Potluck October 22, 2007 zuzu Kat emailed me with a request to poll the readership: What’s your favorite dish to bring to an office potluck?
Homemade guacamole and toasted chips (take regular corn chips and make them extra crispy in the oven…yum!).
This does it every time! Spicy Mac and Cheese i have found that this recipe is really really saucy so i usually use 2 lbs. of pasta or cut the sauce in half 1 pound elbow macaroni 1 1/2 cups finely chopped onion 2 large garlic cloves, minced 1 1/2 tablespoons minced pickled jalapeno chilies, to taste or 1 to 2 tablespoons of chipotle in adobo 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 5 cups milk 1 (28-ounce) can plum tomatoes, juice discarded and tomatoes chopped and drained well 2 cups coarsely grated Monterey Jack (about 8 ounces) 2 cups coarsely grated extra-sharp cheddar (about 8 ounces) 1/4 cup fresh bread crumbs 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan (about 1/4 pound) In a large heavy saucepan cook the onion, the garlic, the jalapenos, or chipotle in butter over moderately low heat, stirring, until the onion is softened, stir in the flour, and cook the mixture, stirring, for 3 minutes. Add the milk in a stream, whisking constantly, and bring the liquid to a boil. Stir in the tomatoes. Simmer the mixture for 2 minutes. Add salt and pepper, to taste. In a kettle of boiling salted water cook the macaroni for 6 to 7 minutes, or until it is barely al dente, drain it well, and in a large bowl combine it with the tomato mixture. Stir in the Monterey Jack and the cheddar and transfer the mixture to a buttered 15 by 10-inch shallow baking dish or 3-quart gratin dish. In a bowl stir together the bread crumbs and the Parmesan, sprinkle the mixture evenly over the macaroni mixture. Bake the macaroni and cheese in the middle of a preheated 375 degree F oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until it is golden and bubbly.
Chocolate chip cookies. I make big, soft, chewy ones with really good chocolate chunks. If it needs to be real food, sesame noodle salad with shredded chicken.
One time we had a Thanksgiving themed office potluck … three of us wanted to bring our extra-special homemade cranberry sauce. We ended up with 3 varieties of cranberry sauce … all very good (if I do say so myself as one of the cranberry saucers). I like to bring my turkey meatballs with pineapple rum chutney (see my blog for details) if I have the time to make them.
Pinwheels: Mix cayenne, garlic, crushed pepper with cream cheese. Spread cheese in flour tortilla, layer thinly sliced turkey pastrami, then roll torilla and refridgerate to set. Slice rolled tortillas (like cinnamon rolls) into bite-sized pieces to serve.
When I worked in an office I tried to bring in something tasty and vegetarian from a restaurant. I can’t take the anti-vegan criticism at the same time as the cooking criticism, so I limit it to the less personal criticism. If I put my heart and soul into cooking for people and they react with typical anti-vegan venom I want to run and hide and cry. So, basically, I don’t cook for people outside of my family. I let the experts handle the wierdo officemates.
if we’re talking “real” food, I like vegetarian baked ziti. but usually for work functions I take dessert. We often have monthly meetings and several folks are a big fan of my brownies. they take like 30 minutes to make and are delicious, if i do say so myself.
At my office, we don’t do potlucks, we do “Ethnic Food Day” so I’m all the time doing things like kasha varnishkas or gefilte fish. But for a regular potluck, a cold pasta salad is great; something with ingredients like orzo, red onions, almond slivers, green peas and grape tomatoes in a spiced olive oil.
