Holiday Potlucks & That Type of Stuff

[anomilygrace]

Sooooo anyone have any great ideas about what I should make for our work potluck on Thursday?  I was going to do a "Chinese" cabbage salad that my mom makes at Christmas a lot, but now four other people are bringing salads so...no

Comments

[azurepenguin]

I suggest 'BLT Bites'.

Cook 1 pound of bacon until crisp. Drain and chop (chop into fairly small pieces or it makes the last step difficult).

Take 2 pints of cherry tomatoes, cut a little off the top and then gently scoop out the insides (a melon ball scoop makes this easier)
Turn them upside down on a paper towel for at least an hour to drain.

Mix mayo, sour cream (or unflavored Greek yogurt), grated Parmesan, chopped green onion (green tops only), salt, pepper, and the chopped bacon. Put the mixture in a zip top bag and snip the corner of the bag to make a improvised piping bag. Pipe the mixture into the tomato cups.

Cutting the tops and scooping out the tomatoes is a little fussy and time consuming. But the rest of the prep goes really quickly and these are super tasty.

[anomilygrace]

OOOOh! These are going on my list for future events! This time I settled on something veggie for my vegetarian friend who sometimes suffers in our Very Meat Friendly library. :D

Thank you so much for sharing! They sound amazing.

[azurepenguin]

p.s.

Use cherry tomatoes, not grape tomatoes. Grape tomatoes are definitely sweeter and more tasty, but they are just too small for this application. :)

[tinylegacies]

You could do a buffalo chicken dip or spinach dip. Or if you want to go "main course", buy a boneless pork roast and put it in the crockpot with some manwich for super duper easy/tasty pulled pork sandwiches.

[anomilygrace]

You know what's weird? I am INCAPABLE of doing pulled pork. I like it. I adore when other people make it, but I've tried 3 or 4 times in my crockpot & it always comes out weirdly oily and not good. It's terribly sad!

[cereta]

Artichoke dip, never fails:

Equal amounts mayo and grated parm (believe it or not, the Kraft stuff works best), dried onion flake to taste, and a can of artichoke hearts for every cup of the mayo/parm. Cut up/chop/squish with your hands the artichokes, mix it all together, throw in a crockpot (or just mix it in your crockpot). Put on low in your office/cube the morning of the potluck/three hours before, stir and serve with whatever you like to dip in hot dip.

I not only never have leftovers, it's always gone by the time I get there.

[anomilygrace]

I totally went with this. Thank you so much for sharing the recipe! People seriously loved it, and even though I thought I made way too much, it was completely gone by the end. Yay! Success! Thank you again!

[jennisis]

I totally recommend Dip for the Stars from Allrecipes.

Or Jalapeno Popper Dip:

... even easier and still as yummy - take a block of cream cheese and put it on a pretty plate, then artfully pour some jalapeno jelly over it. SOOO GOOD!

Easy desserts:
Pillow cookies. Take your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and wrap it around 1" square bits of prepared box-mix brownies. Bake for about 18 minutes at 350. HUGE cookies. So good.

Black Russian Cake. I actually make this as cupcakes or mini muffin pans (9 minutes per mini muffin and I think 12-15 for cupcakes?) Instead of the glaze listed, I use 1/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup Kahlua, 1/4 cup powdered sugar and boil together. Poke a bunch of holes in each cupcake and pour the glaze on when they're hot so it soaks in vs, staying on top. Then dust with powdered sugar. Makes a super gooey alcoholic deliciousness. Don't put these in cupcake wrappers as they tend to soak them. They're better naked. :) Again, so easy and no one suspects you're using a box mix!

[anomilygrace]

Oh man, boozy cupcakes are my FAVORITE. Though probably not the best for a mid-work holiday party - we closed from 12 to 3. Which was cool, but SIGH, had to go back to work. :D

All your recipes sound SO GOOD. I'm saving them all for future use. Thank you!