From church potlucks and bake sales to funeral meals and Bible studies, these church potluck baking recipes include Southern classics, easy cake mix desserts, old-fashioned favorites, and treats made for sharing.

I grew up in a small church, which means I also grew up around church potlucks.

We ate together a lot. There were fellowship suppers and special occasions, Sunday gatherings and celebrations. Once a year we even packed everything up and headed to the beach for our annual church picnic, where hamburgers and hot dogs went on the grill and homemade ice cream showed up in abundance.

I loved those days.

Of course, I loved the food. I was a kid. Food was a pretty important part of the equation. But I loved being around the people, too. The older folks in our little church were so sweet to us children, and there was something wonderful about spending an afternoon surrounded by people who knew you, knew your family, and genuinely seemed happy to be together.

And then there was the dessert table.

Oh, that table.

Cakes, pies, cookies, brownies, bars, cobblers—desserts brought straight from somebody’s home kitchen and lined up for everyone to share. I can remember being that child standing there trying to decide which one I wanted first. I certainly wasn’t thinking about who had baked everything or how much work had gone into it. 

But the women knew.

And if memory serves, there might have been just a tiny bit of friendly competition involved.

Every Church Lady Had Her Specialty

Certain women seemed to become known for particular recipes.

There were cakes that showed up time and again because everybody loved them—and, frankly, because everybody expected them. Someone made the mandarin orange cake. Someone else was known for chocolate mayonnaise cake. There were pound-cake ladies, pie ladies, cookie ladies, and women who could turn out a beautiful layer cake without looking the least bit flustered.

Nobody officially handed out prizes at the fellowship supper, but make no mistake: there were bragging rights.

The church potluck story I wrote over on Backyard Texas Grill touches on exactly that kind of friendly competition—the cooks whose signature dishes became legendary, the recipes people secretly hoped would appear again, and the bake-auction desserts that could inspire some pretty enthusiastic bidding. 

It wasn’t about showing off so much as knowing you had made something people loved.

If the woman who always brought the coconut cake suddenly arrived with brownies instead, somebody was going to ask questions.

And if two women showed up with the same coconut cake?

Well.

We’re Christians. We’ll leave it there.

Church Ladies Know a Little Something About Baking

My mama understood this world, too.

Later in life she remarried and moved to a small East Texas town, where she loved cooking for the potlucks at her Baptist church. I’m incredibly grateful to have so many of Mama’s recipes now, but the older I get, the more I realize something else: a surprising number of the recipes I think of as “Mama’s” probably came to her through other women.

A friend at church made something delicious. Mama asked for the recipe. Someone wrote it on a card. Maybe another recipe came from a church cookbook. Eventually Mama made it so many times that it simply became part of our family’s cooking.

That’s how recipes used to travel.

Long before we saved recipes to phones or Pinterest boards, somebody tasted something at church and said, “I need that recipe.” Recipes were copied onto cards, tucked into notebooks, and eventually collected into the spiral-bound church cookbooks so many of us treasure. 

I even have family recipes today whose exact origins are impossible to pin down. In one of my newsletters I wrote about Mama’s snickerdoodles: perhaps they came from my grandmother Lora, perhaps from an old church cookbook, perhaps through my Aunt Mary. Nobody bothered recording the genealogy of the recipe. The important thing was that somebody kept making it. 

And maybe that’s the best way to think about this collection.

This isn’t simply a list of desserts.

This is the church lady’s guide to knowing what to bake—and when to bake it.

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Southern Church Lady Staples

Some desserts don’t need an explanation.

They belong on the church table because they’ve always belonged on the church table.

These are the cakes, pies, cobblers, cookies, and old-fashioned sweets that make people smile before they’ve even taken a bite. Nobody is trying to reinvent anything. In fact, reinventing them might be dangerous.

There are times to experiment.

And there are times when everyone expects you to bring the cake you have been bringing for twenty years.

(Click the titles to get the recipes!)

Mama’s Traditional Mandarin Orange Cake

This one belongs right at the top for me. Mandarin orange cake—or Pig Pickin’ Cake, as many people know it—is exactly the kind of cool, fruity cake I remember from church gatherings. It’s unfussy, feeds a crowd, and feels wonderfully familiar. The recipe is still part of my site today, just as these kinds of recipes remained part of church families for generations. 