I bring a chocolate fountain, with a package or two of strawberries and a package or two of shortbread cookies. or, these Cream Cheese Bars… 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened 2 (8 ounce) packages crescent rolls 1 cup white sugar 1/4 cup white sugar 1 egg yolk 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Preheat oven to 350 ̊. Lightly grease a 9×13 inch pan. In a bowl, beat together cream cheese and 1 cup sugar with mixer until smooth. Stir in egg yolk and vanilla. Unwrap one package of crescent rolls and cover the bottom of the pan with the dough, pressing the seams together to seal. Spread the cream cheese mixture over the dough. Unwrap the second package of crescent rolls, stretch it to fit the pan, and lay over top of the cream cheese mixture, pressing seams together. Combine the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle over the top. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until top begins to brown. Cool.
if it’s snacks type potluck: my easy hummus – can of chick peas, juice of one lemon, big tablespoon or so of tahini (i just pour some in), 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, salt and pepper, 1 pour of olive oil. blend. float olive oil on top and sprinkle with good paprika. serve with cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, sliced green pepper, and pitas or chips. if something cooked is more appropriate…well, i’d order pizza.
For Thanksgiving, my excellent sausage n apple french bread stuffing (it can also be made with vegetarian sausage, so it’s pretty adaptable.) For regular potlucks, cheesy potato casserole. It’s really easy, just frozen hash brown potatoes, cream of chicken soup, sour cream, melted butter, onions, and topped off with crushed corn flakes mixed w/ a little extra melted butter. Bake, enjoy.
Quinoa with roasted vegetables. It’s absurdly easy to make, yet looks all fancy and exotic and is uber healthy yet yummy. Box of red quinoa into the rice cooker (or in a pot on the stove), bagged baby carrots and sliced onions tossed with olive oil in a casserole dish and into the oven until brown, then throw in the finished quinoa, mix, and you’re good to go. Ok, and half a stick of butter. Altogether it takes about an hour (if you cook the quinoa and veggies at the same time), but it’s all unattended so you can start it all before jumping in the shower and have it done by the time you’re ready to leave for work.
hrm…we don’t have potlucks where I work, but it would probably be dessert. I’m fantastic with cookies. It’d be one of four or all.. Lemon white chocolate chip Strawberry white chocolate chip Banana chocolate chip Coconut,ginger, sesame, chocolate chip.
A low-fat quiche with broccoli, onions, and part-skim cheese, or, if it’s breakfast, a fruit salad with a sprinkling of lemon juice and powdered sugar.
# Abby Says: October 22nd, 2007 at 10:34 am Pumpkin Bars with cream cheese icing. And then a sugar crash. That’s so funny — that’s what I’m bringing to my office gig this Wednesday. Only with butterscotch cream cheese icing, to give the sugar crash that extra oomph!
Pasta salad is always good; alternatively, these Food Not Bombs cookies always go down well, are trivially easy and quick to throw together, use ingredients that pretty much anyone has around the house, and are vegan.
My dad’s Cucumber Salad is always a big hit. It’s super-easy to throw together, and the ingreedients can be easily adjusted for the amount of salad or to taste: 3-4 large cucumbers, peeled and sliced thin 1 medium onion, sliced (optional) 2-3 Tbsp Miracle Whip 1/8 cup Red wine vinegar Paprika Combine cucumber slices and onions in a large bowl with Miracle Whip. Stir contents until veggies are evenly coated, then add vinegar and enough paprika to evenly coat the top of the mixture. Stir contents until all ingreedients are well-blended. Add more vinegar and/or paprika to taste.
Anything that doesn’t require 1) cooking and 2) that much of my meager paychecks. Either chips and salsa or bread and hummus.
Chocolate-covered strawberries. These were time-consuming the first few times I made them, but once I got used to it, making them became really fast. Then I discovered, as an earlier commenter pointed out, that providing melted chocolate and strawberries and other things to dip often goes over even better. The kind of people I know tend to try drizzling the chocolate over just about anything to see what it tastes like.
Lasagna, hands down. Unless I have some advance warning and want to spring for a bourbon bread pudding … mmm.
