Welcome to IM’s popular feature, “The Liturgical Gangstas,” a panel discussion among different liturgical traditions represented in the Internet Monk audience.
Who are the Gangstas?
Father Ernesto Obregon is an Eastern Orthodox priest.
Rev. Peter Vance Matthews is an Anglican priest and founding pastor of an AMIA congregation.
Dr. Wyman Richardson is a pastor of a First Baptist Church (SBC) and director of Walking Together Ministries, a resource on church discipline.
Alan Creech is a Roman Catholic with background in the Emerging church and spiritual direction. (Alan’s not a priest. If he is, his wife and kids need to know.)
Rev. Matthew Johnson is a United Methodist pastor.
Rev. William Cwirla is a Lutheran pastor (LCMS) and one of the hosts of The God Whisperers, which is a podcast nearly as good as Internet Monk Radio.
Here’s this week’s question: What foods would be served at a potluck meal that most represented your church tradition?
Father Ernesto/Orthodox: Hmm, church potlucks, yum! On the other hand, lime green jello with tiny marshmellows and some mayonnaise mixed in, not quite so appealing. But, what would you find at a potluck during Lent in a church that comes out of an Arab background but has a significant number of converts?
Well, first you need to know what the Orthodox fasting rules are. The simplest way to explain it is that during fasting periods the Orthodox become vegans. We are expected to not eat any animal products: no meat, no milk, no eggs, no cheese, and one additional product, no olive oil. So what would we eat at a potluck?
There is no such thing as an Arab potluck without hummus, a Levantine Arab dip/spread made from chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, salt, garlic, olive oil (the olive oil is replaced during Lent), and lavash, a flat Syrian bread. And, how can we ever forget rice with lentils, or lentil soup?
I am in a beach area, so there would be boiled shrimp with cocktail sauce. In a mixture of cultures, how about some spaghetti with clam sauce?
We have people of Russian descent, so, bortsch! Someone will inevitably bring in cabbage rolls. Hmm, and a delicious pirog, filled with onions and finely chopped cabbage maybe with some mushrooms. We might even see a good potato soup.
There would be desserts made with honey. And, since this is the USA, a good old-fashioned fruit cup. But, I must stop now. Sorry, iMonk, but after all that I think I am headed out towards a nice Middle Eastern restaurant with my mouth watering.
Matthew Johnson/United Methodist:Talk about a question I could be an expert on! Let me preface this by saying that I’ve never eaten in a United Methodist Church outside the state of Arkansas. I have no clue what yankee Methodists eat but what I’m going to describe is pretty accurate for the Methodist churches in Arkansas that have had the pleasure of feeding me.
One other caveat – my experience has been that the United Methodist Men do breakfast and the United Methodist Women organize and cook for the potlucks. In my current church you can’t beat either. Seriously. The scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy are top notch. I need to organize one of these soon.
O.K., let’s get started with a good old United Methodist potluck. If you’ve seen me, you’ll know that my starting place is going to be out of character, but I’m serious: salads. There are all kinds and they are all pretty good, but the broccoli salad is by far the best and I hate broccoli. It’s got craisins (cranberry & raisin), sunflower seeds, and some type of mayo dressing to it. It’s wonderful and I eat a lot of it when given the chance. The next thing on my plate is going to be the weird looking jello salad with fruit (probably cherries), mini-marshmallows, and pecan pieces in it. That will go on the opposite side of the plate from the broccoli salad so the juices stay where they are supposed to. Next, I’ll pile on some version of a potato/hashbrown casserole with cornflakes as a topping. I’ll probably take two spoon fulls so it will serve as a buffer in the middle to separate my two salads and the next two perfect ingredients. Green beans with a huge piece of ham hock in it, and some barbeque beans with bacon. The main part is a chicken casserole with cheese and some kind of breaded topping, although that might be cornflakes as well. That goes wherever there is room and will probably be on the side with the green beans or broccoli salad because I don’t mind all that mixing together early on. On top will be two yummy yeast rolls. I’ll go put my plate down and come back for a glass of tea and, if I’m lucky, a piece of chocolate pie – homemade crust and everything.
