FBM Potluck #3

Once again, the FBMs met for an awesome potluck, and I’m here to make you jealous that you don’t roll with me!  Above, the tin of Nutella cakes I made for TC, my ‘good’ twin.  His birthday is only 5 days after mine, and I goofily thought to give him a dozen cakes as a birthday goodie – especially since – well, you’ll see…

My offering this time was kimchi bacon fried rice!  I made a huge pot this time- I think 6 cups of rice, holy hell, that’s the most I’ve ever put in my 10 cup rice cooker.  Came out pretty yummy, if I do say so myself, but unfortunately, one of the cons of providing a carby dish for potlucks – they’re usually not the stand-out dishes everyone raves about, and this was no exception.  Ah well!

I stupidly forgot to email everyone asking for their recipes, so hopefully they’ll speak up when they see this post – CT made this awesome bacon dip that uhhh, there must’ve been a pound of bacon in there with about half a pound of cream cheese (or something, I’m not sure) – it was goooooood!  Baconlicious. 

Pork souvlaki, made by CheeeeEEEEse; I wasn’t there when he started, but I know he cooked them all on the host’s cooktop.  How do I know? 

Cuz I saw him doing that – and in fact, he slaved in the kitchen for the first 30-45 minutes that I was there. 

Here’s two of the pork souvlaki, ready to be eaten (and someone already started on one, ha). 

He also made this tzatziki sauce from scratch to go with the souvlaki. 

Here’s another photo of my rice, this time being served.  I stupidly also forgot to bring my own serving utensils – I learned early on to always do this for potlucks, because it just makes life easier… for the host and for yourself, if you want it served properly. 

Mustard pulled pork by TT. 

Eggplant…

Fava bean…

Roasted tomato… all three dips provided by Dean of Nommables! The recipes for these can actually be found on his site here.

He also made this bread, which was a lovely backdrop for the spreads/dips. 

My ‘good twin’ usually provides the booze – and does a bang-up job of it, the past potlucks and this one, thank you for helping us get sloshed!!! – but this time also brought empanadas.  Not bad… I didn’t try too many of them, but I think these just might be better than Empanada Mama… 😉

My food nemesis, Chris, brought pulled pork; roasted shallots; fixin’s = pulled pork sliders!!! 

He also roasted brussels sprouts, which I adore<3 

Close-up of the roasted shallots…

and of the pulled pork. 

Our venerable host, Beer Boor, made sausage bread from scratch.  It looked lovely, but he admitted he’d stayed up very late cleaning and then tried to make these while half asleep.  E for effort – I certainly can’t make any bread or bread-like products, scratch or otherwise – but fell a little flat in terms of flavor.  Sorry! 

My first plate.  Did I mention this was our first potluck indoors?  We were all on our best behavior… Anyway, there’s a pulled pork slider, brussels sprouts, bacon dip and chips, pulled pork, the three spreads/dips, kimchi bacon fried rice, empanada… and some bread… mmm homemade lovin’

H of Tasty Eating brought two kinds of wings – soy sauce and Sriracha… maybe because she <3s me and knows I can’t eat spicy things?!  In any case, blurry though the pic may be, these were devoured quickly. 

Pork souvlaki, sausage bread, tzatziki, brussels sprouts (I really love them, what can I say?!) and a drummette.  So good. 

Blind Baker also brought rigatoni bolognese… and

Cheesy onion pull-apart bread. 

Goats brought stromboli, huge ones I didn’t manage to capture photos of whole, but look at that.  Ham & ‘shrooms… messy to dig into, but well worth the mess. 

S-E-a-L made a vegetarian dish – against everyone’s demands, since it should be clear now that our unofficial theme was bacon and/or pork – hah! a butternut squash lasagna that surprised all of us who demanded bacon 😉 

CT not only brought bacon dip, she also made an apple crisp (where’s the bacon? – just kidding!).  I somehow did not manage to get to try some of this, but instead was taunted a few days later when Beer Boor was eating leftovers and texting everyone pictures… grrrrrrr

I’m not a really big fan of pumpkin, but M brought mini pumpkin tarts? and they were so cute, I decided to try one anyway.  My palate changes… so why not?

The pumpkin was pretty subtle here, but the texture blew my mind.  The edges were crisp, chewy, wonderful, while the center was moist and soft.  I tried not to be greedy so I limited myself to one, and later found out SOMEONE ATE 10.  GRRRRRRRR again!!!  😛

As I was saying earlier, H loves me! because she made a tiramisu cake for my birthday 🙂

…and then someone insisted we put candles on it and sing.  It wasn’t me, I swear.  And these goofy pics were thus taken of me…

“No more pictures!  I want to eat cake!” 

And cake I ate!  Soft, fluffy, with the lightest touch of sweetness from the mascarpone whipped topping mixture… (of which there was an entire pint container extra, so I took it home and put it on all sorts of things and just ate it… ummm… yeah I did!)

Inside beauty shot.  Gorgeous.  I even took leftovers home… and I rarely ever take sweets home (ask my sister, I never take dessert!). 

Our newcomer brought five different flavors of wine sorbet, so we all dug in, quickly fading into food comas. 

Funny enough, we had the guys swarming for the sweets, while the girls hung back and just let them gobble it up. 

A sweet end to yet another great potluck.  FBM rocks!  If any of the FBMers drop by and want to share their recipes, would love to have them!  Thanks!!!

Love you guyyyyyyyys! <3