Potluck Archives - Page 2 of 3

Richmond Community Kitchens Christmas Potluck 2011

Post author:Suanne
Post published:December 23, 2011
Post category:Community Kitchen 2011 Gatherings & Potluck
Post comments:3 Comments

The Richmond Community Kitchens celebrated Christmas with a potluck at Gilmore Park Church. We are very grateful for the church to allow us to use their facility for this potluck.

Old, new and existing members and friends attended this potluck. Some of the members also brought along their kids since the kids are on their winter break. The more people the merrier.

We had a lot of food to share. The above are the savory dishes.

There were not many items on the dessert table. The cake is sponsored by Safeway as I was told.

(more…)

The 3rd Day of Chinese New Year: Roast Pork, Yee Sang and Keeping Friends Honest

Post author:Ben
Post published:February 7, 2011
Post category:Chinese New Year Food Gatherings & Potluck
Post comments:49 Comments

For the past many years, we had been doing the same thing.

Our closest family friends had always made it a point to all meet up at least three times every year. In summer, we always have a big picnic. On Christmas, we meet up too. But the most important gathering is during Chinese New Year. To many of our family friends, this yearly reunion is how we keep the Chinese New Year traditions alive.

And every year, Suanne and I go through the same motions. We would always go to the same place to buy roast pork and that would be one of our contributions for the gathering. Of course, Suanne is also expected to cook something. This time she decided to make some Garlic Chives Jiaozi which is CNY delicacy.

We always get the Siu Yook (Roast Pork) from the Parker Place BBQ Shop. We were kind of worried that the line would be long. There was once on CNY eve, we queued for 45 minutes to buy the roast pork here.

Many people buys a lot for the festival.

There is this guy just ahead of us who pretty much bought … (more…)

South Arm Christmas Potluck 2010

Post author:Suanne
Post published:December 25, 2010
Post category:Community Kitchen 2010 Gatherings & Potluck
Post comments:1 Comment

The South Arm Community Kitchen ended the year with a Christmas potluck. Minoo also invited members from other kitchens to this potluck. Among those who came are members from the…

Caring Place Christmas Potluck 2010

Post author:Suanne
Post published:December 12, 2010
Post category:Community Kitchen 2010 Gatherings & Potluck
Post comments:0 Comments

I’m posting this first ahead of the older kitchens because I want to get the Christmas spirit going. Otherwise, this post will only appear in Feb, way after Christmas. The Caring Place Community Kitchen ended the 2010 session with a potluck as usual.

9 members attended this potluck. We had dishes from Korea, Ukraine, Philippines, France, HongKong and Malaysia. Oops, I did not make a dish from Malaysia though.

We had a surprise celebration at the potluck. It was Minoo’s birthday and she baked herself a Porcupine German Cake. She should have let us know, we should be bringing a cake for her instead.

Minoo got the inspiration making this Porcupine Cake from her trip back to German this summer. Minoo told us that pastry and cake is big in German. Every family will at least consume 2 cakes a week. There are lots of pre-packed cake mixes in a box at the groceries stores there.

The Porcupine Cake is made of chocolate sponge cake that has been hollowed out to be filled with fresh banana and whipped cream and top with crumbs made from the hollow out cake. It was light and fresh tasting. We love this cake a lot.

Coincidentally, I also brought a Ponderosa Cake which is made with banana and chocolate chips.

Marian from the Philipines made some Teo Chew drummets marinated with five spices, hot sauce, anise, sugar, soy sauce, etc. She created this finger food for her children’s Christmas party. Marian also brought some home-made daikon and carrot pickles as appetizers. From Korea, … (more…)

Richmond Community Kitchen Open House 2010

Post author:Suanne
Post published:July 3, 2010
Post category:Community Kitchen 2010 Gatherings & Potluck
Post comments:0 Comments

The Richmond Community Kitchens come together to meet old and new friends once a year in an open house event. This year the event is held on 30th April at Gilmore United Church.

The Richmond Community Kitchens Open House is to celebrate a successful year of learning, cooking and meeting friends.

There were more than 100 participants attended this event. The spread of food was amazing.

This was also the day that the Diversely Delicious cook book is launched. The Diversely Delicious cook book is my labour of love to appreciate the service of the community kitchens.

There were also crafts display by some of the members of the community kitchens. which some of them are for sale. The community kitchens have some very creative members. (more…)

Richmond Community Kitchens Potluck 2009

Post author:Suanne
Post published:January 9, 2010
Post category:Community Kitchen 2009 Gatherings & Potluck
Post comments:0 Comments

Several of the Richmond Community Kitchens gather to celebrate the end of the 2009 session. We had a lot of food from the participants as usual.

We had a good spread of food from noodles, soup, salad, finger foods and lots of desserts.

It took us a while to get the group photo taken as more people arrived after the initial group photo.

Here are the food in detail. Minoo made an Indian sweets called Burfi. It is made with sweetened condensed milk, non-sweetened grated coconut, chopped Pistachio and cardamom. The ingredients are mix together and cook on the stove on low heat for 10 minutes and roll into balls. The Burfi is then coated in grated coconut.

Lorna made a big platter of salad of potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, apple, pear, seedless grapes, artificial crab meat and water melon seeds. The salad is seasoned with miracle whip. Lorna decorated the platter with some beautifully crafted cucumber blossoms.

Tanni made some crispy baked tofu puff at the kitchen. This is so simple to make. Just bake the tofu puff on a greased baking sheet at a 450F preheated oven for 10 minutes turning once.

I made Lychee jelly.
(more…)

Office Potluck — October 2009

Post author:Ben
Post published:October 24, 2009
Post category:Gatherings & Potluck
Post comments:0 Comments

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:

I used the dough recipe from here: http://chowtimes.com/2006/03/15/cinnamon-buns/

and the char siu filing from here: http://chowtimes.com/2006/03/28/char-siu-bao-part-1-of-2/

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.

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…)

Gilmore Park Church Community Kitchen Christmas Potluck 2008

Post author:Suanne
Post published:January 3, 2009
Post category:Community Kitchen 2008 Gatherings & Potluck
Post comments:0 Comments

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…

South Arm Community Kitchen Christmas Potluck 2008

Post author:Suanne
Post published:December 18, 2008
Post category:Community Kitchen 2008
Post comments:0 Comments

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.

(more…)

Gilmore Park Church Community Kitchen Potluck Party 2007

Post author:Suanne
Post published:January 5, 2008
Post category:Community Kitchen 2007 Gatherings & Potluck
Post comments:0 Comments

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.