Boom. I’m so hungry right now.
Peter Vance Matthews/Anglican: First, proper Anglicans do not have potlucks. We have catered dinners (or at the very least common meals.) Potlucks are for the other religions. Ahem.
The catered dinner is served on fine china with matching silver. We want to be green AND stylish.
No salads. We have fresh greens with an array of balsamic and vinaigrette dressings. There is absolutely no ranch dressing allowed! Oh, we might have bok choy as an alternative, but only on special occasions.
Steamed asparagus is a favorite for a vegetable. When asparagus is not available we will often substitute Rapini.
Sliced bread is never found at an Anglican dinner. It must be unsliced and chewy. Easily chewed bread is simply to bourgeois.
If there is a meat dish it is small and light – lemon chicken or smoked salmon. Meat loaf, party sized wieners and tuna fish are not allowed. There are other churches for those things.
Anglicans find casseroles unseemly.
For drink there is mineral water and herbal teas. After dinner, the wet bar is open and offers a fine assortment of import beers, scotch, gin, wine and the traditional Anglican drink – sherry.
At Easter we add cake and champagne. One can’t be too joyous when celebrating our Lord’s resurrection, can one? (There is always large amounts of champagne because of the corollary between the amount of champagne and the level of joy. I.e., the more champagne the more joy!)
Oh, and by the way, reservations are required.
Alan Creech/Roman Catholic: Whheeeww, a potluck – awesome! OK, this ought to be interesting, a Catholic potluck – it all depends where this is happening, and we are in America – I’ve never lived anywhere else – so we’ll stick with that.
Let us begin with the drink, shall we? 🙂
– Beer, of course! What the heck is any Catholic picnic or potluck of reception after the Chrism Mass or anything without some beer. Nobody’s worried if they Pastor sees you, he’s got one in his hand! What kind of beer you say? Well, depends on what part of the country you’re in – could even be PBR baby – Louisiana’s got them some serious redneck Cajun Catlicks down’neya.
– Wine: someone was carrying around carafes of wine at the reception after our parish Lenten Mission last night. Surely at a potluck, there would be the Vino. If it’s more suburban, probably more wine than beer, but you never know.
And on to the food…
We do love to call ourselves the ecclesiastical land of the great both/and, so food is all over the place. Could be anywhere from good old fried chicken to… yes… wait for it… fried FISH! ha! It is Lent after all.
Of course, if we travel, again, to the deep South, in the land of our Acadian siblings, I guaraawntee they be some good food dooown in dem place! You might git a table full o’ boiled crawfish or a giant pot a Gumbo. My old TV cooking guru, Justin Wilson, used to say “Is yo Mama Catlick and can she make a roux?” ha! Classic.
And the ethnic enclave nature of early Catholicism in this country will pull in that international flavor to the old potluck – talk about luck! Wait, is this apologetics or what? You can look forward to the likes of Lasagna brought by the DiGiacomo family (her Grandmother was from Sicily you know), Champ courtesy of the Murphys, Pierogis and Kielbasa thanks to the Kowalskis and maybe some seriously good Mole sauce with Turkey breast and homemade Enchiladas from the Gonzales clan. Awesome! Oh, and the fried chicken and macaroni and cheese is always carried in by the Smith family – Smith? – yeah, I know, they’re converts. ha! A man could get right hefty at a potluck like that.
Soooo, when do we eat?
Wyman Richardson/Southern Baptist: When we enter the final eschaton, and the great cloud of witnesses is assembled before the throne, and crowns are given for the contributions of the various and sundry traditions that comprise the Church, I know not what other reward we Baptists will receive, but we will definitely be rewarded for contributing the Baptist potluck to Christian experience.
I tell you there is no greater act of Christian hedonism (apologies to Piper), of pure, unmitigated, unadulterated, undiluted, culinary pleasure than the Baptist potluck. It is as bacchanalian a display of orgiastic food consumption as you’ll ever see this side of Heaven.
