I grew up as a preacher's kid in the era of the all-church potluck, a ritual event that took place regularly in the basement of the church. The food was bland, at best. That is until the advent of lemon Jell-O, when things took a turn for the worse.

To this day, I don't know where it came from, but my father became the proud owner of two 55-gallon drums of lemon Jell-O powder, divided up into small, unlabeled, nondescript packages. We knew it was lemon Jell-O because he told everyone it was. You would have thought the man struck gold for the joy it brought him. Imagine two gigantic, industrial-strength drums of free lemon Jell-O.

The assignment for all the church cooks was to take as much of this stuff they could handle and come up with amazing potluck dishes using it. Not wanting to disappoint the preacher, everyone accepted the challenge.

They dutifully made lemon cakes and lemon puddings and lemon pies and lemon drinks. The results were not good, even though my father declared each lemon Jell-O offering to be better than the last. The truth is that no matter how hard these cooks tried, whatever they made was not fit for human consumption.

I don't know who eventually came up with a plausible explanation, but it went like this: Apparently, a food manufacturer had created some kind of boxed meal of lemon-garlic chicken, and this savory lemon packet was part of the preparation. Subsequently, the product was taken off the market (I wonder why?), leaving the company with what I'm sure were millions of packages of lemon-garlic mix.

Even that discovery did not deter my father. Long after I left home (we're talking years later), he was still hawking lemon Jell-O to anyone he could convince to take a few packages to see if they could make something at least marginally edible with it. To my knowledge, he never achieved the success he dreamed of, but I'm pretty sure no one died in the attempts.

Potluck meals have come a long way since the days of little packets of lemon Jell-O. By planning the menu and assigning specific dishes to those in attendance, the luck factor is removed. What more economical way is there to have a wonderful meal with friends or family?

If you want to pursue planned potlucks, take a look at a terrific new book that will help you out with recipes, menus and general potluck planning. "Modern Potluck: Beautiful Food to Share" has more than 100 make-ahead recipes that are perfect for a crowd. It's reasonably priced on Amazon, too — about $19.

Mary invites questions, comments and tips at [email protected], or c/o Everyday Cheapskate, 12340 Seal Beach Blvd., Suite B-416, Seal Beach, CA 90740. This column will answer questions of general interest, but letters cannot be answered individually. Mary Hunt is the founder of www.DebtProofLiving.com, a personal finance member website and the author of "Debt-Proof Living," released in 2014. To find out more about Mary and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.