Your Perfect Potluck Dinner

Potluck (n.): food or a meal that happens to be available without special preparation or purchase

Potlucks make dinner parties totally accessible to all of us living on a student budget.  Just because you’re in university doesn’t mean you can’t keep it classy (real classy) and have your close friends over for a great night in. Having just hosted my own potluck this past week, here is my recipe, as well as some advice, on how you can have a successful night with your closest friends. 

Ingredients:

7 to 10 close friends from your surrounding area

1 apartment

1 dining room with dining table (optional, but strongly suggested)

Dishes, glasses, and silverware for every guest

4-5 bottles of wine (BYOB—wine not?)

5 dinner plates

2 desserts (minimum)

1 or 2 party games

Access to Pandora (thanks for “Hola!”, Google)

Instructions: Once you acquire all the ingridients, have an amazing time! But don’t forget to follow these tips.

Tips: 

1. Once you’ve decided to have the party, set up an event page onFacebook ASAP and invite all your guests! It’ll help you keep everybody informed: post the time, date, and your address on the page. Don’t forget to tell your guests to post what they are bringing to the dinner. It’s an easy way to ensure that your dinner doesn’t turn into a pasta bonanza or salad-fest. 

2. Clean your apartment. You’ve invited your friends over, so you might as well try and make your place look as nice as possible. For my roommates and myself, this was our big chance to show off all our exposed brick. I would recommend, however, starting cleaning earlier than an hour before you’re expecting guests. (Oops!)

3. Don’t worry about matching silverware, nice glasses, or plates—this isn’t your parents’ dinner party! Incorporate the mismatched ‘china’ into a boho-chic décor. 

4. If you find yourself asking, should we open another bottle? Open another bottle.

5. Cards Against Humanity (or any similar game) is great to play after dinner to give your stomach a rest before going back for dessert. It also doubles as a great drinking game, if you and your friends decide you’ll be going out after dinner is finished. 

6. Remember why you’re hosting the party in the first place—to have fun with your friends, eat good, cheap food, and drink a little more than your fair share of dep wine. 

Images obtained from giphy.com and http://mienmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/potluck-etiquette.jpg

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