johnart said:

I will eat under just about any conditions.

Folk who quickly volunteer to bring napkins and plastic forks tho...if you are cooking-challenged at least bring some potato salad from the deli cheap ass.

[Edited 10/4/10 12:39pm]

Why you gotta put me out there like that?

No but really we joke about those people all the time who show up to events like these, potlucks, barbecues, etc. and are quick to say "I'll bring hot dogs!"

Thanks. You bring that 89 cent pack of hot dogs. Feel free to partake in the ribs, chicken, and steak that everyone else actually worked to prepare and spent a 20 times more than you on.

The hot dog guy bugs me more than the too quick to say "I'll bring chips" guy because chips can run you about $3-$4 a bag and for a medium sized group you need like 4 or 5 bags. Hot dogs...3 packs for like less than 3 bucks. Cheap asses.

I always bring some ice.

PurpleJedi said:

Genesia said:

C'mon by here and lemme introduce you to Mr. Piggy (the guy who sits next to me). You'll see.

Listen...we had a very nice lady here in the office bake a cake once. After my second bite, I found a DOG HAIR in it!

Just pick-&-choose whose dishes you eat!!!

(Our office is very small so that's no prob...I don't know about larger offices...)

At least it wasn't a cat hair.

johnart said:

Efan said:

I hate office potlucks. The forced awkward camaraderie is annoying, even with a bunch of people you like. Seating issues, paper plates, eating outside or in a cramped meeting room...all of it's annoying to me.

And then there's the food.

Just imagine my office potluck.

Fighting Lola and Bogart off my plate and Betina staring daggers at me from across the table.

Shorty said:

geesh!

maybe it's cause I'm from a small town...

maybe it's cause I've worked at the same company for 13 years....

maybe it's cause we don't have them very often.....

but I have none of the issues everyone else seems to have with potlucks.

yall sound like a bunch of fuckin' snobs if ya ask me!

I'm sorry that you feel that way.

But there are nasty people in small towns, who you've been working with for years, and it won't matter if it is once a year. Nasty is nasty.

If you eat anything from anyone who offers, then rock on.

Shyra said:

Hershe said:

Genesia said: When they are offended you won't eat their dish.

Yes. "Gettin the ass" means getting pissed or angry, usually over petty stuff. So, if you brought a dish and begged off eating something, your coworkers would consider that rude? Hell, if you have doubts about their cleanliness or food preparation skills, I'm sure your creative mind could come up with some excuse for not eating or sampling. A good one is medication. "I'm taking some prescribed medication, and I cannot eat anything with fat or sugar or dairy products." That pretty much covers everything!

Oh! You mean "gettin' hankty"!

chocolate1 said:

Shorty said:

geesh!

maybe it's cause I'm from a small town...

maybe it's cause I've worked at the same company for 13 years....

maybe it's cause we don't have them very often.....

but I have none of the issues everyone else seems to have with potlucks.

yall sound like a bunch of fuckin' snobs if ya ask me!

I'm sorry that you feel that way.

But there are nasty people in small towns, who you've been working with for years, and it won't matter if it is once a year. Nasty is nasty.

If you eat anything from anyone who offers, then rock on.

Now, now. I'm sure some of those double wides have very nice, clean kitchens.

johnart said:

Two stories:

• Back in the day, there was this one woman who was always commissioned to bake cakes for EVERY church gathering... three-layer works of "culinary monstrosity". :lol:One day, I took my Granny to her house to visit. That woman had about 6 cats, walking all over the counters and furniture. There was cat hair everywhere! Needless to say, NO MORE CAKES FROM HER!

• They had a dinner at church and some of the women were cooking their "specialties". I was in the ladies' room, and Ms. Eva came in. She said, "Ooh girl... I lost my nail (bright pink, of the press-on variety)! I hope it's not in the stuffing!" Yeah, it was... my friend got it.

jone70 said:

chocolate1 said:

Shyra said:

Hershe said:

Genesia said: When they are offended you won't eat their dish.

