Beebs

Wow! Great ideas, folks - keep 'em coming! I do have access to a crockpot + electrical outlet, so I've been kicking around the idea of doing a pumpkin/squash soup (in keeping with the Halloween thing) or tortilla soup or chili. Or sign up for dessert duty and bring Nanaimo bars or pumpkin pie. Good points on quiches and savoury tarts keeping well at room temp. How does phyllo pastry do at room temp? Does it get soggy? And of course hearty cold salads of the grain/pasta/potato/bean kind are easy to make the night before and most people like them. Maybe I'll go for my mom's cold sesame noodles. I'd like to put a little effort into this, but not overly much, as I'm not keen on staying up too late cooking on a weeknight.

An upcoming potluck at my office got me thinking about this potluck topic and the Dreaded Office Potluck in general. Many of us on eGullet will probably agree that office potlucks can be scary affairs with even scarier consumables (although some gems can be found amidst the dreadfuls). Here's my problem: I haven't cooked for too many office potlucks (only one other - I brought a mixed green salad with prosciutto & walnuts, simple balsamic vinaigrette). My office is limited to a dinky microwave, fridge/freezer (not a lot of room in there), kettle, and toaster. No toaster oven. We have about a dozen people working here, most of whom will eat most things, and one extremely picky eater who likely won't be eating much of anything contributed. There will probably be a number of dishes of the creamy dip-like nature and store-bought stuff. So....what kinds of dishes do eGulleters contribute? How do you handle cooking for office potlucks? Any tried-and-true items that appeal to most co-workers, but also tasty? Incidentally, our Dreaded Office Potluck is planned for Halloween....scary, indeed!

McD's recently launched their new "Our Food. Your Questions" campaign, where consumers can ask any question about their food/company and McD's would answer them honestly on their website. There are some pretty interesting questions & answers - including ones about pink slime, myths & rumours, ingredient sourcing, and why not all McD locations offer poutine and lobster rolls. As far as marketing goes, this is a brilliant campaign, I think. I haven't eaten a McD meal in 7-8 yrs (ever since I watched "Super Size Me"), but I would certainly be more ok with eating a Big Mac & fries now. I think this campaign is for McDonald's Canada only right now, so those eating at McD's elsewhere might still be left wondering what's in the Big Mac sauce...

Shallots? Garlic scapes?

My favourite food tradition is our "Cousins Dinner" around the Christmas holidays. The "Cousins" - me, my two siblings, two cousins + spouses - started this about 5-6 yrs ago when we all decided to cut the gift exchange tradition. We were all old enough to buy what we needed, nobody liked gift shopping, and we all preferred eating & food to presents anyway. So we decided to just cook a big meal together, everyone being responsible for either a course or a couple dishes. We'd originally talked about contributing over-the-top dishes, but that fell by the wayside for various reasons, so we've used it as an opportunity to experiment on each other with new recipes & dishes. We picked Christmas to do this, since that was when everyone was usually in town. But we've also had it around Thanksgiving, and also other times throughout the year, depending on whenever we could get everyone together. We've also picked up "honourary cousins" - random friends - to participate.

Don't know much about beer stores downtown, but while you're on Granville Island, you can also check out Granville Island Brewery. There's a tasting room and retail store. Generally, the government liquor stores suck and carry mostly big-name brands - great if you're looking for a magnum of Smirnoff, but not so much on anything interesting. You might have better luck at the private liquor stores. I went to Legacy Liquor Store in the Olympic Village (near the Canada Line, close to Granville Island) for the first time this weekend, and they've got the cool stuff, great selection. So if you're willing to head outside of the downtown area, they'll be a good bet for beer varietals and maybe Cocchi.

So...what happened at the end? Did you boyfriend's mother like it? (Bummer on the s*** recipe, btw, but hilariously funny story for eG!)

Even the crummiest potluck is good if the company is good....and if the booze is plentiful! But that aside, I generally don't mind them. If I know the food will be crummy, I'll eat beforehand (or afterwards, when I get home). The best potlucks I've attended are well-organized (where people are assigned an appetizer, main, side, or dessert (so you don't end up with four mayonaise-y spinach dips and one tray of brownies), fewer people (no more than 20 ppl), and have a passing interest in food and preparing it (the folks who don't should just be asked to bring drinks or paper plates).

Any Asian market. Give T&T a try, in the condiments aisle.

I'm not sure that a cheese fondue pot would work for hot pot, since you'd want the broth in a hot pot to be able to come to at least a good strong simmer. You want the raw seafood & meats to be able to fully cook in the broth at a not-quite-rolling boil. My fondue pot uses a liquid fuel in the burner, and it doesn't get hot enough to boil the broth (actually, it's only good for cheese, I can't even do the oil fondue in it).

