In The Kitchen with Laura McKenna: Every holiday host NEEDS this!

Planning The Perfect Holiday, Party, or Picnic just got so much easier with this simple idea!

I have been a HUGE fan of this website for years!   If you’re just hearing about it for the first time, get ready because this is going to take your holiday hosting and party planning to a whole new level.   

First, it organizes everything into one easy to find invite for all your guests.  But most importantly, it eliminates the chance of everyone showing up with green bean casserole or pumpkin pie and no other selection of food! 

And lastly, how many times has your sister-in-law texted you asking (for the tenth time) “What time do you want everyone there again?”     Or “What’s your address again?” 

Fear not my friends, you’ll actually ENJOY hosting once you discover my favorite site:  PERFECT POTLUCK!

Now you’re probably wondering:   What is this?   How much is this going to cost me?   Do I have to download another app?   Is this a subscription thing I’ll never be able to get rid of?

Friends, c’mon!   You know me well enough to know the less apps I have, the better.   And what do I always say?   If it’s free, it’s for me!    

So let me teach you how this works and you’ll be up and running in no time to organize your next holiday or get together.

You’ll begin by CREATING your event.   

Start by entering your information.  You’ll be asked to enter an admin password so that only you will have the ability to edit your own party details.

 Next you’ll be able to password protect all the information concerning your party so that no uninvited guests hear about the big shindig you’re throwing!  Just because this website makes it easy for all your guests to find information, doesn’t mean you necessarily want all your information available to everyone on the internet!

Next, you’ll enter a start time and end time which is perfect for those guests that don’t know when to leave or never remember what time to show up!   “Thanksgiving dinner will be served at 3pm and ends at the last call on pie is 9pm SHARP!”

And this section is great for your sister-in-law I mentioned earlier.   You’ll have the ability to give all the location details like:   “My House”  or “Party Room #2, just past the fountain” alongside the GPS address!    So you’ll never get the “I’m lost!   What’s the address again?” text while you’re trying to welcome all your other guests!

Now the fun part, THE MENU!  

One of the biggest brain-busters one usually faces when hosting a party is:  HOW MUCH OF THIS-THAT-OR-THE-OTHER-THING DO WE NEED TO FEED ALL THESE PEOPLE? 

Once you have that figured out, you’ll have the option to decide if you want to let people decide what they want to bring OR to let them choose specific dishes that you have determined ahead of time.    This helps to ensure that everyone is not going to bring the deviled eggs.   Because even if you’re letting everyone choose their own adventure in potluck dishes, they’ll still technically be signing up for their own “Granny’s Famous Pumpkin Roll” instead of just “Dessert”.

Rest assured that you’ll never have more of anything than what you planned for.   Even if you leave the categories very general, you’ll still be able to account for only the desired amount of each.  

Let’s say you want people to bring a total of 6 Appetizers, 6 Desserts, and 5 Side Dishes to your holiday or picnic.   As Betty signs up for Taco Dip, that will reduce the Appetizer slots to “5 available”.   Michelle signs up for both a Cheesecake and Pasta Salad, reducing the Dessert category now to “5 available slots” and the Side Dishes to 4.   Denise logs on and was going to bring a Cheesecake but sees that Michelle has already signed up for one so she then chooses another Dessert:  Apple Crisp.   And now the ticker will show 4 Dessert slots left open.    Everyone can see in live-time what everyone else is signed up for.

If you want to be very specific, you can do that, too!    The site lets you list as generic or as specific of food items as you want.    “1 Dozen Cupcakes”  can be an option as can “6 bags of ice”.    Someone could sign up to bring all 6 bags of ice themselves or six different guests could sign up to bring one bag each.   The whole time, the site is keeping count of who is bringing what. 

Finally, when you’re finished selecting the menu choices, you can add in any special notes like. For instance, if you were throwing a holiday party in the summer:  “We can light sparklers but the neighbors will call the cops if we light off fireworks, so please don’t bring those”   or “Bring your bathing suit” or “BYOB”.

If you have a special link to share with guests, add that to the end!   This would be a great place to put the link to a park map, a youtube instructional video to a game that will be played at the party, or anything else!

I know once you use this handy website once, you’ll use it again and again.   I wouldn’t plan a party without it and have been using it for over ten years!

Start planning your next get together with www.PerfectPotluck.com

Want to contact Laura McKenna about some of your favorite holiday recipes or cooking tricks you swear by? Anything else on your mind? Email anytime, she’d love to hear from you: [email protected]
And tune in weekdays starting at 10am to St. Croix Country & WCFW!