The Best Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

Chocolate mayonnaise cake is an old-fashioned favorite for a reason. Before you turn up your nose at the mayonnaise, remember what it’s made from: eggs and oil. It contributes moisture and richness, and once that chocolate cake lands on the dessert table nobody is thinking about the jar that came out of the refrigerator. 

Italian Cream Cake

Now we’re getting serious. Italian cream cake is rich, beautiful, and completely at home at a Southern church gathering. It’s also one of my personal proven favorites, so you’ll hear about it again before this post is over. 

Traditional Coconut Cake

Every church dessert table needs a coconut cake. I don’t make the rules. This one happens to begin with a mix, but once it’s covered in coconut and sitting under a cake dome, all anybody cares about is getting a slice. 

German Chocolate Cake

Chocolate cake, coconut, pecans, gooey frosting—German chocolate cake checks every Southern fellowship-hall box. This is another dessert that feels like it belongs on one of those tables covered with a floral cloth and surrounded by women swapping recipes. 

Old-Fashioned Buttermilk Pie

Buttermilk pie isn’t flashy. That’s part of its charm. It’s sweet, custardy, simple, and wonderfully old-fashioned—the kind of pie that often disappears before the fanciest dessert on the table. 

Easy Coconut Cream Pie

A cool, creamy coconut pie is exactly the sort of dessert I expect to find at a church gathering, particularly when the weather is warm and everyone has eaten more than they planned to.

Easy Peach Cobbler

Peach cobbler has a way of fitting in everywhere: church suppers, family reunions, backyard gatherings, and summer celebrations. Give people a spoonful of warm peaches and crust—and possibly some ice cream—and nobody complains. 

Fudgy Pecan Pie

Pecan pie is practically required once fall arrives. This fudgy version brings an extra richness to a dessert table already filled with Southern favorites. 

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The Church Lady’s Proven Favorites

Every baker eventually develops a recipe—or several—that becomes her thing. You take it somewhere. People like it. Then they ask you to bring it again. And again.

Pretty soon nobody even asks what you’re bringing. They already know.

My Aunt Mary was the resident baker in our family and at her church. She was the woman behind the desserts people looked forward to and remembered. 

Somehow, all these years later, I’ve become that person too. Here are some of the things I've become "known" for.

(Click the titles to get the recipes!)

Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars

These are probably the most-requested bars I make. They’re soft, flaky, cinnamon-sugary, and incredibly simple compared to some of the elaborate things I know how to bake. But I’ve learned something over the years: complicated does not automatically mean memorable.

I take these bars to church and small-group functions regularly, and once I take them somewhere there’s a pretty good chance I’ll be asked to bring them again. 

If someone asked me for one dependable church-lady recipe, this would be high on the list.

Italian Cream Cake

The Snickerdoodle Bars are the quiet crowd-pleaser. Italian Cream Cake is the show-off.

This is the sort of cake you make when you want people to stop what they’re doing and come look at the dessert table. It has earned its place among my proven favorites, and I wouldn’t hesitate to take one to a special church event.

Luscious Lemon Bars

Sometimes the simplest desserts disappear first. A pan of bright, sweet-tart lemon bars is easy to serve, easy to carry, and especially nice on a table filled with heavier chocolate and caramel desserts. 

Ultimate Chocolate Cake

Everybody needs a good chocolate cake recipe. Church ladies know this. Children know this. The person who said she was too full for dessert knows this—even if she’s currently standing in line with a plate. Your sitemap confirms this longtime OOTB favorite is still very much part of the collection. 

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The Doctored Cake Mix Ladies

Now we need to talk about the box. Because this is Out of the Box Baking, after all.

Some church ladies baked absolutely everything from scratch. Others understood something equally important:

A boxed cake mix is a starting point, not a legally binding agreement.

• The directions might say three eggs. Margaret uses four.
• The box calls for water. Margaret has milk.
• The box suggests oil. Margaret already has the butter melting.
• Margaret knows her stuff. Enough said.

This is one of the things I love most about doctored cake mixes. You can begin with a convenient shortcut and turn it into something that tastes and looks completely homemade.

The Most Delicious White Cake from a Box

A good white cake is endlessly useful. Dress it up for a shower, layer it for a celebration, or keep things simple for a Sunday potluck. This is exactly the sort of foundational cake-mix recipe worth keeping in your back pocket. 

