Just came back from a big PTA-sponsored potluck dinner at Russian Lass's elementary school. She was excited to go, so we took her, met her teacher, saw her classroom, and so forth (as homeschoolers, it was a new and interesting experience for us). Her school has many international students, and there were wonderful ethnic dishes from all over the world (I was partial to a (vegetarian) Rwandan stew, and metioned as much to the woman who made it. She in turn insisted on giving me the leftovers!). I myself brought garlic bread I made (from a .45 cent loaf of day-old french bread I bought last week and sliced/froze-- very easy and eh, they must have liked it as every crumb was eaten), as well as hummus and carrot sticks (from the free carrots! They were all eaten too....). Anyway, it was great to get all of us in the family filled up so cheaply (we did pay a dollar-per-person fee to cover the cost of dinner ware, etc) and with such little effort -- no dishes for me to wash or anything (and the the $5 it cost us tonight has been our only spending in the last 2 days...).