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Your own stories of getting dragooned into potluck culture here.

We just had a potluck picnic at Eli's pre-school last week. Of course we had a massive thunderstorm drive us all inside, so instead of an idyllic summer evening on blankets in the lovely playground area, we were sitting on the little chairs in each of our kids' classrooms.

Our room was assigned "sides and salads" and my husband offered to pick something up at Wegman's since I'd been out of town following my dad's heart attack and didn't have to time prep anything. He was so proud of himself for buying lovely cut fruit that I didn't have the heart to tell him that technically cut fruit is neither salad nor side.

Anyway, this being the Lehigh Valley, but still one of the funkier more bohemian corners of the Valley, people made everything from jello and that salad you make with broken ramen noodles to a lovely fruit salsa with homemade cinnamon sugar tortilla chips.

Oh, and, when I saw the title of this post, I assumed you'd been busted in some sort of medical marijuana raid.

Based on this post, I'd guess Neal also hates Mondays and has some kind of ongoing rivalry with a dog.

We've never really had much of a problem being "dragooned" into a potluck. There were a few events at our daughter's kindergarten that were catered by the parents, but they were all pretty simple. And kids love radish blossoms with ginger and wasabi.

We've not had to do potlucks for school thank Gob.

The closest we've had is a bring your own meat and beer BBQ. The host provides the sides, rolls, and grill. It's fun.

We endure an endless parade of potluckery. They're good opportunities to turn festering bananas into chocolate chip banana bread. Although after last night's Big Show at arts camp, in which parents had to provide the after-party, I phoned it in with several cartons of lemonade. So sue me.

I loves me a good pot luck :) Of course, I really am a leech at these things as I never bring anything really fantastic but expect others to do so. I'm a pretty good cook but I just never remember in time. My contributions range from a bucket of KFC to a platter of brie and grapes.

In Hawaii bringing a rice cooker full of cooked rice was considered an appropriate contribution -- so I had it made there.

We live in a pretty poor town, and so potlucks are a very common way to put together an event with very little cash.

I like them because I believe that you should get to know as many of your kids class/team/activity mates as possible, and potlucks are an easy way to do that.

My wife is an exceptional cook, and so she really shines at potlocks. Do enough potlucks however and you end up both losing a lot of pots, and gaining a lot of other peoples stuff. This usually happers when you ask your kid to bring the dish home, and they of course take someone elses, which leads to the eventual "return/collect the dish" visit with one of your neighbors.

We had International Family Night at B's school. It was cool - every family got to bring a dish that was a regional favorite of where their family might be from. It was a really fun night.

I brought almond and anise biscotti - an entire platterful, and I got to take home a sandwich bag of leftovers. There was a coffee booth, so those biscotti got sucked up like there was no tomorrow.

It should just be written on military enlistment contracts that spouses are expected to cook for potlucks, and frequently. I always make deviled eggs. Once, I made something else, and there was wailing and gnashing of teeth, because several guys expected my deviled eggs. I had no idea they were that good, but okay.

I've never had to cook anything for school because our school district does not allow anything homecooked in the building or at functions except for students' lunches. Delivery pizza at every PTA meeting. Awesome.

Mamawho -- that was our same experience in the Navy -- lots and lots of potlucks. We did them for births, holidays, weddings, you name it.

They are doing an international potluck at work today -- you are supposed to bring something from your ethnic background with a little write up of the origin and any fun facts. I'm missing it because I'm working from home, but had I gone I was going to make butter mochi. Yummy. Not from my own background but from hubby's.

Damn. I wish we had international potlucks. I'd bring one of the rotting potatoes languishing at the back of the produce drawer.

Capt, it's funny--I like pot lucks among adult friends, which somehow never get called "pot lucks." People bring fabulous, interesting food, and these things often occur around a visit from a pal in London who comes several times a year. One person hosts, and nobody has a huge financial or work burden. Everyone brings wine.

With school functions, it's somehow a burden. Like you, I love knowing all my kids' friends: Ace goes to a neighborhood school within walking distance, we hang out in the playground there after school, I know almost all of the parents, I volunteer for lots of class-related things. We go to each other's houses all the time for playing, two-family dinners, etc. But the pot lucks come up in elementary school, camp, and in Deuce's pre-school fast and furious, and somehow it's the last thing I want to think about the night before. I love cooking and adventurous eating, but these things feel like a job.

By the way, I just ate my first home-grown tomato today--wow.

The inlaws are from the Phillippines, have been here for three decades plus, but that doesn't make the family get togethers any easier for me.

You see, I'm allergic to seafood. If it swims, I can't eat it.

So I pre-eat a lot.

Diana - I love potlucks with our friends. There's always plenty of wine and beer and mixing of drinks. And we're all good cooks so it works out well.

And even though we all have our kids in tow now, I can imagine these will be nothing like the school or kid-function related potlucks of my future. As in, probably no wine or beer or mixing of drinks. *sigh*

I'm in a bookclub with some of my old coworkers, and every bookclub is potluck style. Mostly I'm lazy and bake brownies (aka: easiest dessert ever), which people always exclaim over because nobody else ever bakes. Once I stole my dad's fantastic couscous salad recipe and spent the evening before cooking and chopping and mincing and mixing.

But people asked for brownies, so laziness wins!