Yes. "Gettin the ass" means getting pissed or angry, usually over petty stuff. So, if you brought a dish and begged off eating something, your coworkers would consider that rude? Hell, if you have doubts about their cleanliness or food preparation skills, I'm sure your creative mind could come up with some excuse for not eating or sampling. A good one is medication. "I'm taking some prescribed medication, and I cannot eat anything with fat or sugar or dairy products." That pretty much covers everything!

where I live that means getting fired

NDRU said:

Genesia, just be glad you did not come to my company's party.

Our head of finance (who did not come, BTW) hired a guy who let us all through an interpretive dance exercise where all employees had to "move in ways reflecting their feelings," or move in random shapes, patterns, gestures, etc. and not in a subtle way, but dramatically from one side of the room to the other.

oh my fucking god!!!!! he did NOT!!!!!!!

The closest thing I've been to a potluck is our family NYE dinners.

I sometimes brought peaches to work to share. That's about it!

I'm against them mostly out of my own laziness. I don't like to cook for myself, much less a bunch of co-workers. That said, I am very clean when I cook, but I don't expect people to take my word for it.

I'm not a picky eater, so unless it has coconut or it smells like it's been permeated by cat piss, I'll probably try it, if that person isn't obviously a slob.

I cannot stand potlucks either.

Our company used to cater all of our special occasions, but due to "budget cuts", they stopped. Now they buy the main entree most times and someone from our carpenter shop cooks it. Being that we're in Texas, we always tend to have barbecue or hamburgers (something that can be thrown on a grill).

Now that may sound good, but you have to see these nasty guys that cook. One of the guys smells so bad and has so much oil in his head, he could fry a batch of chicken. Not to mention he always dresses in clothes that look like they were washed in dirty water. I refuse to eat anything he cooks.

If I'm asked to bring something, I usually go to Pilgrim's Pride chicken plant in Downtown Dallas and purchase 10lbs of wings for $10. I feed a LOT of people for $10.

ZombieKitten said:

NDRU said:

Genesia, just be glad you did not come to my company's party.

Our head of finance (who did not come, BTW) hired a guy who let us all through an interpretive dance exercise where all employees had to "move in ways reflecting their feelings," or move in random shapes, patterns, gestures, etc. and not in a subtle way, but dramatically from one side of the room to the other.

oh my fucking god!!!!! he did NOT!!!!!!!

yes! And I was a new enough employee that I felt like I actually had to do it! I would never do that now.

PurpleJedi said:

Genesia said:

C'mon by here and lemme introduce you to Mr. Piggy (the guy who sits next to me). You'll see.

Listen...we had a very nice lady here in the office bake a cake once. After my second bite, I found a DOG HAIR in it!

Just pick-&-choose whose dishes you eat!!!

(Our office is very small so that's no prob...I don't know about larger offices...)

Ewwwwwww!! Co-

SHOCKADELICA1 said:

NDRU said:

Genesia, just be glad you did not come to my company's party.

Our head of finance (who did not come, BTW) hired a guy who let us all through an interpretive dance exercise where all employees had to "move in ways reflecting their feelings," or move in random shapes, patterns, gestures, etc. and not in a subtle way, but dramatically from one side of the room to the other.

WTF????????

I love potlucks.

This is not an office potluck story, but I wanted to share it anyway.

At this one company I used to work at, we always bought a cake whenever someone in our department was having a birthday. When my birthday rolled around, my co-workers bought me an ice cream cake that was delicious. At the end of lunch, I was cutting up the cake and putting it on plates to stick in the refrigerator, in case people wanted some later (yes, I made sure I washed my hands thoroughly before doing this).

While I was doing this, I accidentally dropped a piece of cake on the floor. I told one of my co-workers what happened, and said, "Well, I guess I have to throw that piece away, since it fell on the floor. Nobody will want to eat it now". She says to me, "Oh, don't throw it away, I'll eat it!" And she did. I could never eat something that fell on the floor. Imagine all the germs and things that must have been on that piece of cake when she ate it. Yuck!

NDRU said:

ZombieKitten said:

oh my fucking god!!!!! he did NOT!!!!!!!

yes! And I was a new enough employee that I felt like I actually had to do it! I would never do that now.

I'm going to do a little bit of interpretive at my sons 21st birthday parties

psychodelicide said:

This is not an office potluck story, but I wanted to share it anyway.