The sine qua non is, of course, fried chicken. There simply can be no potluck without it. Oh, somebody will put a plate of ham on the table, to be sure. And that’s ok (John the Baptist had his role to play too), but the centerpiece, the apex of the potluck is a large, glorious, beautiful, cholesterol-filled, platter of fried chicken. It is essential. It is, in a word, beautiful.
Somebody will normally bring barbecue as well, which will send you into the stratosphere. Now, Yankees think barbecue is a verb (bless their hearts), and Texans commit the ultimate blasphemy of thinking it’s beef, but we all know that when God says “barbecue” He’s thinking of pulled (or chopped) pork drenched in sauce. I’m from South Carolina, originally, so I know that it should be mustard-based sauce, but after eleven years in Georgia, I’ve come to appreciate what they do down here as well. (Though I will never forgive this state its absence of rice and hash from the barbecue spread.)
Then to the lesser but also important offerings: rice, brown gravy, gibblet gravy, blackeyed peas, collards, garden peas, string beans, butter beans, squash casserole, broccoli casserole, [fill-in-the-blank] casserole, potato salad, mixed salads in casserole dishes, macaroni and cheese with a toplayer of cheese an inch thick, potato salad, chicken bog, brown rice with mushrooms. Sombebody usually throws in a plate of small, rectangular pimento cheese sandwiches, for some reason. And there’s usually a battalion of crockpots including things like chili, Brunswick stew, and little sausages floating in barbecue sauce. And, of course, the rolls, biscuits, and breads.
Then there are those wonderful in-between grey-area foods: foods that everybody knows should be on the dessert table but that are, for some God-ordained reason, left on the food table so as to assuage the guilt of anybody who want 2 or 3 desserts. This involves, among other things: watermelon, congeal salad, lime fluff, and, thank you Lord, pineapple casserole (a dish deserving its own post, might I add).
Then to the desserts: chocolate cake, caramel cake, red velvet cake, carrot cake, cheesecake, apple cobbler, cherry cobbler, peach cobbler, blackberry cobbler, divinity, chocolate delight with graham crust, vanilla delight, cherry crunch, keylime cake (if you haven’t tasted keylime cake, you may not be saved), homemade cookies, cupcakes, brownies of ten different kinds, lemon meringue pie, cherry pie, apple pie, chocolate pie, keylime pie, and, of course, banana pudding.
As for drinks, there usually aren’t that many at a potluck: sweet tea, unsweet tea, and coffee. Why, I ask you, would there be a need for more drinks than these?
Thus, the Baptist potluck. I’ve barely scratched the surface, but this will have to suffice.
William Cwirla/Lutheran: The Lutheran potluck is legendary if not infamous, thanks to Garrison Keillor and his “News from Lake Wobegon.†Potlucks among Lutherans vary widely based on region. City congregations will be somewhat more sophisticated than rural; congregations outside the midwest will have a greater diversity of foods. The gold standard for the Lutheran potluck is rural midwest. Here are the basic elements.
1. Coffee. Gallons of it. Coffee is the 4th sacrament of the Lutheran church. It must be percolated in one of those huge barrel percolators, never brewed. Use the cheap stuff, too. None of that fancy Starbucks or Peets French Roast. (Besides, who would want to do that to good coffee, anyway?)
2. The “Hot Dish.†This is the Hemi engine that drives the Lutheran potluck. Here is a generic recipe:
1 cup chopped or ground meat of your choice or 1 can of tuna
1 cup elbow macaroni (bow ties if you want to be fancy)
1 can cream of (mushroom, chicken, or celery) soup
1/2 cup onions, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1 chunk of Velveeta or a jar of Cheese Whiz
salt
pepper
Mix ingredients. Pour into a casserole dish. Sprinkle with bread crumbs. (Wisconsin variant: Skip the Velveeta; cover with 2 cups Colby or mild Cheddar.) Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Serve lukewarm.