White Almond Sour Cream Cake

This is the perfect marriage of two sections in this post: doctored cake mix and secret ingredients. Sour cream brings tenderness and richness to the party while the mix keeps the process simple. 

Easy Butter Pecan Pound Cake with Frosting in the Mix

Yes. The frosting goes inside the cake.

No, we don’t need to call a committee meeting about it.

Just taste it first. 

Caramel Butterscotch Pound Cake

Pound cake is already church-lady territory. Add caramel and butterscotch and you’ve got a dessert that feels right at home at a fall fellowship meal or holiday gathering. 

Banana Spice Cake

This is another example of taking an easy starting point and turning it into something warm, flavorful, and memorable.

Easy Almond Joy Bars

Bars and church gatherings go together beautifully. They’re simple to transport, easy to portion, and nobody needs a cake knife or a degree in structural engineering to serve them.

Traditional Coconut Cake

I listed this among the Southern staples because that’s where it belongs culturally, but it’s also a terrific example of the doctored-mix philosophy. A shortcut and a church-lady classic can absolutely be the same thing.

And if you want even more ideas, check out my 40 Boxed Cake Mix Secrets: Tips to Bake Like a Pro. 

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The Secret Ingredient Society

Sometimes the surprise has nothing to do with the box. It’s the ingredient.

• Mayonnaise.
• Sour cream.
• Yogurt.
• Buttermilk.
• Whipping cream.
• Coffee.
• Pudding.
• Frosting.

The thing nobody expected to find in the batter—but everybody wants to know about after they’ve eaten the cake.

Some of these ingredients sound strange until you understand what they’re doing. They add moisture, richness, tenderness, or depth of flavor. And some of them have inspired more than one fellowship-hall investigation.

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

The granddaddy of the “you put WHAT in that?” cake.

Mayonnaise and chocolate cake have a long and happy relationship, whether suspicious church ladies approve or not.

How to Bake with Mayonnaise: 7 Terrific Recipes

If one mayonnaise recipe isn’t enough, I have a whole collection. Your sitemap still includes this baking-with-mayonnaise guide alongside several of the old-fashioned recipes in this post. 

Brown Sugar Pecan Cookies with Mayonnaise

Apparently mayonnaise wasn’t satisfied sneaking into the cake. Now it has moved on to the cookie tray.

And you know what? It works. 

Old-Fashioned Pound Cake with Whipping Cream

Whipping cream gives this old-fashioned pound cake its lovely richness. This is exactly the sort of recipe I imagine being handwritten on an index card and passed from one baker to another. 

Chocolate Pound Cake with Sour Cream

Sour cream works its quiet magic here, helping create a rich, tender chocolate pound cake worthy of any church dessert table. 

Old-Fashioned Banana Bread with Mayonnaise

Another old-school mayonnaise trick, this time in banana bread. It’s exactly the sort of recipe someone might refuse to try until the first bite—and then quietly ask you to write it down. 

Homemade Cornbread Muffins with Sour Cream

Not every church bake needs to be dessert. Sour cream gives these cornbread muffins tenderness and richness, making them a great little savory addition to a potluck table. 

Ultimate Chocolate Cake

And then there’s coffee in chocolate cake. No, the cake doesn’t need to taste like your morning cup of coffee. Coffee can deepen the chocolate flavor, which is why this trick turns up in so many great chocolate cakes.

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For the From-Scratch Church Ladies

We’ve been talking about boxes and mayonnaise long enough. Sister From-Scratch would like a word.

Every church seems to have at least one baker who considers cake mix less of an ingredient and more of a personal challenge.

• She measures the flour.
• She creams the butter.
• She separates the eggs.
• She knows when dough is ready by touching it.

Ask her how long she kneads it and she’ll say, “Until it feels right.”

Ask how much flour she uses and she’ll say, “Enough.”

Thank you, Margaret. Very helpful.

But these women preserved an extraordinary amount of baking knowledge, and many of the old-fashioned recipes we love today survived because somebody kept baking them the slow way.

Delicious Angel Food Cake from Scratch

If you love a light, fluffy angel food cake, one just like your grandmother used to bake, this is the recipe for you! This recipe is absolutely delicious and best of all, it’s an easy process. 