At this one company I used to work at, we always bought a cake whenever someone in our department was having a birthday. When my birthday rolled around, my co-workers bought me an ice cream cake that was delicious. At the end of lunch, I was cutting up the cake and putting it on plates to stick in the refrigerator, in case people wanted some later (yes, I made sure I washed my hands thoroughly before doing this).

While I was doing this, I accidentally dropped a piece of cake on the floor. I told one of my co-workers what happened, and said, "Well, I guess I have to throw that piece away, since it fell on the floor. Nobody will want to eat it now". She says to me, "Oh, don't throw it away, I'll eat it!" And she did. I could never eat something that fell on the floor. Imagine all the germs and things that must have been on that piece of cake when she ate it. Yuck!

So, I wouldn't eat her cooking because I'd be scared she dropped stuff at home and still packed it up to take to work.

chocolate1 said:

psychodelicide said:

This is not an office potluck story, but I wanted to share it anyway.

At this one company I used to work at, we always bought a cake whenever someone in our department was having a birthday. When my birthday rolled around, my co-workers bought me an ice cream cake that was delicious. At the end of lunch, I was cutting up the cake and putting it on plates to stick in the refrigerator, in case people wanted some later (yes, I made sure I washed my hands thoroughly before doing this).

While I was doing this, I accidentally dropped a piece of cake on the floor. I told one of my co-workers what happened, and said, "Well, I guess I have to throw that piece away, since it fell on the floor. Nobody will want to eat it now". She says to me, "Oh, don't throw it away, I'll eat it!" And she did. I could never eat something that fell on the floor. Imagine all the germs and things that must have been on that piece of cake when she ate it. Yuck!

So, I wouldn't eat her cooking because I'd be scared she dropped stuff at home and still packed it up to take to work.

I feel the exact same way as you do.

psychodelicide said:

Hershe said:

psychodelicide said:

This is not an office potluck story, but I wanted to share it anyway.

At this one company I used to work at, we always bought a cake whenever someone in our department was having a birthday. When my birthday rolled around, my co-workers bought me an ice cream cake that was delicious. At the end of lunch, I was cutting up the cake and putting it on plates to stick in the refrigerator, in case people wanted some later (yes, I made sure I washed my hands thoroughly before doing this).

While I was doing this, I accidentally dropped a piece of cake on the floor. I told one of my co-workers what happened, and said, "Well, I guess I have to throw that piece away, since it fell on the floor. Nobody will want to eat it now". She says to me, "Oh, don't throw it away, I'll eat it!" And she did. I could never eat something that fell on the floor. Imagine all the germs and things that must have been on that piece of cake when she ate it. Yuck!

Yes, it is.

we usually do a themed lunch, where everyone brings something.

we've done:

Footlong days - lettuce, tomatoes, lunchmeat, cheeses, breads, munchies

Big Salad days - all the fixin's

Mexican days

Coney Island days

White Castle slider days

Pizza days

Smoothie days

Cheeseburger days - we bring in some george foreman grills and cook it up...our floor smells wonderfull on those days.

It can be fun....but, I hate to be the person in charge, however, it always seems to gravitate towards me....I've been told that people trust me....whatever.....just sounds like they're passing the buck.

[Edited 10/4/10 17:04pm]

Nothinbutjoy said:

They can be a pain in the ass, but don't have to be a big deal.

Bring what you want. Partake of what you want.

Play nice with the other kiddies.

No big.

Yep. Especially when you come home from work knowing you have to cook something for the potluck the next day.

I just order a veggie tray or a veggie and cheese combo tray with dip. The local grocery store will put one together for me with some advance notice.

Saves me cooking and preparing after coming home from a busy day at work.

Usually I'll make chilli, lasagna or something yummy if there is enough time to prepare and cook.

I dislike people that just bring a bag of chips or a bottle of pop.

Genesia said:

But heaven forbid you should decide to forego it - because then you look like you're stingy or not a team player.

I avoid them like a pile of rotten plague bodies if at all possible. First, because when I was a hardcore vegan, macrobiotic nutjub or even vegetarian there was rarely any good choices unless it was the one dish I brought myself. Then, most of the times I did bring something more than half of it went back home. Second, I brought my pesto & veggie pasta salad one time, it got demolished and I kept getting asked to bring it again. Lastly, because I hate people! I don't want to share your damn food! I got work to do.