3. The “Vegetable Side Dish.†String beans with cream of mushroom soup and sliced almonds. Warm potato salad (with onions, bacon and vinegar). Sauerkraut. Wisconsin: Potatoes au gratin topped with cheese.
4. Salad. Green salad generally means Iceberg lettuce (no arugula!) with tomatoes and cucumbers topped with ranch dressing. Jello salad with some combination of orange or lime jello, marshmallows, shredded carrots, and possibly canned pineapple. Mayonnaise or Cool Whip may also be involved. Broccoli salad tossed with mayonnaise, bacon and golden raisins.
5. Dessert. Brownies and Bundt cakes. Toll-House chocolate chip cookies. And the notorious “Jello Cake†(can’t eat enough jello, we say): Yellow sheet cake infused with molten jello (cherry or some berry flavor) and chilled. Cool-Whip. Wisconsin option: Apple pie topped with melted cheddar cheese.
6. Beverage: Coffee (see above). At Reformation bratwurst/sauerkraut suppers, beer may be served, depending on the congregational level of pietism. Wine is generally frowned upon, though may be served in urban settings. (White wine tends to be viewed as an infallible sign of liberalism.) For the kids, lemonade or fruit punch mix, made either too concentrated or too week. Did I mention coffee?
Having painted that dire culinary picture, let me add that my congregation, with its multi-ethnic diversity, has transcended the average Lutheran potluck creatively incorporating Mexican, Italian, French, Chinese, and various middle eastern cuisines into a mix that is sure to give you a case of heartburn that would make John Wesley envious. Our renowned Easter Agape Feast is a lavish banquet of roasted leg of lamb, smoked beef tenderloin, dolmathes, spanakopetes, olives, humus, skordalia, (my wife makes a mean pastitsio), topped off with pascha (a kind of spreadable cheesecake) and kulich (Russian Easter bread), baklava, and much fine wine, mostly red.
But I boast.
The Internet Monk Archives 
It could be I should be a multi-denominational — then I’d weigh at least 900 lbs. instead of the 450 I now weigh!
But, my fav. would have to be the Episcopal style — catered … but only if catered by my Baptist friend, Mary W. That would be a meal which could create a new ecumenical movement!
P.S. But, please, whatever persuasion — leave the store-bought fried & dried chicken or the family size store-bought frozen lasagna home. If you bring chicken or lasagna, make it real stuff.
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[Woops! Cat walked on keyboard, hit Send.]
“Apparently you all missed the most egregious sin–calling it a “potluck†instead of a “potbless†like a previously attended “non-denominational charismatic†church. They also called them “angel eggsâ€.â€
Sort of like “Freedom Fries†and “Freedom Kisses†back in the early days of the Iraq war.
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“Apparently you all missed the most egregious sin–calling it a “potluck†instead of a “potbless†like a previously attended “non-denominational charismatic†church. They also called them “angel eggsâ€.”
Sort of like “Freedom Fries” and “Freedom Kisses” back in the early days of the Ira
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Vicki,
I couldn’t get it all in, but I do love some fried okra!
Wyman
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Fr. Ernesto, isn’t a shrimp an animal? I’m pretty sure it’s not vegetable or mineral….
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Anglicans do to have potlucks.
They just call them “wine and cheese socials.”
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What, no chicken ‘n dumplins or fried okra? Bless your hearts!
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wmcwirla,
Trust me, us Anglicans (not least the anglo-catholic type) can hold our liquor just as good as any Roman Catholic or Orthodox. It’s just that Catholics drink lite beers and we go craft.
Although there was thing missing from the description Fr Matthews: Valet parking!
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Brandon,
You have it worse than I do by far. You must be due north of me somewhere. Of course, Manitoba is a big place.
I was just remembering how much I miss the old homemade ice cream fellowships we would have on Sunday nights during the summer. Who cared about eating real food, those things were junk food heaven.
