2023, Food, Gatherings, Uncategorized, work

Pot Luck

19 Comments

Today we are having a pot luck luncheon at work for one of our psychiatric nurses who is retiring. I have worked with her since 1987, when we both worked at the local hospital in the now closed psychiatric unit. We both migrated to the Human Service Center after the unit closed in 1999. I will miss her.

I am bringing Mac and Cheese made from scratch, with Cabot extra sharp white cheddar, homemade bechemel, and sliced tomatoes on the top, and a nectarine crumble. It is actually a crumble, as it has no oats in the topping. Some people get pretty persnickity about the difference between crisp and crumble.

What do you like to bring to pot lucks? How do you define a crisp? Who is the coworker you have worked with the longest?

19 thoughts on “Pot Luck”

  1. Doritos and Diet Pepsi.
    The new Tangy Ketchup Doritos are de-gusting!
    Sugar Crisp cereal 😋 (Even though they changed the name)
    Rollin Alm and I worked together in the flooring trade for about 10 years. He became famous. I’m satisfied being semi-famous. I did save his life on the job. The sanding machine he was operating shorted out and one of his feet and both hands were stuck to the equipment. I quickly pulled the plug. He said he could feel the electrical current cycling from toes to fingertips. I’m not sure if this piece is still up at the Hennepin Library.
    https://www.hclib.org/about/art/art-list-container/art-list/pb/river-knowledge#photos

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  2. I’m not too fussy about crisp, cobbler, crumble. Funny how they’re so similar and they all start with the letter C. I do know the difference but I know a lot of people don’t know or don’t care. And we probably shouldn’t get started on the word streusel! I actually keep streusel topping in the refrigerator most of the time. That makes topping any kind of muffin or pie or coffee cake extremely easy.

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  3. Having worked at my company for 32 1/2 years, there are a lot of people I’ve worked with for a long time. There is actually a person in communications who I’ve worked with the entire time as she was here before me. But the biggie is my boss who I reported to for 32 years!

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  4. I like to bring veggie trays, fruit trays, or salads to potlucks. I enjoy baking but I don’t do it very often anymore. I would have to bake more to feel confident about my ability again.

    I like to use oatmeal so I guess the desserts I make fall under the “crisp” category. Sometimes they are crisp. Other times, not crisp enough.

    I worked with Debbie longer than anyone else. She and I knew each other from high school. She was 15 when she got pregnant with her first child. I was 18 then. We were both experimenting with life and other things at the time. We went to the same training program for practical nurses and had the same instructors, although I was three years ahead of her. She had her baby out of state, as if she was ashamed, then returned with a need to get trained for a stable career to provide for her child. Once she finished training and got her license, we started working together. She retired a year ago in May. I retired in October 2018 but worked until October 2022 in an on-call position. So she and I worked together on and off for over 40 years.

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  5. For a summer pot luck I would probably bring a pasta salad of some sort. Even if several show up, and they often do, there’s usually enough variety that it’s a plus, not a problem.

    On the subject of crisp vs crumble, I try to stay neutral because kerfuffles on the subject invariably lead to fisticuffs.

    I haven’t had a co-worker for 26 years.

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  6. I am all over the board with potlucks. Sometimes if there’s a theme, I’d like to get on board. Usually it depends on what I have a lot of stocked in the kitchen. So baking right at the top of my list followed by salads. Rarely a main course. And if I’ve really gotten myself in trouble timewise, chips and salsa.

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  7. I like to bring some savory egg bake – now prefer one with no flour, which means it’s gluten free, and most vegetarians can have it. Can be cut small as a finger food appetizer.

    I too would have had to look up the difference between a crisp and a crumble – it explains some things…

    I was hardly at a job long enough to have a long-term co-worker, so I guess it would be any of my people from PDI, the small consulting firm – that was six years with 3 others. Barbara and I collaborated on other projects – she helped me set up my organizing gig (I hesitate to call it a business).

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  8. I lean toward bringing desserts for potlucks. Thanks, sweet tooth.

    I never thought much about the difference between crisps, crumbles, and cobblers. I love them all, especially if someone else made them. 🙂 A crisp should definitely be baked and have some crusty browned bits, Aren’t cobblers more of a dumpling-like batter poured over the top of a fruit mixture? Crumbles are just . . . well . . . crumbles on top of a sweet thing.

    I never had a long career in any single place, so my longest association is probably with the guy I worked with at Waddell & Reed, Inc. (financial planning) back in the mid-1980s. Dennis and I only worked together for 4 years, but we’ve been best friends for 39 years. Funny, because I only see him once or twice a year, we rarely talk on the phone, email, or text, yet we can pick up where we left off just like we’d seen each other yesterday.

    Chris in Owatonna

    **BSP** In case I forgot, you can pre-order Kindle versions of “Little Mountain, Big Trouble” on Amazon. And assuming the print proof I’m reading checks out as “perfect,” pre-orders for the print version will be available in the next day or two. **END BSP**

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  9. There was relatively little turnover during the years I worked on the NICU so there are a bunch of people I worked with for 27 to 34 years. Though there were a few I would have preferred to not have worked with at all, the majority of them were wonderful co-workers/friends and I still keep in touch with quite a few of them.

    Crisps, crumbles, cobblers….I love ’em all.

    For potlucks, I usually bring a dessert, salad, or easy appetizer.

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  10. Hi –
    At the theater I still work with Jeanne and Paul; and I’ve known them since 1983. There’s a few other people around who I met back in the ’80’s and still do some theater so we work together on occasion.
    At the college, I’ve known Jerry since the mid ’80’s… then he got hired at the college in 2001 and I started there in 2006.

    We had a family potluck last month; we brought coleslaw and BBQ. Usually we go with something cold and easy because there are others that do the cheesy potatoes or mini-hotdogs and something.

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  11. The pot luck today went nicely and the food was delicious.

    OT- This newest development is unrelated to the flood. I noticed that the fan on the furnace made an awful racket every time the central air turned on. I phoned the furnace guy. Our 47 year old furnace needs to be replaced, probably the second week of July. The AC can still be used. No Christmas presents for us this year! On a positive note, State Farm is sending an adjustor to assess the damage to the carpet.

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  12. I used to have a couple of go-to recipes for potlucks, One was a rosemary focaccia, and the other a cream cheese ball rooled in chopped pecans, served with crackers. I mislaid both of those recipes somehow. One of these days I’ll find reasonable substitutes. I’ve gotten lazy, though – I usually just go with something like cheese and crackers, chips and salsa, or flatbread and hummus.

    My longest stay at a job was fourteen years. There were three or four people who were in the workplace that whole time, so those would be my most enduring coworkers, in terms of time on the job. There have been coworkers I have known longer, though, having kept in touch past the time we shared a workplace.

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