My new region has heaps of potluck dinners, which I'm very happy about. I've had a hard time determining what to bring, though. The first time I brought a large amount of a hot dish, but it sat in the cold outdoors for about an hour before the dinner started, so my lovely dish was cool and kinda yucky by the time we got to it. It seems that each person also only eats about 1/4 cup of each dish, if that, so I guess I only need to bring 2-3 cups of food, which looks pathetic. I'm not awesome at navigating leftovers for the two of us, so I prefer not making a dish for others and then end up with lots to portion/freeze/etc. At each gathering, we end up with anything from zero desserts to 6 desserts, and 2 mains to 8 mains, lol. They rarely have a salad/raw veggies, so that may be a good "in" for me, except that I only go to town weekly so the lighter veggies would not be very fresh.
What are some dishes that:
-are made of ingredients that can sit around for a week ahead of time
-are low-cost
-are easy to make
-are easy to transport via a short hike
-look great in a 3-cup total offering
-please a range of tastes and diet
-taste good even if they sit at room temperature or very cool temperature for up to an hour
-are a good eat the next day if there's some left over
Except for the "ingredients sitting around for a week ahead of time" I think a salad, perhaps with some salmon or chick peas added, may be my best bet. Any other ideas, though?
Something I can prepare days or weeks ahead, and just pull out of the freezer the morning of would be nice, too. I'm starting to envision some sort of dense-veggie + chickpea salad. Freeze the veggies in advance, add chickpeas before heading out?