Invitation to a Virtual Potluck Supper

One fall night not too many years ago, my friends Pam and Cindy and I got together for a girl’s night of gossip and food. We settled on Pam’s apartment, because her post-doc husband was out of town.

We made it a potluck supper. I brought the salad and Cindy made dessert. Pam was in charge of the rest.

Pam, her husband and children lived in Eagle Heights, UW-Madison’s married student housing. Many of their neighbors were part of the international student community. A trip to or even through Eagle Heights was always a treat for the olfactory senses for the air was fragrant with cumin, curry, turmeric and cinnamon; of lamb roasting and chicken baking.

When Pam’s neighbors from India and Pakistan and Greece and Indonesia heard she was having a dinner, they contributed wonderful dishes, even though they did not join us for the meal. We enjoyed a cold rice salad, a squash dish with curry, something wrapped in grape leaves and a noodle-vegetable dish. Delicious, all of it!

It was not my first introduction to the friendship-making qualities of food sharing, but it was a strong reminder.

Food bloggers, I’ve come to realize do the same thing, only in cyberspace.

When I explore Mahek’s blog Love For Cooking, I am reminded of some of the food we enjoyed at Pam’s that night. Many of it was new to me, or prepared in new ways. As we ate, Pam shared tales of her years of wandering around the world. A carefree spirit who wanted to taste life and all it had to offer, she had many stories to tell.

As a sort of welcome to autumn, why not have a virtual potluck? (No dishes to clear, no kitchen to clean up — I like this concept.)

What will you bring and why will you bring it? What stories will you tell? (I've got one about a fabulous party in a haunted house.)

I’ll have to figure out something with cheese, I guess.

And I’ll wear my cheesehead hat.