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Adventists are fond of potluck but don’t have alcohol, coffee or tea, pork, or shrimp. No meat unless it’s a back-slidden church :-), and the most virtuous potlucks are vegan. We do have some really exciting, high-sodium fake meat products with names reminiscent of dogfood (Tender Bits, Dinner Cuts, Fri-chik).
That being said, potluck can be very good, especially among the more ethnic congregations.
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On my Welsh Baptist side we have a Te Bach after the Eisteddfod . Tea and Welsh cookies for starters, followed by sugary carbs. If thee is no roast beef you are in a poor congregation.
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Chicken bog = http://members.tripod.com/~andrews_sc/chickenbog.htm
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Sarah,
You have to remember though as Dana stated, at least here in the midwest, these Catholic eats are generally FUNDRAISERS.
The porkie/pancake aromas wafting through the parish during mass (after you’ve fasted the required hour in the morning) … well… amounts to extortion by the KCers 😉
JB
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Apparently you all missed the most egregious sin–calling it a “potluck” instead of a “potbless” like a previously attended “non-denominational charismatic” church. They also called them “angel eggs”.
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My husband, who is a dyed-in-the-wool Lutheran thinks that his mother invented hot dish and it’s his favorite thing in the world! This post had me rolling on the floor. Even though I didn’t grow up Lutheran (I am one now), I did grow up in the midwest and the Lutheran potluck is every family gathering potluck in my family! Hilarious. There are so many reasons for me not to be Catholic, but between the art, food and wine, I’m very tempted.
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“But usually it is dominated by the German/Ukraine/Mennonite food. I love these people, but they only use four types of food: bland, Cabbage, sausage, and cabbage…”
Being German and Ukrainian and having married into a bunch of Mennonites, I can speak with authority on this subject. Don’t forget about noodle dough. It ubiquitous. You can stuff nearly anything into noodle dough and call it appetizer, main meal, dessert.
Also sour cream, which is a separate food group in this cuisine.
Bland is the rule.
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Perhaps no one will pay this any attention… but I grew up in the land of Baptist potluck… in upstate south carolina, the fried chicken, the bbq, the mashed potatoes, the macaroni pie… etc. etc. etc.
When we would have potluck, which is the third sacrament, btw, I would eat more than my fill of wonderfully bad-for-you food.
HOWEVER…
I moved to Northern Manitoba about a year ago. I work at a Baptist Church and live in an apartment at a Mennonite Brethren Church. Both of these churches are made up primarily by people of German or Ukrainian descent. Occasionally, one of the first nations people will cook up a nice moose or caribou roast since those are the local fauna… those are usually pretty good… there are a lot of africans/asians/south americans who occasionally make some interesting and good food…
But usually it is dominated by the German/Ukraine/Mennonite food. I love these people, but they only use four types of food: bland, Cabbage, sausage, and cabbage…
I enjoy the sausage part of it, but its not used nearly enough. usually our potlucks are made up of quite a few “casseroles” in which the creator dumped various extremely bland vegetables and some cabbage and then poured vinegar in… maybe a couple of beans… yeah, thats pretty much it…
needless to say, I miss the southern potlucks…
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I want to be invited to a Catholic potluck.
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I have heard that some Roman Catholics eat lutefisk. Maybe there is hope for church unity.
ELCA member
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Agree about the sweet tea. Always good to have at least a little tea with your sugar.
Well I believe after reading all the above, I am still content to remain baptist on the sheer quantity alone. If we counted, I’m sure we could only name 6 deadly sins, because, well, that one about gluttony just simply isn’t all that bad.
Jesus with the fish and bread and 5000 people? He was simply trying to institute the sacrament of baptist potlucks while somehow remaining kosher.
However I’ll have to keep my eye on what the Anglicans are doing. Sounds like their “potlucks” would make an ideal anniversary date night or something fancy.
I did experience a Greek orthodox festival the other day though. Eatin was terrific, but the quantity just couldn’t compare. They ran out of the flamming cheese dish!
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Remember the good old days when us Baptists would have HOME FRIED chicken rather than the store bought stuff that shows up at potlucks now?
