Potlucks at work

[susans]

Most companies have potlucks at times.  Does  your office have them, if so for what occasions? What is your favorite dish to bring?

[gee4]

At first I didn't know what you meant...but no, we are quite prudish here, formal and if something is not appropriate we are told "it's not the culture".....dare we even make suggestions!  We are a company of over 200 people with 3 floors of staff and an onsite canteen.  I couldn't see anything like that being allowed here.

So now Susan, enlighten me a bit more about what I am missing.....must be a west coast thing.

[suis]

We have potlucks for birthdays and sometimes just to get together as a group.   My signature dish is deviled eggs.   We had one right before Christmas and everyone brought in ethnic dishes.  It was quite good.  One lady brought in the best lumpia (Philipino dish) I have ever had.

Gee, are you saying the UK doesn't have potlucks or just your company?  It really is a nice way to get together in a casual environment and talk to co workers.  In ways a mini internal networking event.

[gee4]

Suis,

Never heard of it before and it would def be a no-no in my current place of work - it's not that kind of company.  

If I have dinner with friends sometimes we will agree to make one course each eg. main or dessert, but never lots of dishes.  I don't have a huge appetite anyway so hate eating large amounts of food and especially late at night.

[Dusty *]

Also from the UK, and I've not heard of "Potlucks" either.  

I suppose the closest thing we have here is when someone brings in any unwanted goodies which are left in our kitchen for anyone who wants to eat them.  One Manager regularly brings in a delicious bread pudding his mum makes for us all.

Dusty

[iqps210510]

Also from the UK.  We have pot lucks (also sometimes known as American suppers), in fact we went to a New Year party at one of the local sailing clubs this year and everyone took a dish with them.  The food was excellent!

We don't have anything at work because we have a cafeteria, but any food left over from a meeting is put in our divisional Mess Room and word passed around.

The building as a whole has regular Cake Events with homemade cakes to raise money for charity - usually for Children in Need, Comic Relief etc.

[laurafmcdermott]

We have a potluck at least every other month.  Usually around a holiday, for a celebration.  I will admit to being a bit picky in that I don't always trust my coworkers food preparation skills, so normally I don't bring anything and use that as my excuse not to partake.  Most of my friend's parties are potluck, and I will either bring chocolate chip cookies or homemade macaroni & cheese.

[glow8490]

We are actually having a potluck next week. We have about 200 employees in our bldg (a small division of a well known international company) and one of the office staff is soon to go on maternity leave (her first child). We are having a baby shower for her during the lunch hour. Her department is providing the main meat course - ham - and everyone attending will bring a side dish. Drinks and cake are also provided by the hostesses (work friends of the employee). We have a large conference room reserved. What I don't care for is when the food sits out, in various departments where I work, for everyone to see - very unprofessional and it can become quite unappetizing after awhile.

Most of us prefer doing this during the lunch hour as opposed to after hours because most of us have family activities in the evenings and many of my co-workers live quite a distance from the office. As a rule, the coworkers at my company don't socialize much together after hours.

I work with employees from many different countries and I do believe we Americans tend to overdo it with the sheer amount of food we have in our celebrations compared to those people I work with from Europe. When our European employees travel here for meetings they always marvel at the size of our food portions in restaurants. But they do enjoy our steaks (usually large enough for 2-3 meals!).

(Forgot to note - I'm bring baked beans next week - easy to make and goes good with ham.)

Edited by glow8490 on 09/01/08 08:40 PM.

[Atlanta Z3]

No potlucks here, but I bake and bring in cookies or cakes.  Brownies are always a big hit (and easy to make - here's my cheat recipe)

Any chocolate cake mix (butter batter is best though) 1 stick of butter, 2 eggs (use one if you like fudgier brownies).  Melt butter add cake mix and eggs.  Mix until just blended.  Spread in 8 or 9 inch square pan bake at 350 for approx 25-30 minutes.  Do not over bake.  Let cool in pan five minutes.  Frost if desired.  Can add nuts or chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, mm's etc.

[susans]

That brownie recipe sounds good!

[jennika]

We have a group of 30 and have quarterly pot lucks, company pitches in for the drinks (well, I pay for them like any other meeting)  I order the cups, silverware and plates through our cafeteria and everyone brings in their dish.  If you haven't had one, I would try it.    As for my dish, I tend to see what everyone is brining and fill in what is needed. (side dishes, main dishes, salads, desserts.. )

[laurafmcdermott]

That recipe sounds great!  Have you tried it with any other flavor cake mix?  I may try a yellow just to see what it does.