North of Austin is the city of Waco, Texas, where libraries have meditation rooms, poetry festivals last three days, and of course, great barbecue is never far away.
Tour guide Rachel Lynne Wilkerson grew up in West Texas, and moved to Waco for college, returning in January 2014 for work. As Rachel describes it, "what Waco lacks in typical charm it makes up for by providing an abundance of what Anne Shirley terms “scope for the imagination.”
The word potluck conjures up different images for different people, but some of the usual trappings are never far away: Grandma's potato salad, church functions on the lawn, neighborhood parties in the park, and not always (but sometimes), an excessive use of mayonnaise.
It's time we give the potluck a modern twist. A new cookbook was just released that will help you embrace community cooking in a whole new way this summer (and any time of year, really). Third Thursday Community Potluck Cookbook by Nancy Vienneau is a breath of fresh air, and I'm excited to be able to share it with you!
It all started when two friends in Nashville, Nancy Vienneau and Gigi Gaskins, met at a local summit on food security. Instant friends, they had an idea to host a once-a-month gathering that became "a potluck like no other."
The rules are simple. Dishes aren't assigned, RSVPs aren't collected, and the whole thing feels casual and relaxing. In reading through the cookbook, I loved the story of the very first potluck. It was like the first day of school, a mix of excitement and nerves.
“Beginnings, by nature, are uncertain. In preparing for our first community potluck, our thoughts occasionally gravitated to worry. Will we have enough food? Will people like it? Will anybody come? Those concerns are natural, but run contrary to the joy and purpose of the gathering.”
The collection of stories speaks to the splendor of gathering in any season, and the personal recipes like Maggie's Refrigerator Zucchini Pickles, Caroline's Warm Eggplant Salad, Mark's Fifteen-Spice Steak Rub, or Amy's Ginger Cookies (below), will provide inspiration for all your gatherings to come.
What do you bring when you're invited to a picnic, potluck, or summer barbeque? To enter the giveaway for a copy of the Third Thursday Community Potluck Cookbook, leave a comment sharing your favorite potluck foods before Friday, June 20th. (Winners in US and Canada only.)
AMY'S GINGER COOKIES
Since I wasn't making ice cream sandwiches (although a smear of lemon ice cream would be divine), I halved the recipe, making about 12-15 cookies.
Recipe slightly adapted from Third Thursday Community Potluck Cookbook by Nancy Vienneau
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cup tubrinado sugar
1/4 cup molassas
1 large egg
In a large bowl whisk the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and pepper together. In an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the butter, 1 cup sugar, and molasses together until fluffy. Beat in the egg. Beat in the flour mixture, a little at a time. Cover and chill the dough for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Place remaining sugar in a small bowl. Scoop up rounds of dough and shape into a ball. Roll each ball in the sugar and place on the baking sheets, slightly flattening. Leave 2 inches between each cookie. Bake on the middle rack for 12 minutes.
Brunch at Playa Provisions
I'm normally going on an on about asparagus and peas this time of year, but the entire month of May has turned life upside down, leaving me little time to fawn over spring produce. On May 1st, I was exactly four days into a new job, and today, we're moving! In between, I celebrated my birthday (at one of my favorite LA restaurants), and ate exactly one pint of gorgeous strawberries, while standing in my kitchen last night, packing up the plates and baking dishes. It was the opposite of glamorous, but perfect just the same.
Have a meal with Virginia Woolf.
Food Bloggers Los Angeles published a mac and cheese ebook, and proceeds will benefit the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank.
Why success can be as disorienting as failure.
Vincent Van Gogh and the importance of doing.
If you need to bring a dessert to ANYTHING, this is the one.
10 pancake-making mistakes.
This ginormous poem sucks pollution from the sky.
A few things I'd like to be eating: this cake, this soup, this galette.
How not to be obnoxious even though you're passionate.
Famous advice on writing.
An inconvenient truth about our food.