And let’s not forget saltfish breakfasts 🙂
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“Sweet tea is the house wine of the South; we don’t drink it, we inhale it!”
I’ve partaken. Blood sugar still hasn’t returned to normal two years later.
Speaking of the South, I had some of the best gumbo at a Lutheran potluck in Mobile, AL many years ago. I do love that southern cooking.
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Funny, I read imonk’s question as being figurative, sort of like, “If your denomination was a car, what model would it be?” But I’m glad the gangstas took it at face value. More interesting this way, especially to the salivary gland.
BTW, what the heck is chicken bog?
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wcwirla,
Sweet tea is the house wine of the South; we don’t drink it, we inhale it!
Baptists also consume great quantities of ham biscuits and, in the summer, fresh sliced tomatoes and cantalope.
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“I’m more convinced than ever that Anglicans are no fun. Catered dinners?”
Gangsta Matthews didn’t mention the string quartet, did he?
“BBQ=smoke” Amen, brother! Preach it! Grilling = heat/fire. Pure and simple.
I’m still trying to wrap my mind around that glorious Baptist potluck without the comforting presence of a decent beer. Sweet tea?
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I want to be Catholic.
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Obviously, we have tea and coffee too.
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In England, Baptist pot lucks are famous for cold bland quiche. Dessert always involves a rather flavourless cheesecake from Sainsburys as well.
Other things that will be there are:
Walkers Crisps (ready salted or cheese and onion mixed in with the flavours you actually want)
Pringles Crisps (for the more liberal)
Mini sausage rolls
Cocktail sausages
Beyond that, nothing is established except for the lack of alcohol, and the food can often be exceptional.
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“First, proper Anglicans do not have potlucks.” Funny, but sad. I’ve been to potlucks in many denominations, but I think it is true that I have not been to an Anglican/Episcopal one.
The very closing piece was the one I was looking for:
“my congregation, with its multi-ethnic diversity, has transcended the average Lutheran potluck creatively incorporating Mexican, Italian, French, Chinese, and various middle eastern cuisines.”
Increasingly, this has been my experience of the potluck.
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a T-shirt that said “Fear the lutefisk.â€
Ooh. I must have one of those to compliment my “Viking World Tour” T-shirt.
For Aliasmoi, to his defense, I have been to a Super Bowl party at Peter’s house years ago that was somewhat potluckish. IIRC he slummed it by providing Killian’s Red 😀 Of course, we were in school then so he wasn’t able to provide a catered Super Bowl party.
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@ Aliasmoi,
Maybe so, but it at least assures that wherever you go you’ll be getting the same fare and you can be comforted that everyone else is ‘enjoying’ the same meal as you are. Plus, it reduces the risk of anyone introducing potentially heretical foodstuffs (lutefisk, anyone?).
btw – I am not an Anglican, but I am hungry now.
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I’m more convinced than ever that Anglicans are no fun. Catered dinners?
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Fr. Cwirla, I failed to notice that you did address the lutefisk in a previous comment, although your additional commentary is hilarious. I knew a LCMS pastor of Swedish descent who actually had a T-shirt that said “Fear the lutefisk.” :).
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I simply LOVE practical theology. 🙂
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BBQ=smoke
If it ain’t smoked it ain’t BBQ!
There is a difference between grilling and BBQ’ing. I don’t know why some people can’t figure this out.
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Wyman,
You made me a little homesick with that description.
Thanks to this I can confirm that our Baptist potlucks in North Dakota have been infiltrated by Lutheran culinary teachings. We had to introduce the proper kind of pulled pork barbecue to our congregation as they were more accustomed to calling sloppy joes barbecue. Plus there is always “hotdish” and so forth. We are slowly weeding out the heresies(although a couple of those hotdish recipes aren’t too bad). The hardest thing for a southern boy, and baptist to boot, to get used to up here was when people said they were bringing “bars” to the fellowship. We didn’t know that meant desserts at first. My wife took the bars thing in stride and figured out how to bake a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough in a pan and cover them with powdered sugar and drizzled chocolate syrup and blew their minds.
