blackbox for non-professionals

[SlaveGirl]

Hey, so a bunch of my friends and I are having a potluck this weekend, and I am in charge of putting together a little black box for them. I'd like to post it Thursday, I want to make it so they can take out the meat items if they want, and still make a good meal. Since they are amateurs I'm not going to require they use everything in the list, but as many as they can. It's low key and fun, anyone have any suggestions on what to unleash on my friends? Basic, easy to get ingredients, I just want to make sure it's well rounded enough they can actually make a small variety of things.

[CompassRose]

So tell me more about this black box thing. I looked it up on the web, and I think I get the idea... but I couldn't find any comprehensive sample list of the kinds of things that would be included. (Just one competition PR saying the contestants got "rack of lamb" and "salmon"... but nothing else, because of course meat is the ONLY significant part of a meal...)

Do you get veggies? Fruits? Spices? What things are assumed? What things are not? (This sounds like a really fun thing to do, by the way - what a nifty-keen idea!) What's the object - everyone creates a full full-course meal? or in this case, for a potluck, a certain course? Or do the rules vary?

[SlaveGirl]

you can do it any way you want, basically. You get a bunch of ingredients and you have to (usually) use them all to make several courses. I'm going much simpler than that, I guess I'll just make a list of 10 or 15 things and have all them be optional, especially the meat. But yes, you can only use what's on the list, nothing extra. =)
I think mine will be just one dish, but people can make more if they wish, of course.
SG