New Year’s

Potluck dinner…kind of

Happy new year’s eve, darlings! How are you spending the last day of 2011?

Over here in Verbier, my friends and I are spending the bulk of the day doing my favorite activity…cooking (obvi).  We’re putting together a fun potluck dinner of sorts before we go out to party and welcome 2012 into the world. Strictly speaking it’s not quite a traditional potluck because we’re all staying in the same chalet, but we’ve tried to simulate one by dividing up the meal and assigning two people to each course. To spice things up we’ve also made a competition out of it to see who can produce the best dish. So it is something of an “internal” potluck crossed with a cooking competition crossed with a festive hello-2012 pre-party.

After a 3-hour battle against the elements earlier this morning (it has been snowing non-stop all day!) to grocery shop for everyone’s ingredients, we are finally back in the warmth of the house and preparations are already underway as Team Dessert prepares the sweet finale to tonight’s meal. My boyfriend and I are making the main course, and while I can’t yet reveal what it is (all the courses are something of a surprise.. or as much of a surprise as possible when we’re all sharing a kitchen) suffice it to say that our meat of choice is currently marinating happily in the fridge. It will be going into the oven soon to roast nice and slowly over the course of several hours. I will keep you posted!

In the meantime.. here’s some trivia about potlucks that I thought was interesting enough to share. Did you know that the origins of the word “potluck” date back to 16th-century England? The term pot-luck appears in work of Elizabethan English writer Thomas Nashe, but he used it to mean “food provided for an unexpected or uninvited guest, the luck of the pot.” The definition as we know it today, referring to a communal meal, where guests bring their own food, appears to have originated in the late 19th century or early 20th century US, particularly in the Western United States. Others believe the term comes from Ireland, where groups of Irish women would gather to cook dinner using whatever ingredients they happened to have that day in a single pot. Who knew?! Learning something new every day!

In good health,

F

* Potluck trivia credits- wikipedia