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If your church doesn’t eat together, there’s something just plain wrong with your fellowship.
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OK, I’m ready to take the altar call. I’m goin’ Baptist. You win. Damn the theology, the grace is in the food.
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Funny, my old presbyterian church here in NC ate like Baptists. Lots of sweet tea, coffee, and casseroles.
Can’t have a sunday luncheon without the deviled eggs, potato salad, and coleslaw.
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There’s no beating Pascha in the Eastern Churches. After more than 40 days of eating vegan like Fr. Ernesto described, you bet our baskets that we bring to Church to be blessed are stuffed to the gills with the finest of everything we’ve missed for so long.
Especially the cheese. There will be dozens of different varieties, from mild-mannered aged cheddar to veiny bleus so stinky they make your eyes water. It is fantastic.
Nothing like a fast to make you remember what it means to feast.b
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This post brings a small tear to my eye: a small tear of joy.
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“Fr. Cwirla, I can’t believe you didn’t mention lutefisk!”
The substance is virtually unknown in the German Lutheran LCMS. We’ve heard rumors, though. Something about cold cooking fish in Drano.
I much prefer ceviche and a shot of Don Julio.
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My devoutly Southern Baptist mother says that in all her 82 years she can’t recall ever hearing a sermon on gluttony.
I do recall quite a few sermons from my childhood about backsliders goin fishin on Sunday morning. Don’t recall any condemnation of frying up the catch.
InternetMonk, I’d love to see ‘suggested reading’ lists from the various viewpoints.
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Michael the Poet, I kid you not. I know people who will only refer to deviled eggs as Angeled eggs.
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I was the paranoid, finicky kid that only ate what my mom brought. Yet, I trusted the hygiene of the 16 year olds working at McDonald’s. Go explain that.
We were rural Midwestern Quakers (ie, Wesleyans without sacraments), but culinary-wise, it sounds like we were somewhere between the Lutherans and the Baptists.
Fr. Cwirla, I can’t believe you didn’t mention lutefisk! 🙂
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Oh my gosh, Matthew – I love that broccoli casserole you described, AND the hashbrown casserole, good stuff. If I’m ever anywhere that stuff is, it’s on my plate.
Holy, holy, holy – Brutha Wyman, I bow to the greatness of the Baptist Potluck – I even capitalized it! Man, fried chicken is most definitely one of the most beautiful foods on earth. The potluck you described sounds like my family reunion potluck we go to every year in Harlan, Kentucky (that’s HIGH in the mountains of Southeastern Kentucky). None of my family there is Catholic so this is a bunch of mountain Baptists, some Old Regular, and some Pentecostal Holiness folk. GOOD FOOD! Always an exercise in how much you can get on your plate.
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I was preaching at a church where a dinner was being held. Naturally, being Baptist, I stayed. In the line, one of the men showd up with a 7 compartment fiberglass tray (like for school lunch), his own silverware (real metal), and linen napkin. He said he always kept this in his truck, so the paper/foam plates didn’t collapse.
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Oh, man, Peter Vance, your description is soooo my paternal side of the family! They’re the relatively wealthy WASPS (Episcopalians, mostly) while my mother’s side is the relatively poor Hispanic Catholics. Talk about a contrast for parties!
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The Sunday closest to the 4th of July is “Chicken on the Grounds” Sunday potluck at our Baptist church here in Michigan. One year one of the Associate Pastors announced it as “Chicken in the Dirt”. He also made a specific request for the 3 bean salad. They didn’t let him do announcemnts after that one.
The high point of our church feed calender is the Harvest dinner the week before Thanksgiving. Turkey and the works..ummmm..
Then of course there is the wild game dinner we do as an outreach. We always joke about the “roadkill special”… But venison in several varieties, smoked jerky, salmon…
Deacon John says this is how Baptists heed Paul’s admonition to “buffet” our bodies…. 😉
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I’ve had many a delicious potluck dinner, but only as a Protestant. Growing up RCatholic, we had plenty of church suppers, but they were always fundraisers (in California: polenta with chicken sauce! crab feeds! Portugese sopa with sweet yeast bread!). The potlucks we did have happened after a big funeral, when everyone went to the departed’s family’s home for luncheon, to help eat up all the casseroles and salads people had brought by.