Cinnamon Sugar Pound Cake from Scratch

A homemade pound cake never looks out of place on a church dessert table. Add cinnamon and sugar and you’ve got the kind of simple, comforting cake that disappears one thin slice at a time. 

Kentucky Butter Cake

If you love a rich golden butter cake but prefer a homemade one, this is the recipe for you! In this post I’m going to show you how to make a simple and delicious Kentucky Butter Cake.

Homemade Marble Cake with Seven-Minute Frosting

Seven-minute frosting alone earns this one a place in the old church cookbook hall of fame. This is a lovely from-scratch cake with unmistakably vintage appeal. 

Ultimate Coca-Cola Cake from Scratch

Chocolate, Southern roots, and scratch baking make this a natural church-table candidate. 

Luscious Lemon Pound Cake from Scratch

Bright lemon flavor keeps this pound cake from feeling heavy, and it’s exactly the sort of cake I’d pair with coffee at an afternoon gathering. 

Aloha Carrot Cake from Scratch

For the baker who wants to start at the very beginning, this from-scratch carrot cake offers plenty of flavor without relying on a boxed mix. 

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Sure to Impress: Bake Auction Cakes

Now we arrive at a very different kind of church baking. Because sometimes you aren’t merely bringing dessert. Sometimes there is an auctioneer. And people are bidding.

Ask me how I know.

Church bake auctions and fundraisers can awaken a surprising amount of competitive energy in otherwise perfectly reasonable people. Of course, it’s all for a good cause.

Naturally.

But if your cake happens to start a bidding war on its way to raising money for the youth group, women’s ministry, missions, or building fund?

Well.

Praise the Lord and pass the paddle.

I've enjoyed participating in several bake auctions over the years—tables filled with cakes, pies, and cookies and some very enthusiastic bidding.  This is where I would bring the showstoppers like the ones below.

Italian Cream Cake

This is absolutely auction material. Beautiful, rich, traditional, and impressive enough to inspire somebody to bid more than she planned.

The Ultimate Lemon Chiffon Cake

A lofty chiffon cake has that classic, old-fashioned elegance that works beautifully for an auction or special church celebration. 

German Chocolate Cake

A beautifully finished German chocolate cake is immediately recognizable and has plenty of nostalgic appeal. Coconut-pecan frosting certainly doesn’t hurt.

Traditional Coconut Cake

There are everyday cakes and then there are cakes that look beautiful sitting on a pedestal. Coconut cake has always understood the assignment.

How to Turn a Boxed Cake Mix into a Showstopping Celebration Cake

And because this is Out of the Box Baking, I should point out that a showstopper doesn’t have to begin from scratch. This guide walks through ways to turn a simple boxed mix into something worthy of a special event. 

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Pyrex, Cake Carriers, and the Art of Getting It There

We’ve talked about what the church ladies baked. Now let’s talk about how it got to church.

If you grew up in the right era, Pyrex was everywhere: Casserole dishes. Mixing bowls. Pie plates. Rectangular baking dishes covered tightly with foil. And somewhere underneath there was often a name written on masking tape because everyone knew what happened when twenty women brought nearly identical dishes to the same fellowship hall.

Then there were the cake carriers. Those wonderful plastic domes had one job: get the cake from the kitchen to church without sliding the frosting sideways.

Sometimes they succeeded. Sometimes they did not.

Church potluck tables really were filled with these things—Pyrex dishes, cake carriers, aluminum foil, Crockpots, and serving bowls that had made the trip to church more times than anybody could count. 

I love vintage Pyrex today, but I especially love what it represents.

A lot of the dishes we collect now were once simply tools women used to take care of people.

• They carried food to potlucks.
• They carried food to funerals.
• They carried food to new mothers, grieving families, sick friends, and people who simply needed supper.

And somewhere after every church meal, somebody was asking:

“Has anybody seen my Pyrex?”

Here are some great things to carry in your Pyrex!

Apple Crumble Bars

Bars are perfect Pyrex food—easy to bake, easy to carry, and easy to cut into small portions when somebody realizes there are fifty people and only thirty-two pieces.

Pecan Pie Blondies

All the cozy pecan-pie flavor without having to cut and serve a pie. These are ideal for gatherings where people are eating from paper plates and wandering around visiting. 

