When you are invited to another persons house for dinner and bring a dish, whether it be a baked good, or side dish etc.. Do you take it back home with you, or do you leave it?Normally I seem to only been baked goodies to other peoples houses. I always leave it there. Now of course, there are some instances if the hostess insist we take it home if they will not eat it , or maybe they are going out of town etc..Growing up, I remember my mother doing the same thing, bringing something, but never taking it home.
Ive been to get togethers at friends house, and see people take their stuff home, without even asking the hostess if they want any of it. I understand wanting the dish it came in. I try to always get cheap containers to bring things in so Im not really missing it if I dont get it back.
So do you leave your stuff there, or take it back home with you?

By Breann on Friday, December 23, 2005 - 10:30 am:

I usually leave it. I take it in a nice dish, then during clean-up I ask the hostess if she has a dish to put my item in. She'll say "oh, you can take it home", and I tell her that we won't eat it. She gets a tupperware out and I put it in. That way I can take my dish home!

By Pamt on Friday, December 23, 2005 - 10:48 am:

Ditto Breann.

By Ginny~moderator on Friday, December 23, 2005 - 10:51 am:

My opinion is like yours and your mother's, Jackie. If you take it - it's a gift, and you should leave it unless your hostess says otherwise. If it's something I'm taking to a family member's home, I will seek out my dish in the washing up, but if the hostess is not a family member I will use a disposable container of some kind and cover it with fancy foil or fancy saran to make it look nice.

Now, if you have a potluck situation where everyone is contributing something to a meal and the hosts are only providing the location and table settings, that might be different.

By Mommmie on Friday, December 23, 2005 - 12:05 pm:

We divide up all the leftovers so everyone can take a to go plate home and their dishes home.

By Missbookworm on Friday, December 23, 2005 - 01:13 pm:

Whenever I have a potluck type thing everyone always leaves the leftovers for me and my children. I also always make sure that they get their dishes back if anyone leaves them here.

I'm with Ginny!

Mommmie whenever I try to divide things up for people to take home they refuse saying they wouldn't eat it, yet they "loved" it while eating it at my house! lol I think they're leaving it all with me because I have the most children out of all my friends.

By Enchens on Friday, December 23, 2005 - 02:14 pm:

I do the same thing as Breann if it's a more formal get together. If it's more picnic/potluck/barbeque style get together, I do what you do, Jackie and take the ziploc or glad containers so I don't miss it if I don't get it back.

By Bea on Friday, December 23, 2005 - 02:31 pm:

Except for Church affairs or our Gourmet Club, I hate pot luck. If someone insists on bringing something to my house when I entertain, I consider it a gift. I don't serve or return it. I plan my meals for dinner parties and would never expect a guest to bring food. I usually find something better to do if I'm invited to provide my own meal at a dinner party. I'd rather join them at a restaurant and pay my way.
At Church functions I bring home leftovers or offer them to someone with a big family. At our Gourmet Club, we research recipes for rather exotic food. I offer the leftovers to the hostess, and take it if she doesn't want it. She will normally transfer the food to a covered dish, and send me home with a clean dish.

By Karen~moderator on Friday, December 23, 2005 - 07:16 pm:

When I bring food to someone's house, I leave it, unless they ask me to take it with me. I do, however, bring my dish back home with me.

By Kym on Friday, December 23, 2005 - 07:52 pm:

Bea, I agree on pot lucks! But I do still go if invited, but I don't hostess them.
I have started buying cool, nice looking, but inexpensive dishes/casseroles etc on clearance at Marshalls, Ross, TJ Maxx that way I can take the dish and just leave it as a hostess thank you!

Growing up we always,and I mean always like a few times a week got together with extended family for dinners, my mom, granny and cousins never had their own dishes we just took stuff in whatever we had, left it and knew we'd eventually get ours back with food in it

By Kaye on Tuesday, December 27, 2005 - 10:32 am:

If I were to bring a food to a dinner with one family, I suppose I would leave it, but honestly I have never been in that situation.

We do on a regular basis have 5 families that we eat together with, we all bring a dish, we all coordinate what we are bringing (there ends up being a total of 22 people with kids). Typically there just isn't left overs Last week we did chili. Well there was a lot leftover, the man who made it said he had a huge pot still at home. So I divided it up into 4 take home servings, so everyone had chili. We typically take home what we bring though, but do tend to pass it around and make a couple of plates. There is another family that used to be in our group and sometimes we will pack up 4 plates for them and deliver. It really depends how much is left, or what we do afterwards. One of the ladies is known for, if you leave a dish there (no matter how disposble) next time she cooks a big meal, she returns it filled with something new. She is a great cook and and a great friend

By Karen~moderator on Tuesday, December 27, 2005 - 10:50 am:

I brought a huge dish of dressing and salad to feed 15 people on Christmas day, to my friend's house. There was SO much food leftover - she asked me to take some, she took a bit of my dressing, and she asked me to take the rest home. I was surprised that only about 6 people there wanted to eat salad, so I had TONS of lettuce leftover. I left some for my friend since she loved the salad, and she told me to take the rest home.