I did love those fundraising suppers, though. When I was very young, I lived in Butte, Montana, which was populated by the descendants of immigrants who came to work in the copper mines. Everyone went to everyone else’s fundraising supper; it was very ecumenical 🙂 I remember eating lefse, spaghetti, cabbage rolls, tamales, and many bland iceberg lettuce salads.
Because EOrthodox have been fasting for what ends up being more than 12 hours before receiving the Eucharist, everyone’s hungry after Liturgy. At my church, teams rotate the responsibility for making a fellowship dinner every Sunday, and most people stick around for that, for a donation to cover the cost of the food and paper goods. We have a sizable group of Eritrean immigrants, and their food is interesting and tasty too: fruit, white rice with carrots & peas, spicy lentils, deeply rich sauce made from braised beef bones (not during Lent, though), and a large pile of spongy, pliable, slightly sour whole grain flatbread the size of a large pizza pan, cut in quarters.
I wonder how many different kinds of flatbreads there are?
Dana
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As a Mid-Atlantic, Northern Southern Baptist from North Eastern Pa, we would have halupki, haluski, kielbosa, Ziti, piggies in the blanket,ham, sweet potato casserole, macaroni and cheese, and way too many deserts. We Baptists do not believe in the 7 deadly sins. We especially do not believe in Gluttony.
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I got a kick out of Matthew’s organizing of the food on his plate. And I liked Alan’s, “Is yo Mama Catlick and can she make a roux?â€
Peter, I think I would be scared to eat with your bunch! I may make a mistake or something, maybe bringing a casserole. (I do like the chewy bread you mention, though.)
William, I bet we ALL have seen that “Hot Dish.”
Wyman, I see the Baptists are fans of casseroles. Can’t have too many casseroles. (Funny thing is…I hardly ever make them!)
Father Ernesto…can’t go wrong with the boiled shrimp with cocktail sauce. Had some just last night. I LOVE the fresh, little Maine shrimp, more tender and sweeter than those big shrimp out there…in my humble opinion.
(I think Michael is lightening things up with this post. There have been some very “heavy” issues going on here lately! Whew…)
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My stomach juices are making death threats after reading this. Of course it doesn’t help that I am reading it on an empty stomach.
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I just want to say that I finally got barbeque today as a result of your last food-themed post, and it was awesome.
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To me growing up, lutefisk was part of being Lutheran. Those German Lutherans down the street just didn’t get it. Uff da is right.
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If there is one thing I miss about the Southern Baptist church it is Dinner on the grounds. Although, maybe my waistline wouldn’t be what it is today if it hadn’t been for all that great food. My mother always contributed banana pudding and her carrot-raisin salad, and maybe a pineapple upside-down cake.
We seem to have quite a few casseroles at the Methodist church I attend.
My pastor said that Wesley never meant to start a new denomination but once the US was established it was unavoidable.
Now the truth comes out. It had something to do with casseroles.
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What, no deviled eggs?
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I greatly appreciate Gangsta Johnson’s finely-honed plate piling technique. A supplemental video would be most instructive. Don’t forget to double up paper plates, as plate sag or bend is the chief cause of food loss at a potluck.
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Yes, I forgot to note that the character of a potluck depends largely on the background of the Lutheran whether German or Scandinavian, bratwurst or Swedish meatballs.
Lutefisk served in a German Lutheran congregation would immediately precipitate a Voters Meeting calling for the ouster of the pastor and/or the excommunication of the social committee.
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Hot dish? Uffda. I didn’t get any the last time I went to Minnesota to see my grandmother. I think Pr. Cwirla intentionally left out that Scandinavian Lutherans will also feature lutefisk and Swedish meatballs as well. 🙂
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