Either: Green salad – romaine and red leaf lettuce, plus tomatoes. Plus other things if I feel like making a real effort. Or: Fruit salad – apples, mango, grapes, and banana. Because IMO, there are never enough good vegetable/fruit dishes at such events. And anyway, other people will bring the denser, protein-laden cooked things, so I don’t need to 🙂 Although lately, I’ve been in school, and when we have group events that require people to bring snacks, I bring things like cheese and crackers, or some good salami (and crackers), or fruit. I’m not veg*n, but I do need my plant foods!
Vegetarian taco dip: 1 container tofutti sour cream 1 container tofutti cream cheese 1 can vegetarian refried beans 1 pkg taco seasoning 1/2 jar salsa as much garlic as you like lettuce 1 tomato I bag organic blue corn chips Mix all the ingreadients in a food processor or blender except for the lettuce, tomato and chips. Pour mixture in 9×13 baking dish, cover and refrigerate overnight. Before serving top with chopped lettuce and tomato, I like to serve with organic blue corn chips. Yum!
A variant of lecho, a Hungarian pepper stew. 6-8 potatoes 3-4 bell peppers 1-2 tomatoes 1 onion 1 head garlic 1 kielbasa sausage wash and cube potatoes (slightly less than an inch). start them boiling. dice peppers, onion, tomato, and kielbasa to. mince garlic saute them, then add to pot If necessary, add enough water to just barely cover everything. Let simmer a couple of hours. Popular variants include no potatoes, adding rice, and adding zucchini. I think all of these are inferior.
Dolma! No, wait, Ol’ Sookle! (like a knotted piece of crispy, sugary donut pastry- no idea how to really spell it). Actually, generally I bake up a big loaf or 2 of tear-n-share garlic bread and some dips
Homemade meatballs in sauce. Carrot cake muffins (carrot cake from scratch baked in a muffin pan, preferably the Pamper’s Chef Stoneware Muffin Pan). Lumpia
Something vegan! (That way EVERYONE can have some! Yum.) Thank you sooo much! So many people just never think about us veggies.
If I get to bring salads- Apicius’ Peas salad- defrost frozen peas, toss with a basic vinegrette decorate with chopped onion/egg white. For a main dish- Spanish Rice For a dessert- usually a shortbread around Christmas, chocolate frosted brownies the rest of the year.
I bake more than I cook. Brownies are always a big hit, and super easy if I’m in a hurry. Devils food cake or cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, or any of several varieties of cookies (lemon, maple, oatmeal raisin, or frosted shortbread). When it’s real food, baked beans or hummos are most likely. Sometimes a salad.
Sushi salad – an Americanized version of sushi rice with chopped cucumber, carrots, scallions, nori, and ginger, tossed together and sprinkled with black sesame seeds. It’s easy, it looks “exotic”, and it’s vegan/parve without sending omnivores running for the hills.
I like to make onigiri – Japanese rice balls. I don’t put anything inside them though, just plane rice with the seasoning stuff from the packets that I get at Uwajimaya, and a bit of seaweed. And they’re super quick to make in the morning before I head off to work.
The only time I ever worked in an office, a potluck would have tempted me — to cook something evil. I don’t know how you people stand office environs, I sure can’t.
My potluck standard is lemonade pie. It’s easy to make, and it tends to go over well. It does contain dairy (sorry, vegans). Lemonade Pie 1/2 can frozen lemonade (thawed) 12oz. tub of Kool Whip (or the non-dairy whipped topping of your choice) 14oz. can of sweetened condensed milk Mix ingredients & pour into a graham cracker pie crust. Freeze until time to serve. Enjoy!
Evil Blondies are the current favorite: Blondies with a shot of butterscotch schnapps and chopped pecans, with a dark chocolate swirl.
Something vegan! (That way EVERYONE can have some! Yum.) Thank you sooo much! So many people just never think about us veggies. I work with a lot of Indians, many of them are vegetarians. Not to mention all the people who eat Kosher or Halal. Veg food is so much safer. Lasagne, stuffed peppers, or possibly chips+dip if its a young crowd. If its the holidays I break out some cookies.