Luscious Lemon Bars

Another dessert that was practically designed for a 9x13 pan, a spatula, and a hungry crowd.

Easy Maple Walnut Bars

Warm maple flavor and walnuts make these especially nice for fall church gatherings—the exact season when potluck, homecoming, Thanksgiving, and holiday baking all seem to collide. 

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Baking for the Occasion

Church ladies understand something important: What you bake depends on where you’re taking it.

A three-layer cake might be perfect for a bake auction but awkward at Bible study. Decorated cookies might be wonderful for a shower but more work than anyone needs for an ordinary Wednesday night.

So here is the practical part of the church lady’s guide.

For Sunday Potluck

For a regular Sunday fellowship meal, I like dependable desserts that travel easily and serve plenty of people.

Mama’s Traditional Mandarin Orange Cake is ideal because it’s cool, fruity, and familiar.

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake gives you the chocolate option every dessert table needs.

Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars are easy to grab and one of my most dependable crowd-pleasers.

And Old-Fashioned Buttermilk Pie brings that wonderful Southern church-supper feeling.

For a Funeral Meal

Church kitchens aren’t only places of celebration.

They are also places where people show up when someone is hurting.

Sometimes you don’t know what to say. But you can bake.

You can carry in a cake, cookies, bars, or something the family can share with the people gathering around them.

For funeral meals, I lean toward familiar things that travel well and don’t need elaborate serving instructions.

Luscious Lemon Bars, Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars, Old-Fashioned Pound Cake with Whipping Cream, and Easy Brownies all work beautifully.

They’re comforting, uncomplicated, and easy to share.

Sometimes love looks like a casserole.

Sometimes it looks like brownies.

For Bible Study or Small Group

This is coffee-and-something-sweet territory.

Nobody needs to be balancing a towering layer cake, a Bible, a notebook, and a cup of coffee at the same time.

Cookies, bars, muffins, scones, and coffee cakes make much more sense.

Try Maple Walnut Coffee Cake from Scratch, Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars, Iced Oatmeal Cookies, or Simple Three-Ingredient Scones.

For a Baby or Bridal Shower

Now we can get prettier.

Cupcakes, decorated cookies, elegant little cakes, and bite-sized treats all work beautifully for showers.

Rather than duplicate everything here, visit my Baby Shower Cake Ideas and my Ultimate Guide to Bridal Shower Cakes, Cookies & Party Food. Both collections are already packed with ideas for those occasions. 

For a Bake Sale or Fundraiser

Portability matters. People need to be able to point, buy, carry, and preferably come back for another one.

Cookies, brownies, bars, fudge, candy, cupcakes, and individually wrapped treats are your friends.

And because I have already done the heavy lifting on this subject, visit my 100+ Best Bake Sale Recipes Plus Tips for a Successful Sale. 

For the Church Picnic

This one makes me smile because I immediately think of those childhood beach picnics.

We didn’t stay inside the fellowship hall for every gathering. Once a year our church headed to the beach, grilled burgers and hot dogs, and brought plenty of food along for the ride.

And there was homemade ice cream. Lots of homemade ice cream.

For an outdoor church picnic, I’d lean toward desserts that tolerate travel: cookies, brownies, sturdy bars, hand pies, and things you can pick up without needing fine china.

And if somebody brings the ice cream freezer? Stay close.

That’s advice from experience.

For Christmas at Church

Christmas at church deserves its own world of cookies, candy, fudge, cakes, and treats meant for sharing.

And because the holidays are exactly when many people will be finding this post, don’t stop here. Visit my Ultimate Christmas Dessert Hub and Ultimate Christmas Cookie Collection for many more ideas. 

For Easter

Easter is another church occasion where special desserts feel right at home.

My Resurrection Cupcakes are especially meaningful for the holiday, and my Ultimate Easter Desserts Celebration Guide offers plenty of other options. 

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And Bless the One Who Tried So Hard

We’ve talked a lot about talented church bakers. Now I want to say something for one more woman.

You know her. She wants to bake. She genuinely, sincerely wants to be good at it. And somehow baking just refuses to cooperate.

She follows the directions. She checks the oven. She measures the ingredients. Her cake sinks anyway. The cookies spread into one enormous cookie. The frosting slides off the cake while she’s getting dressed for church.

And still...

She comes back next time with another dessert.

