All Entries Tagged With: "Potluck"
Office Potluck — October 2009
At work we have a social committee which is pretty active. They organizes various events to build relationships at work. Some of the events that they organizes very well is the hockey pool and the office potluck.
We do this once every quarter and it is always a success no matter how many times we do it. This is one event that has the most participation of all events.
The way we do it is to randomly split the office into two groups. Each of the two groups will be contributing to one potluck. So there are two potlucks held on different dates and everyone contributes on one of the potluck but gets to eat on both potlucks.
Everyone can contribute to the potluck by bringing a homemade dish. For anyone who doesn’t want to bring a homemade dish, they can buy them or pay $20 so that the committee can use the money to buy on their part.
At the end of the potluck, the Social Committee will put up an online poll to gather votes for the best of categories.
My contribution this time is Baked Char Siu Bau. Actually, it was Suanne who made it. You guys know I don’t cook. Suanne makes really moist Char Siu Bau and am glad to say it was one of the favourites. This is not gonna win any prizes this time — that much I can tell you though.
If you want the recipe to this, you can find it here:
After the buns are made, let rest for 30 minutes and brush with beaten egg (egg wash). Bake in a preheated 325F oven for 12 to 15 minutes until golden brown.
This dish above looks set to be the winner this time. This is called Russian Sushi!
I don’t know if this is a made-up name or what. But it sure looked the prettiest.
This is another pretty unique dish. I wanted so much to try it but when it got to my turn, they were all gone. This is … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
Gilmore Park Church Community Kitchen Christmas Potluck 2008
The Gilmore Park Church Community Kitchen celebrated Christmas with a potluck as previous year.
We are glad to have Lorna (standing 3rd from left) to join us again. Lorna gave us a very priceless gift from her late husband. It is an art collection of Lorna’s husband arts with the title “Fascinating Mind of Nigel Tam”. Nigel (1937-2008) was born and raised in an artistic family in Shanghai, China. Nigel graduated from TaiNan Polytechnic and Taiwan Normal University with honour in Fine Arts.
Nigel was married to Lorna in 1971 and had two daughters. In 1992, Nigel and family moved to Canada and established the “Tam’s Studio”, teaching art. Nigel managed to publish his art works in the book “Fascinating Mind of Nigel Tam” just before he passed away. This book contains art work from oil painting, ink painting and digital art work. Lorna, thank you so much for sharing Nigel’s dream with us.
Besides sharing food, Karen made everyone a cute little ornament bell to be hang on our Christmas tree. Karen, thank you for the crafted gift. Frank also gave everyone some Japanese cookies and beautifully written Christmas cards.
Back to food, Heidi made this very fragrant 5 spice duck. She told us she marinated the duck with 4 tablespoons of salt and 4 teaspoons of five-spice powder for 48 hours, wrapped with layers of paper towel to absorb all the moisture. She then use some Shioxing wine to rinse the inside of the duck before steaming the duck for 40 minutes. This 5-spice duck is her husband’s favourite.
Lorna made this dessert soup which is supposed to have healing effect for cough. According to Chinese medicinal point of view, this dessert soup warms your lungs. This soup has papaya, red dates, fig, white fungus (or snow ear fungus), north and south almond and sweetened with rock sugar. According to Lorna, the dry white fungus has to be soaked and blanched to remove the sulfuric taste in it.
Click on Read More for more food.
South Arm Community Kitchen Christmas Potluck 2008
The South Arm Community Kitchen celebrated the end of the 2008 cooking session with a Christmas Potluck.
It is always fun to come together to share a feast. We want o thank Minoo for setting up a festive table setting for us to enjoy the food.
Coincidentally it was Julie’s birthday (center). We sang a birthday song for the birthday girl who has been a good demonstrator in the South Arm Kitchen whenever she is needed.
Here are the food we shared at the potluck:
Azar made a Zeresh Saffron Basmati Rice with Chicken. Zeresh is a kind of sour berries and the dish is very appetizing. You can find Zeresh at Iranian grocery store.
Julie made a Shanghai dessert called “Zin Tai Luan” in Mandarin. It is literally translated to “Heart too Soft”. This dessert is sweet as it is doused with honey.
Julie explained to us how this dessert is made. First she has to remove the seed from the red dates. Then she stuff it with glutinous rice and raisin. The dates are then steamed and drizzle with honey before serving.
Vanessa brought Giant Shell Pasta with meat sauce. Vanessa was the ex leader of the South Arm Kitchen. We want to take this opportunity to thank her for her great service to the South Arm Community Kitchen.
Katy made a cold appetizer of bean curd, carrot and celery. The bean curd has to be boiled to cook it. The carrot and celery are steamed. All the ingredients are tossed with some sesame oil and chilled.
Click on Read More to view the rest of the food.
Gilmore Park Church Community Kitchen Potluck Party 2007
The Gilmore Park Church community kitchen held a potluck party on the last meeting last year. It has become a tradition for the community kitchen to celebrate the last kitchen of the year with either potluck or eating out.
Jean, who is the leader of this kitchen, made a huge turkey for the potluck. She also demonstrated it in a small scale, i.e substituting the turkey with chicken. I will blog about the Roast Turkey in the next blog.
The members of this group presented a little gift to Jean as an appreciation of her good work.
Here are the food that we had during the potluck:
Jean’s Roast Turkey ….
… and the stuffing from the turkey.
Minoo made Cranberry Sauce from scratch.
Winnie made a very beautiful platter of salad of apples, potatoes, egg, carrot, celery, tomatoes, mandarin oranges, sweet corn, can tropical fruit cocktail and egg roes.
Rowena made a pasta with prawns and ham.
Florence made a prawn fried rice. I’m sure Nanzaro and Arkensen will enjoy this.
Tanni brought some phyllo quiche … bought from Costco.