Dad’s bulgur salad – bulgur wheat, onions, chickpeas, and vinaigrette. Mostly because it’s easy, though it also happens to be vegan/kosher/etc. Otherwise I just opt for bringing drinks, because I’m lazy.
I’m veg too so I always bring something I know I want to eat, just in case. my recent fave, though better in the summer, is cucumber tomato salad (cucumbers, cherry tomatoes cut in half, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper to taste). Or else I’ll bring a bread bowl with dip in the middle.
A big tray of brownies without nuts. Oh, I’m so glad to find someone else who hates nuts in brownies. They always put walnuts in, and I’m really not fond of walnuts. Chocolate chip cookies get pecans; brownies get walnuts. What’s up with that? Actually, that was one of the reasons I never cared for my grandmother’s whiskey balls; she used walnuts as the nut in them. They might have been perfect with almonds or pecans or hazelnuts, but I just didn’t love the walnuts. I am a big fan of this pasta salad (Naked Chef’s Best Pasta Salad), which is made by a gourmet-food place in Grand Central Market. It’s nice and tart, with nice crisp cucumbers. The Naked Chef uses small shells, while Dishes uses cavatelli, which is bigger and probably holds up better to the chunks of cucumber, olive and tomato than the shells do. Oh, and it’s vegan (just veggies and pasta in a vinaigrette dressing), but OH SO FREAKIN TASTY.
Just to add a Euro perspective: If I went to something office-related and the company couldn’t afford to pay for our food, I’d probably conclude we’re there for an announcement that the shop has folded. 🙂 For the private ones, to the extent that they occur, I’ll usually go with some classic (tiramisu, lasagne, Vietnamese spring rolls, …) and try to make up in taste what I may lack in originality. 🙂
Homemade baked beans (1 day to soak the dried beans; 1 whole day to make and serve that night) with steamed brown bread- but then again, north of Boston, just about everyone does this. All fund-raising dinners here have pretty much a “baked bean/ spaghetti/ casserole” type of theme; it’s always fun to try someone else’s tried-and-true recipes. Coming from a very heavy “meat and potatoes” sort of background, I LOVE being able to taste someone else’s vegan recipes before I attempt it myself. Have definitely learned alot about flavors, textures and spices and how they interact this way! Desserts? I make a mean homemade chocolate fudge, 5 lbs at a time and poured onto a cookie sheet. In fact, I need to make some today for our local library’s book and bake sale.
I agree with you, zuzu- I never know who is allergic or just doesn’t like nuts, so I only make fudge with nuts by request.
At my office, there are folks who are dairy and wheat intolerant, and several vegetarians. We have a potluck every other month or so, to celebrate birthdays and holidays. Depending on the occasion, I’ve made: green lentil and shredded carrot&beet salad over baby greens with cilantro-lime vinaigrette and (optional) chevre roasted red pepper hummus and mushroom almond pate, served with rice crackers and corn chips. I also make green goddess hummus (full of fresh oregano and basil), and roasted garlic hummus. with a food processor, it’s an easy thing to make. dal (yellow lentils, gluten-free vegetable stock, squash, peppers and kale) dosas (Indian flatbread/griddle cake, made with chickpea and rice flour) ceviche with pacific halibut, red/yellow peppers, avocado and cilantro
Last time I went to a potluck kind of event, I brought Melba Salsa and Watermelon, Feta and Black Olive Salad.
Oh, and I need to second the earlier suggestion of lumpia. At my first job in NYC, we had occasional baby showers, and the support staff, which was rather diverse, would bring in their best dishes. My favorite were the lumpia and the Jamaican beef patties. Mmmm mmm.
I honor my heritage by bringing in the makings for Frito Pie — but I make vegetarian chili instead of full-on spicy meatslurry, since I never know who is veggie and who ain’t. Also, honest t’god, it’s just easier to make veggie chili. I hate frying/draining beef.