There may well be leftovers. We always end up inviting all the other departments to come and graze after our potlucks because there’s so much freakin’ food.
I went ahead and put the half bowl of pasta salad back in the fridge, though. Not because I was hiding it from those freeloaders in Accounting though – nosirree! 
This is my contribution to the next potluck I have to attend:
Cranberry Salsa
2 cups fresh cranberries
1 tbsp grated orange peel
1 orange, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp fresh ginger root, minced
1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
2 jalapeno peppers, chopped (remove most of the seeds)
2 tbsp frozen OJ concentrate, thawed
1/3 cup honey
Chop cranberries coarsley. Add orange peel, chopped orange, ginger, parsley, cilantro, & jalapeno peppers. Depending on the texture you want, either chop it all together or do it in a food processor, but do keep it a little coarse. Add juice concentrate and honey.
Fake cassoulet d’isigney =)
1 bag of white beans/great northern beans cooked in a pot of lots of water with:
1 large onion with 8 whole cloves stuck into it
a ham bone or 3 or 4 smoked pork neck bones
2 carrots, peeled
2 stalks celery, with leaves
a bouquet garni of 8 sprigs thyme, 1 sprig rosemary, 10 sprigs parsley and 2 or 3 bay leaves wrapped in gauze.
cook until beans are no longer crunchy, but not entirely al dente as they get cooked further.
In a large disposable metal pan, call it 8x12 inches and 3 inches deep:
lay out 1 pound of thick cut bacon to cover the bottom. Place a layer of the cooked beans. Lay a layer of:
1 half pound each leftover rare roast beef, rare cooked lamb slices and rare cooked pork roast each cut into half inch cubes
over the meat put the rest of the beans. Add enough of the bean cooking water to come to just under the syrface of the beans and on top of the beans arrange legs of chicken and small garlic sausages [i cheat and use little smokies=)] on top of a thick layer of panko japanese bread crumbs.
Cover the whole thing with foil, and bake slowly in a low oven, say mark 1.5 or 250-300 degrees. I tend to bake it for about 3 hours, and check it to see if the beans are totally soft but not dissolved.
Serves wonderfully with tossed salad and nice garlic bread.
Jello shots!
My workplace environment is decidely casual, though.
Anyone need a recipe?
pugluvr - My mother makes that salad, too. It’s wonderful! The ramen adds a nice crunchy texture.
I have a sort of rotating list of things I bring. Sometimes I hand dip strawberries and pretzels. That’s always a big favorite. Sometimes I make a hot chip dip thing by sauteeing onions, green chillis and roma tomatoes and adding cream cheese. It’s always snarfed right down. Other stuff, too. A lot depends on how much work I feel like putting into it the night before.
I’m funny, though. Unlike some, if I don’t remember to bring something, I don’t eat. It always gets my goat, those people who never bring and are first in line to eat.
StG
I always make a garlic goat cheese dip because I made it once and they don’t want me to bring anything else.
Mix about 3 parts cream cheese (real or reduced fat) with one part feta cheese (crumbled or creamed, but I prefer crumbled). When mixed well, make little balls and put them on bagel chips or crackers, then flatten. Cover the cheese with minced garlic, then the garlic with pesto, then top with a sliced Roma tomato. (If you don’t have time to do the individual crackers, spread all the cheese on a large plate and then do the toppings; if you want to be creative you can try to make the pesto and the Roma slices look like peacock feathers).
I once made “Pete Loaf” for a Halloween party. It’s several meat loaves shaped into body parts (hands, feet, heart, etc.). Also a hit.
Penn & Teller have a great recipe in their book “How to Play With Your Food” for a perfectly edible cake that bleeds when cut due to a plastic bag filled with syrupy “blood”.
Ten pounds of ground beef. One portable grille and a 10 pound bag of charcoal.
It never fails to please…
Ok, so it helps that I raise cattle and have access to plenty of beef!
Well my lasagna went over well.
Does anyone else have potlucks of mostly storebought food?
We had my lasagna, a cake and a taco salad that was homemade.
We had chicken, salad, bread sticks, pie, chips, salsa and ham, all store bought.
People are just plain lazy around here.
The real sad part is I probably spent more on the lasagna than most people paid for their completely store bought stuff.
Of course there are leftovers! Remember the Law of Potlucks: Each person will bring enough food for two, and enough for three is more likely.
Odinoneeye, the solution to such potluck laziness is to sneer slightly at storebought contributions while ignoring the person who brought them, and to strongly praise anybody who brought something homemade. You can eat some of everything, but maintain your reactions to pre-made food and to those people who cared enough to make something themselves.
When my husband’s office has potlucks (once a month to celebrate all the birthdays), he usually makes an apple pie or two. I sometimes help with the filling (mixing it all up), but he’s the king of the crust, I tell ya’! The ladies he works with didn’t believe that he made the pie himself until they quizzed him on his crust recipe.
I hope the two of you are being facetious. Sometimes people truly can’t find the time to decide on a homemade dish, shop for ingredients, and make it, or perhaps they aren’t confident enough in their own cooking abilities. At least they brought something. Would you mind toning down the elitism just a tad?
Scarlett, who took a platter of Cousin’s subs to the last potluck party she attended because she was swamped with work that week, but made a veggie pizza for today’s potluck Halloween party
Only partly tongue-in-cheek, Scarlett, but with no intent to offend.
I can certainly accept the occasional lapse, especially for those who really are busy, but there are those who do it all the time. It only takes a few minutes to mix up some dip for chips, or to put two or three kinds of cheese and maybe some salami on a plate with some crackers. (I reacall telling a non-cooking newbie in the office that he should at least cut up the cheese himself. He got his praise and now cooks!) In any case, I wouldn’t attack the person who buys their contribution, just mildly disapprove of their food. (I thought I made that clear above.) The positive reinforcement works best anyway.
Maybe I’m just spoiled by the potlucks I’ve attended in the past.