Potluck Survival Guide

I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Five Star Publications and received a sample to facilitate my post. Good Cook is supplying the cake pan for the giveaway, and as a thank you for participating, I will also receive a pan.

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This is perhaps the last cookbook you’ll ever need when hunting for a dish to take to a potluck.  Potluck Survival Guide: Care & Feeding of the Athletic Supporter, by Cherie Kimmons, has over 125, delicious and easy recipes for you to prepare to take to the next potluck you attend.

The book is also full of informational tips on how to prepare the ingredients, adjusting food quantities to the number of guests, making healthier versions of the recipes and suggestions for sneaking vegetables in.  At first glance, this cookbook appears to be for feeding athletes, but make no mistake these recipes are for use at any time you need to whip up a dish to serve to a large crowd, whether that is for a sporting event, church gathering or family reunion.

There are actually seven different categories of recipes:  Appetizers, Breakfast, Entrees, Soups and Sandwiches, Side Dishes, Salads, Desserts.  So you can see how much ground you can cover at a potluck with this cookbook.

The recipes that caught my eye immediately while just paging through the book were: Comfort Lasagna, Best Barbecued Shrimp, Pizza Sandwiches, Nana’s Baked Beans and the Chocolate Wax Cake.

Most of the recipes are easy and only require ingredients you either already have in your pantry or are readily available at your grocery store.

Amber made the Chocolate Wax Cake last week and it’s a recipe chocolate lovers will have a craving for after they taste a piece.  Here’s the recipe:

Chocolate Wax Cake
Shirley Jarvis

3 cups plain flour
2 cups white sugar
4 heaping tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons soda
1/2 cup & 2 tablespoons canola oil
2 cups water
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla

1. Preheat the oven to 360 degrees (325 for glass pan)  Grease and flour a 9×13 inch pan.
2. In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa, salt and soda)
3. Add the oil, water, vinegar and vanilla; beat until smooth.
4. Bake for 35-40 minutes.  Test for doneness at 35 minutes.  Do NOT overbake.  This cake is very moist and waxy. 
5. Cool and frost.

© 2008 Cherie Kimmons, Potluck Survival Guide, Five Star Publications, page 164.  Reproduction of recipe allowed on ThreeDifferentDirections.com for review purposes.

Amber frosted it with the recipe included in the book for an Easy Caramel Frosting. 

Want to find out more about Potluck Survival Guide?  Then visit www.potlucksurvivalguide.com for more recipes and information.

Now you need a great pan to make this in right?!  So Good Cook is giving a Nonstick Covered Cake Pan, 13″ x 9″ to one of my readers so they can try out this recipe in it!  Also you can shop at Good Cook and receive 25% off with promocode: CAKEPAN (expires May 3, 2013) 

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