Tomorrow is Boss’ Day. I work at a company where we love to eat and our boss doesn’t suck, so we’re throwing a surprise early-afternoon feed tomorrow. I usually make my special guacamole recipe for these things, but someone else already has chip-dip stuff covered this time. What should I bring that’s relatively easy to make and inexpensive? I’m out of ideas.
Ah, darnit, this should be in Cafe Society. Please move me. Sorry!
It’s too late to make gravelax, but how about another dip: tzatziki?
Ingredients are 1 large pot greek yoghurt, 1 cucumber, olive oil, white wine vinegar, and garlic.
Coarsley grate the cucumber onto a clean tea-towel.
Wrap the cucumber and squeeze as much water out of it as you can.
Put the cucumber in a mixing bowl and add a crushed clove of garlic and the yoghurt. Mix thoroughly.
Drizzle in 1 teaspoonful of white wine vinegar and one tablespoon of olive oil, mixing all the time.
Add more crushed garlic to taste.
Chill overnight or eat immediately. Note that the garlic flavour will get stronger overnight.
Tzatziki also works as a salad.
A cheese and cracker plate with sliced salami is always nice. Less expensive would be a crudites and pickled vegetable platter (olives, giardinera mix, pickles, carrots, celery, radishes, etc.) plus some blue cheese or ranch dressing. The Hillshire farms Lil’ Smokies are always a hit as well. Mix them with the mini-franks and heat in BBQ sauce for fun. Toothpicks are recommended.
Say what you will, but every single time I bring Deviled Eggs to functions, they are the first to go.
I’d do deviled eggs, but one lady in our office always does those and her recipe is awesome. I bow before her deviled eggs.
The tzatziki sounds good, and I’ll probably try that at home, but unfortunately my officemates aren’t too adventurous about food. One time I brought hummus and pitas to work and they had never heard of hummus before, and most of them were afraid to try it.
Somebody’s doing cheese and crackers too. But I give a big “Hmmmmm…” to the Little Smokies idea. In Texas, we’ll eat almost anything with barbecue sauce on it.
Go get a box of Knorr Vegetable mix and read the box for the ingredents that you will need to make spinich dip. Get hawaiian bread, some wheat thins, etc. They will love you!!!
My husband eats it as a sandwich spread.
Dont forget the water chestnuts…mmmmmmm!
I opened this thinking it said ‘Snake Recipe Needed’ in the title! Doh! Looks like i’ve missed the boat for giving you recipe ideas too…nevermind.
How about lamingtons - they are pretty easy to make.
Basically they are squares of sponge cake, coated in chocolate sauce and dipped in coconut - heaven!
Purchase some sponge cake and cut into squares (can vary in size from 2cm x 3cm to 6cm x 6xm anything you want really).
From this site:
If you want to go for a really cute presentation.
Salami cones stuffed with herbed cream cheese:
Mash chopped scallion(s), garlic, salt, white pepper, hot sauce and onion powder into a brick of cream cheese. Let rest overnight (or shorter).
Purchase bias (diagonal) cut salami slices.
Roll ~½ Tsp of the herbed cheese into each slice of salami.
Much more elegant.
Stuffed cherry tomatoes:
Use a melon baller to scoop out the innards of a basket of cherry tomatoes.
Whip tuna salad or a dense (w/sour cream) blue cheese dressing until well blended (i.e., no chunks).
Use a pastry bag to pipe the mixture into the cored tomatoes.
The great advantage of the Lamington as a popular party item is the ease with which one can substitute a square of sponge for a square of sponge cake when making them. The sauce provides all the camouflage needed. Hilarity ensues.
don’t ask, you might have admired Emily Post. She would charmingly interleave sliced cheese with slivers of soap just to watch her guests nibble them down, whilst they crooned about her hospitality all the while.
Go with a veggie platter, if nobody else is doing one. Bell peppers in at least red and green, cauliflower florets, cherry tomatoes, baby carrots, celery sticks, green onions (cut off the roots and the very tip tops, peel off the outer leaf if necessary), radishes (you can make radish roses if you feel a need to be fancy, but plain radishes will be eaten even more quickly), and black AND green pitted olives. Maybe some peppercini. Most chip dips work just as well, if not better, with veggies. Plus, a veggie platter will give people an opportunity to be able to snack on healthier choices. The diabetics and dieters will love you AND hate you simultaneously…as you’ve given them a reasonable choice to stay on their diets AND no excuse to break said diets!
You can either buy one of these premade in the grocery store, or buy the ingredients yourself and fix it up. I prefer to look at the premade versions for inspiration and then wander along the produce section and pick up whatever is brightly colored. Before you go through the checkout lane, just make sure that you have a variety of colors (you don’t want just red and green, for instance, unless you’re going with a theme) and tastes. Parsley is very cheap, and looks nice, so pick up a bunch.
You can even put fruit on a veggie platter. Tomatoes and bell peppers are fruits anyway, and slices or wedges of citrus fruit taste good. Loose grapes or teensy bunches of grapes can work well. Generally, though, traditional veggies are best.
This is late, but oh, well.
Bean sald is quick and easy.
Pour canned beans (black is best, but red work, or whatever you find in the store, or a mixture) into a colander and rinse well with cold water. Leave them to drain. Mix a dressing of two parts oil with one part vinegar (lime juice is good for some or all of the vinegar), or use something commercial. Add oregano (fresh if you’ve got it), a crushed or finely chopped clove or two of garlic, and chili powder to taste. Thinly slice some onion, red or yellow pepper, and maybe a seeded jalapeno or two. Coarsely chop a bunch of coriander (or parsley, if you must). Toss everything together.
Is it tomorrow now cbawlmer?
What did you make.
Well, my evening didn’t go as planned and so I wound up with no time at all, so I brought baby carrots and a surprisingly yummy (considering it was storebought) dip. But we have these little parties at work pretty often, so now I’m armed with ideas for the next couple. They won’t go to waste. Thanks, everybody!
I keep reading the title as “Snake Recipes” and hoping… hoping…
I love snake. Tastes like lizard.
Hey, I grew up in San Angelo, TX home of the Rattlesnake Roundup where people ate snake fried, grilled, any way they could imagine. I never tried it myself, but I’m sure there are good snake recipes out there somewhere.
I’ll see if I can dig one up later.
I had rattlesnake chili out there at the round up one year. Made my ass rattle, go figure.