Habiba brought egg rolls, one of my favourite Chinese New Year cookie, light and crumbly.
I made Cream Cheese Cup Cakes.
Rice Krispies Squares from the kitchen.
Biscotti compliment by Karen, the community kitchen chef.
Lorna brought Frozen Yogurt.
Landa brought mandarin oranges.
Last but not least, Heidi brought drinks. We had a great time and we wished everyone a joyful new year and see you ladies and gentleman in the new year.
Caring Place Potluck 2007
The Caring Place Community Kitchen sessions for 2007 ended early this year on 15th November. This is because the kitchen is fully booked for Christmas-related events even five weeks before the Christmas. You know, I feel that Christmas starts earlier every year.
We had a potluck, as usual, to celebrate the closing of this year’s program. It is always great to enjoy each other’s food and chit chat about everything under the sky. I am going to miss meeting the ladies for the next couple of months. Anyway, here is what we had brought to share for the potluck.
Stella made some Banana Apple Walnut Muffins. The large pieces of walnuts studded from the top of the muffins make it very interesting.
Minoo made Lubria Polo which she had demonstrated in the Gilmore Park Church Community Kitchen.
I brought Steamed Rice Cakes (Pak Thong Koh).
Ada brought Mango Pudding.
Amy brought some mash potatoes.
Jean brought two items. Her Matrimonial Squares and …
… Devil Eggs.
Zoe is the best. She made four items, mini cheese tarts …
… peanut salad, …
… milk pudding, …
… and a coffee jelly to be served with coffee creamer.
Ladies (from left, Minoo, Jean, Stella, Zoe, Amy and Ada), thank you for sharing and I had a great time. Also, I had to thank Ruby for dropping by with some Chocolate Chip Cookies even though she is not able to attend the potluck.
I wish everyone a great year ahead.
OK, I am done for the next 1 month … Ben is supposed to start on his humongous New York series tomorrow. Being such a procrastinator, he had not blogged a single word yet. I know he is going to scramble to put it together tonight.
BTW, Ben changed a bit of the way the blog looked. There are some improvement but he had started to what-he-says-is-to “monetize” chowtimes. He had put up a few Google Ads for the last one week and it’s making some money! I hope the ads is not too distracting to you readers out there. Let us know if it does.
Richmond Community Based Programs’ Open House 2007
The Richmond Community Based Programs’ held its annual open house on the 14th June 2007. This is a potluck gathering organised by the family services of Greater Vancouver as the community kitchens wind down for the summer break.
We had the mayor of Richmond, Malcolm Brodie to officiate the opening of the Open House.
Lancy (of Family Services) and Minoo (of Richmond Community Kitchens) kicked start the most anticipated potluck dinner.
This is the moment everyone is waiting for… time to eat.
There were plenty of food from the members of the community kitchens as well as some which were catered so that there will not be a shortage of food. I will only displayed some of the home-made dishes from the members of the community kitchens.
Cabbage Rolls…
… Salmon Fried Rice …
… Pig Ears Stir-fries…
… Kimbab …
… Cassava Cake…
… Chicken Wings…
… Smoked Salmon Bruschetta…
… Prawns…
… Chicken Dish…
… Shrimp, Mushroom and Peas …
I did not manage to take photos of desserts as they were served later. When the desserts were served, I did not stand a chance to take individual photos as people were lining up to fill their plates.
There were plenty of food for all and it’s certainly a successful event. Many thanks to the volunteers who helped out, the organizers, the members of the community kitchens who shared their favourite dishes and most of all to those who came to join us. We wished everyone a great summer.
Chinese New Year Potluck at Caring Place
Due to the busy schedule during Chinese New Year, the Caring Place and Gilmore Church Park community kitchen have a joint potluck during the Chinese New Year week instead of having two separate cooking classes with low participation.
Potluck is always a great way to enjoy a variety of food. More so when we have a multinational group. From left, Minnie (Korean), Lorna (HongKonger), Angela (Chinese), Jenny (Taiwanese), Minoo (Persian), Mable (Chinese???), Jean (Canadian) and Forough (Iranian).
Lorna brought a big platter of fishballs and meatballs with sar char sauce and soy sauce for dipping. The sar char sauce is too spicy for some people but not for me. Lorna also brought a plate of finger food made from cherry tomatoes and grapes stuffed with cheese and dried prunes. I especially like those stuffed with dried prunes.
Minnie brought a plate of Korean stir-fried Rice Cakes. Its a little spicy and I like the chewy rice cakes. What a small world when Minnie told me she knows Allie, my good Korean neighbour who has gone back to Korea for good. They were in the same English class before.
Angela brought two dishes, Egg Rolls stuffed with minced pork and fish paste and …
… a Jelly Fish Chicken Salad which she had demonstrated in the Caring Place kitchen before.
Jean brought a pot of Sweet and Sour Spareribs and steamed rice. We were all amazed that Jean made such a ‘Chinese-ish’ dish. This dish tastes like the Vinegar Pork Knuckle made for Chinese women during their confinement month. Coincidentally, Lorna just has a new grandchild two weeks ago and she told us she also made a big pot of the Vinegar Pork Knuckle at home. Congratulations to Lorna and Jean who is also expecting her second grandchild in September.
Forough brought a bowl of spaghetti in meat sauce, nice.
Mable brought a Vegetarian Dish, with dried oysters. Vegetarian dish is popular during Chinese New Year, especially on the first day of Chinese New Year.
Minoo made a Hummus dip to go with some chips. Hummus is great for sandwich too.
I brought my latest baking passion, a Cheesecake with apricot glaze while Jenny brought a plate of stir-fried vermicelli. My apology to those that I missed to photograph their food.
Thank you ladies for making this a success. I certainly had a great time and so is my tummy.