Beautiful, Keith_W! It's a balmy 25C today, but wow, I can totally dive into that hot pot of yours!

I'm a big fan of cheese fondues and Chinese hot pots. Easy to do, but it's lots of fun, super casual, and looks cool with the steaming pot of cheese/broth and colourful bowls of veggies & meat on the table.

My husband always salts the egg water for hard boiled eggs. He says it makes it easier to peel. I almost never salt, for no other reason than forgetfullness/laziness/just don't bother. I haven't noticed a significant change in peeling ease, but then I've not done a side-by-side comparison either.

German potato salad, spatzle, veggie strudel/tart? And not exactly German, but raclette or potato rosti, perhaps.

I like using up leftovers and the odd bits and pieces in my fridge for quesadillas. Leftover stew, pork chops, meatloaf, grilled veg, broccoli, eggs, odd & ends of cheese & deli meats - everything is fair game!

"It's delicious, thank you for asking."

Great ideas, thanks! I especially like idea of freezing pre-cooked greens. Does it change the texture or flavour much when it's been frozen? Shrinking the kale pillows will be tonight's project.

Help! The greens are taking over my kitchen! We just bought into our very first CSA this year and the veggies are amazingly delicious. Unfortunately we haven't been able to cook at home much to use up everything as quickly as we should. Right now I've got a glut of greens - collards, kale, chard, beet tops, turnip tops, braising greens, salad greens.... I've sauteed them, put them in a soup, made salads, used them as pizza & crostini toppings - but I'm running out of ideas. I found a mac & cheese with chard recipe, so that's this week's dinner. What else can I do with my greens?

I'd say that if you really don't like blue cheese, don't torture yourself eating it till you do. Enjoy the thousands of other non-blue cheeses instead. But if you are intent on torturing yourself..... -Maybe try it as a spread - mix cream cheese & blue cheese, chives/herbs and smoosh it on crackers -As a salad dressing or dip for buffalo wings or sauce for steak -Find a savoury cheesecake recipe, such as stilton cheesecake -Mac and cheese (my husband loathes blue cheese with a vengeance, but even he will snarf up mac and cheese made with blue) Edit: Because smooshing IN crackers will get you something completely different..... Edit #2: Weird...the post editor doesn't like ampersands!

What he said ^^^. I do this to my chronically late in-laws, especially when we all have dinner with my own obsessively on-time parents. Works amazingly well & has the added bonus of keeping the peace between two sets of parents.

Definately yes for meaty types, especially braises with beef. The meat is so much more tender and delicious after sitting a day or two. It tastes dry if you eat it right away.

Sh*t happens. We had a dinner party last night. Dinner was planned to be on the table at 630pm but didn't make it there till 715 or so. When you're busy opening the door for guest, answering the phone, pouring drinks, getting ice from the freezer, passing out the nibbles, finding extra water glasses, slicing up the bread, chatting & being social with your guests, waiting for the one late couple, dealing with a cooking mishap and being generally slow because I sliced open my hand - sometimes the meal gets held up. That's just the way things roll. Which is why I have piles of nibbles, snacks & drinks out to stall for time, because inevitably, I'll need that extra cushion when the sh*t happens.

"Two-fer". As in "a two-fer of beer", which is Canadian for a 24 pack of beer. Not really a strange word for measurement, but definitely colloquial and commonly used. Although I've never heard it used to refer to anything else but beer....

Yup, cheese fondue is one of life's simple pleasures! Our family has it on a fairly regular basis, and last year instead of the usual Christmas roast or turkey, we had cheese fondue. It was a nice change to simplicity after a couple weeks of Christmas feasting. We also do hot pot regularly - broth fondue. I've not had a chance to have the hot oil fondue yet. Something about dealing with splattering hot oil & the smell of deep frying in my not very large condo is a turn off.

Dredging up an ancient thread.... So I'm having a cheese fondue party next week, for about a dozen people. Not really the right season for sitting in front of a bowl of piping hot melted cheese - but melted cheese is good anytime, right? Anyway, I'm looking for ideas on what to serve as appetizers/hors d'oeurves/sides. So far I've got a citrus fennel salad and mushroom caps. Preferably lighter nibbles, nothing with cheese or too much cheese, nothing too labour intensive because I won't have a lot of prep time. Retro appies would be fun. Any thoughts on what else I can serve? Another salad? Tomatoes on a skewer? Riblets?? Oh, and there will be a couple pregnant ladies, so some things they won't be able to eat (raw seafood, some cured meats). I'll have all the usual dippers for the fondue - bread, blanched veg, sausages, etc. Thanks, eG'ers!