I am so tempted to print this on small cards and place them next to the covered dish announcement posters at work.
Regarding folks being expected to make the same thing year after year…my company banned all on-site food preparation for company events after one of the ladies chopped off the tip of her thumb while slicing onions. As a result, one guy was no longer able to fry spring rolls out back. I don’t know if he was bothered by the expectation that he would make these every year, but he didn’t seem very upset about the food prep ban.
Friend’s Thai wife brought a dish of chopped raw pig’s liver with chillies in vinegar.
Taste and texture were almost exactly like the mucus you’re trying to get rid of when doing hard physical work at 0 F.
I just remembered the other reason I came to hate pot lucks at work - the guys (and it was ALWAYS the guys) disappeared after they’d eaten their fill, leaving the clean-up to the women, mainly secretaries, since there were few women engineers in that group. I’m not sure why internal plumbing = do the dishes, but eventually, a couple of the women raised enough of a ruckus that many of the guys finally started pitching in.
It was bad enough in the 80s, but when this idiocy continued well past 2010, I’m glad I just carried my own lunch and avoided the “party.”
Problem is, if an attendee is required to keep kosher or halal, there’s almost nothing I could make that he or she would be able to eat.
Even as a Catholic, I know the BASICS of the kosher laws. I know better than to bring pork or shellfish to an interfaith gathering, and I’d know not to make chicken parmesan or beef lasagna.
But I certainly don’t keep two sets of vessels, and it would be silly to expect me to. And properly killed meats aren’t THAT easy to come by (though they’re more available now than they once were). So, even if I wanted to be inclusive, what could I do? Buy a large plastic bowl and make something safe and boring like fruit salad.
I work in a female-dominated workplace, and it’s no better here. One guy in particular really likes to schedule parties and then he leaves the women he works with to do the actual preparation and setup. Like he thinks saying, “Let’s have a party!” magically causes tables to be set and decorations hung and food made and laid out.
The worst potluck disappointment had here was the chili potluck, where every single chili was “insanity hot”. I’m a baby and can only handle mildly spicy foods, so all I could eat was veggies and dip.
About the home-made casseroles and such ignored in favor of Costco appetizers and oreos…some people are leery of ‘other peoples food’. They have a thing where in their minds they wonder in what kind of kitchen the food was prepared (like, ‘eww…germs! dogs and cats! tasting with the spoon they stir it with’!).
Myself, I always bring a big platter of vegetables and dip, purchased from the grocery store, in a cellophane wrapped tray. Just about everyone will eat carrot sticks, broccoli florets, and ranch dip.
Uh. I am a great baker and love to bake and have never made homemade frosting. And probably never will. You don’t like it? Don’t eat my homemade stuff.
I’m sure I have had bad potlucks but I can’t remember any off hand. I generally just don’t eat the stuff that doesn’t look good, and I try not to complain about it too much. I do remember undercooked cookies once, but it wasn’t the end of the world.
ETA: this, too. I have skipped foods before because I know the person, and I hear all the time about how their cat walks all over everything, tee-hee, or if I just know they are a huge slob at work.
Exactly. Some of these people I know - very well - and when I see a crud covered crock pot with something lurking in a sauce and can’t tell what it is versus a mini quiche on a plate that obviously came from Costco what do you THINK I’m going to be eating?
Totally agreed - you have to have special frosting, make your own. Otherwise you get what I give, and you say thank you. That’s how polite people do it anyway. I’m not going to go into the incident of the bacon/butterscotch cookies that someone brought to our last potluck - needless to say, “folks, don’t try new recipes out on your coworkers.” But we all thanked her!
And yes - I will skip food if I know you made it at home and I’ve seen your place and it should be condemned - I have a strong sense of self preservation.
One last thing - for those that complain that the queso and chips or the mini sausages in the grape jelly and chili sauce shouldn’t be considered “good enough” - baloney. At least in my experiences (with family, friends, coworkers, church socials, etc.) there are some foods that are EXPECTED at potlucks. If they’re missing it’s noticed and the event isn’t quite the same. It’s tradition.
I’m from Hawaii, but live and work in Southern California. I’ve made Spam musubi for the last two office Thanksgiving potlucks and they’re always all gone before I can snag myself one. We’re a multicultural office and we’re encouraged to make things representative of our cultures, but still, I feel fortunate that the demographics of my office skew things friendly toward such creations.
Was it “Cat Poop Cookies” on a bed of Grape Nuts? I made that as a practical joke and took it to my brother’s house a few years ago. His wife couldn’t even look at it.
As for me, the biggest disappointment was the potluck where almost 20 people attended and EVERY ONE OF THEM, myself included, brought a dessert - just a dessert. :smack:
Unless he’s in a position where not having the party could have serious repercussions, you don’t HAVE to do it, after all. I mean, the decorations, etc. DID magically appear, if you did them.
Have to agree with 90% of the previous posters. God help me if I don’t bring one of two dishes to a family potluck; God help me if I bring any type of non-lettuce salad without a mayo-based dressing to work.
And I get really PO’d at the guys that always bring prepared stuff or pop, especially when the prepared stuff is something that no one has eaten at the potlucks for 5+ years.
We had one fantastic woman that brought dishes from “home” nearly every time. I was the only person brave enough to try them, and was I normally glad!
I bring what I have time to bring. If I’ve got a game on Tuesday, Wednesday’s pot luck is going to get something from the thaw and bake aisle. Sometimes a group of us chip in and get a largish amount of fried chicken. Most of my co-workers LIKE food that isn’t spicy or different. They like “can of soup” cooking. It’s not my usual style, but I’m not going to spend my time and money making pastitsio for people who find a Stouffer’s lasagna on the spicy side. Wastes my time and annoys the pig. Once I did make a Moroccan style chicken with lemons and olives. The intense yellow put some people off, but it was mostly a hit.
Now there was one woman who made homemade soup ALL the time. She would stop you on your way in and say “I brought my homemade vegetable soup today. Come by at lunch and get some.” I did. Once. It was sweet. She put SUGAR in vegetable soup. I learned that one the hard way. She also used to regularly bring expired food. Someone was always assigned to follow her in and give our group the heads up on her dish. I’ll never forget the cheese ball that had expired six years before.
I still shudder thinking about this one. It was some type of casserole made with squirrel meat. I know a fair amount of people do eat squirrel, but to me a squirrel is a rodent, just like a rat, and knowing I’d had a bite of ‘rat-like animal’ made the remainder of my afternoon a nightmare.
I hate all office potlucks for precisely this reason. I see how gross these people are at work; what must their kitchens look like? If they don’t wash their hands in the bathroom WITH COWORKERS PRESENT how likely is it that they wash their hands before baking? Blurgh.
One office potluck featured a crockpot dish that was simmered throughout the day under the worker’s desk, next to her feet. For some reason, I found that less than appetizing.
Does anyone else freak out at the amount of time some of these dishes are left sitting out at room temperature?
ETA: I have no issues with store-bought stuff being brought in – heck, I do that myself. And one of my favorite items at last year’s Thanksgiving potluck was a sack of King’s Hawaiian rolls. That’s not something I would typically buy on my own, and they were surprisingly tasty.
I am so tempted to print this on small cards and place them next to the covered dish announcement posters at work.