keep the sweets small and your hosts will love your creativity!

If you are in the mood for something different but don't want to make a sweet here is a quick and easy salad to try! The best part is that your dressing is mixed right into the salad instead of on the side - so bring extra lettuce and a small bottle of ranch dressing if you want to cater to those who may not be ready to try something different. You want to use the Italian mix of greens if you buy bagged greens, if you wish to get fresh you want a mix of romaine, radicchio, and a minimum of iceberg to stretch your salad. For the dressing you want to whisk together ½ cup apricot nectar (I use the juice from a can of apricots in heavy syrup if you can't find nectar), 1/3 cup virgin olive oil, 1/3 cup white wine vinegar, ½ tsp salt, and 1 tbsp Durkee sauce or Dijon style mustard. Gently mix in 3 finely chopped green onions, ½ cup of dried apricots - you can leave whole but it is better if you snip them into fourths. Peel and core 6 bartlett pears and then cut into wedges. Toss the dressing and the greens together. You can ring the salad with the pears or cut into chunks and mix them in as well. You need 8-10 ounces of blue cheese- if you get crumbles mix them in, if you get blocks cut into cubes and alternate pears with cubes of cheese around the outside. Finally, top the entire affair with toasted almonds, about ¾ of a cup coarsely chopped.