Viral recipes

Today is our annual community picnic. Everybody brings a dish for two plus. We're making chicken drumettes and a lemon dessert. Some friends who used to live in our area are coming along as well. The food at events like this are always an interesting melange. Family recipes, church bazaar favorites, pot-luck favorites. It's haphazard and the kind of food that everyone loves once in a while. True comfort food and full of surprises.

One of our friends is barbecuing a turkey. The ethnic people usually bring something interesting. One year a Korean woman in the neighborhood brought some delicious marinated and barbecued beef. On different occasions I've brought Asian cole slaw or last year I did a fruit salad in a watermelon, disguised as a pig. Oddly not a soul commented so I've left my fruit carving kit in the drawer since. No sense in the effort when there is no audience for the art.

The lemon dish I'm bringing I first tasted at an office pot luck many years ago..in fact about 30 years ago. One of our secretaries brought it and it was instantly gobbled up by the assembly. The Japanese woman, the cook, was so modest that she was loathe to get attention for her contribution. I wonder where she got the recipe. Tracing one of these to their origin would be an interesting exercise.

Pot luck foods have been the subject of many recipe books over the years. I have several and took to buying them whenever I passed through a community either at a gas station or in a airport bookstore. Some years ago, I stopped collecting them because most of the recipes are similar or even the same from community to community.

Sometimes recipes are passed around almost like a virus. This is a great trick to pull off if you are promoting an item such as strawberries. The strawberry/spinach and almond salad flashed around Orange County from pot luck to pot luck a few years ago and I'm sure it ultimately spread round the country. The Lipton Onion chip dip is a classic case and the product has lasted for decades.

Strawberry Spinach Salad

Adapted From Taste of Home

INGREDIENTS

1/3 cup raspberry vinaigrette
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon prepared mustard
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4-1/2 teaspoons poppy seeds
1 package (10 ounces) fresh baby spinach
1 pint fresh strawberries, sliced
1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans or other nut, such as almonds or macadamias, toasted

DIRECTIONS

In a blender, combine the vinaigrette, sugar, salt and mustard. While processing, gradually add oil in a steady stream. Stir in poppy seeds. Transfer to a small pitcher or bowl. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until chilled. Just before serving, toss the spinach, strawberries and nuts in a large salad bowl with dressing. Yield: 8 servings.

Writing later, after the picnic, we can pronounce the food a great success once again. This year the table was groaning with entrees. Roast pork, lots of home fried chicken, chile in various iterations - turkey, vegetarian, super hot. Lasagna, some mexican casseroles and various kinds of cole slaw. I only made it down half a table before my plate was starting to look horrible so I stopped and ate to filling. Couldn't get to the last bits. The most unusual
dessert was avocado ice cream.
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The volunteer fire department showed off it's two new fire engines - clean, sparkling, beautiful things. To those of us who live in a tinder box, a working fire truck parked just down the street, is a beautiful sight. Our local supervisor, Bill Horne was on the scene as usual - he's been an excellent supervisor and very good to our community. Ross Daily, the padrone of the community at 92 is still going strong and he calls the "Let's eat" signal every year. I love the picnic and think it's the kind of glue that keeps people together.