That’s why I can’t make her the joke of this story. She belongs at the church table every bit as much as the woman who can turn out a perfect Italian cream cake without breaking a sweat. Because church potlucks were never really about deciding who was the best baker. They were about showing up. Bringing something. Sharing what you had.

And every once in a while our struggling baker finally makes something that turns out absolutely wonderful. Nobody in the fellowship hall is happier than she is.

For her, I have Quick and Easy Bakes, which is packed with simple choices for bakers who don’t want to spend all day in the kitchen. 

Start simple.

Build confidence.

And if all else fails, buy the cookies.

Put them on your own plate.

I won’t tell.

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Church Cookbooks: Where So Many of the Recipes Lived

If you grew up around old church cookbooks, you know exactly what I mean. Spiral binding. Soft covers. Recipes submitted by women whose names you recognized.

Casseroles measured in cans. Desserts involving instant pudding. Directions like: “Bake until done.”

Thank you, Mildred. Very helpful.

Those books weren’t just recipe collections. They were snapshots of a community. They preserved what people actually cooked—the recipes that fed families, filled church tables, and came out again whenever someone needed a meal.

Some of the recipes from Mama’s kitchen probably traveled through exactly those sorts of networks. Maybe her friend brought something to church. Mama asked for the recipe. Then she made it for years. Eventually I inherited it.

And now I share it with you.

The line between “family recipe” and “church recipe” can become wonderfully blurry after enough decades.

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Somehow, We Become the Church Ladies

There’s one more reason this post means so much to me. When I was growing up, people used to tell me I took after my Aunt Mary. For years I thought I understood what they meant.

Aunt Mary was fluffy. I was fluffy. Case closed.

It wasn’t until much later that I realized how many other ways I took after her.

Mary was a baker. She baked for her family. She baked for her church. She was one of those women whose desserts people remembered. 

And somehow, all these years later, I’ve become one of the women carrying dessert through the church doors.

Nobody officially hands you that job. There’s no ceremony where all the church ladies gather around and announce: “Congratulations. You’re one of us now.” You just keep baking. You make something people love. They ask you to make it again. You take it to the next gathering. And the next one.

Then one day you look around and realize you’re no longer the child standing at the dessert table wondering which cookie to take.

You’re one of the people creating those food memories for somebody else. That very realization became the heart of one of my newsletters: Mama had her snickerdoodles, Aunt Mary had the desserts her church loved, and somehow I ended up with my Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars. 

I think about Mama, too.

She loved those Baptist church potlucks in her little East Texas town. She learned recipes from other church women, carried food into those gatherings, and added her own dishes to the tables.

And now I’m doing the same. Different church. Different generation. Same table.

There may be a child standing at a church dessert table today, looking over a row of cakes, pies, cookies, and bars without giving a single thought to the women who made them.

I know exactly how that feels. I used to be that kid.

And maybe one day that child will become the person carrying the cake through the doors.

That’s how traditions survive.

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More Old-Fashioned Baking Collections

If this post brought back memories of your own mama, grandmother, aunt, or favorite church lady, you might also enjoy my Ultimate Vintage Baking Hub: Recipes, Memories & the Magic of Grandma’s Kitchen and 50 Old-Fashioned Cakes Grandma Used to Make. 

You can also browse my Homemade Candy Recipes when you’re getting ready for Christmas parties, candy-making days, bake sales, and holiday gift giving. 

Thanks for Stopping By!

I hope this collection gives you plenty of ideas for your next church potluck, Bible study, bake sale, funeral meal, holiday gathering, shower, or fellowship supper.

But even more than that, I hope it reminds you of somebody.

• Maybe she was your mother.
• Maybe your grandmother.
• Maybe the woman at church who made the coconut cake everybody waited for.
• Maybe the woman whose pie always disappeared first.

Maybe she baked everything from scratch.

Maybe she started with a boxed mix and proceeded to ignore half the directions.

Maybe she had a secret ingredient she refused to discuss.

Or maybe she tried so hard and her cakes never quite cooperated.

They all belonged around that table.

And I’m grateful for every one of them.

If you have a church potluck memory—or a recipe that will forever remind you of one of the church ladies in your life—I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

And if you love these old-fashioned recipes and memories, pin this post so you can come back whenever somebody announces, “We’re having a potluck!”