Potluck

In about an hour we will be at the last official busline basketball event for Mark...the end-of-season banquet. Everyone brings potluck, the coaches hand out certificates of participation to each kid (usually saying something positive about their contribution to the team and personal growth through the season), each team presents their coach with a gift, and ta-da. Done.

Some of the other invariable details of this event is that the kids don't go anywhere near their parents during the whole thing, instead congregating all together and doing their own little middle-school thing. Usually before and definitely after the banquet, they will play mixed five-on-five in the half of the gym that doesn't contain the tables. That part I like. It's fun to watch. I'm sorry when we have to drag them away so they can close up the school.

I always worry about what to bring for these potluck things. Last year I brought crockpot baked beans, which I had never successfully made before (fortunately, they turned out well, although it was down to the wire). I don't know why I worry so much about it, probably because I worry about EV.ERY.THING.

This year I wanted to bring something with vegetables. Couldn't decide what, though. Looked around at various recipe sites, saw too many things I liked and couldn't make a decision for one over the other, and finally ended up just deciding to create my own thing.

I really like how it's turned out. And there's a TON of stuff in there. We have four different kinds of rice (Texmati white, brown, red & wild), black beans, kidney beans, black olives, peppers (red, yellow & green), broccoli, corn, celery, onions & carrots. A little bit of spice (crushed red pepper flakes, cumin, parsley, and dill) and there ya have it. What do you think? mk