Work Potluck Week Seven: Welcome Jaycie!

This week, the amazing Jaycie joined us on the 3rd floor. Since she was born and raised in Tucson, AZ, we decided on a Southwest theme.

Once again, I drew dessert. Researching Southwestern desserts online has led me to some awful atrocities that rival Sandra Lee in terms of half-assed awfulness. So, I decided to head south of the border and made dark chocolate truffles with cayenne peppers and cinnamon. Think of the truffles as tiny balls of Mexican chocolate. Well, they're missing cloves, but I didn't think to infuse the heavy cream with cloves at the time I was making the ganache.

I didn't spare any spices, so the truffles packed a punch. The cinnamon was immediately noticeable, but the cayenne peppers insidiously encroached upon one's taste buds. Sorry Amanda!

Other dishes include:

Blueberry lemonade. The lemonade was super tart and super refreshing. It complemented the cheese-heavy potluck and the sweet truffles very well.

Beer guacamole. I love avocados, and the guacamole was amazing. Unfortunately, because I'm such an observant person, I mistook the avocado pits for heirloom tomatoes and almost swallowed one! In my defense, they were very small pits.

Nachos! You can't go wrong with plain melted cheese on tortilla, but the one with black beans and jalapenos were extra tasty.

Strawberry salsa to go with, well, everything! Normally I up the contrast and saturation a bit because the photos I take usually look washed out, but this salsa was so vibrant that no contrast/saturation adjustments were needed.

Quesadillas! We had both chicken and cheese quesadillas, and they were both delicious.

Speaking of quesadillas, we pronounce the word really weirdly at the office. Amanda pronounces it as "kay-sa-dyllahs," and we snowballed from there. "Kway-sa-diyas," "kray-so-dealahs," and my contribution, "kay-so-dillos."

And then we discussed the recent research on how to pronounce "Taco Bell" based on this article, because apparently people from Arizona pronounce it completely differently from the rest of the country. Yep, we're the best.

Work Potluck Week Six: Sarah's Birthday!

This week, we made dishes that we think would make our birthday girl Sarah happy. A self-described regular twenty-somethings girl, Sarah claims her diet consists mostly of coffee and dessert. When she's not destroying her body with aforementioned deliciousness, she likes to eat "healthy" food (ah, the eternal struggle). However, her mention of quinoa as one of her favorites foods raised a few eyebrows.

One of the healthy foods Sarah said she liked was avocados, so I made some avocado ice cream. I had originally planned to make beautiful lime zest tuile cookies, but I botched the batch horribly last night. Next time, I'll use bigger pans and nonstick spray.

Instead, I fried up some flour tortillas and coated them in sugar, which served nicely as substitute garnish. Add some lime zest to top the ice cream and I've got the whole "dessert guacamole and chips" thing going on. Surprisingly, the extra tortilla garnishes became a huge hit in the office as no one can resist the siren call of fried carbs topped with more carbs.

Yes, the plate says "Twinkle." No, you shut your mouth, it's awesome.

Speaking of awesome, everyone stepped up their game this week for Sarah's birthday. Here's the rest of the menu.

Avocado bruschetta. Apparently I was not the only one who thought avocados were a good idea.

Strawberry rosemary punch. This delicious beverage contains pureed strawberries sweetened with honey and infused with rosemary, lemon and lime juices, and a base of sparkling cider.

Strawberry caprese salad. Fresh strawberries, basil, mint, and buffalo mozzarella balls.

Sarah's sandwich. Prosciutto and herb cream cheese (parsley, basil, chives, and scallions) sandwich on pretzel roll, topped with cucumber, green pepper, red onion, and arugula.

Next week, the potluck group welcomes a new member. Oh, we have such tastes to entice her.

Sitting Down with a Stranger for Lunch

Last Sunday, as I was waiting in line for June's installment of Here's the Story, I was approached by Makiko.

"Duo! Can I talk to you after the show?"
"Yes!"

I talked to her before the show, and that's how I learned about the audition for A Month of..., a new storytelling show masterminded by the folks behind Here's the Story. My audition task was to "sit with a stranger for lunch." Easy enough, I thought, my mind already turning.

At the show, Megan sat next to me. After the show, I asked her to eat lunch with me, sitting. Surprisingly, she agreed. We planned to meet on Tuesday, and I walked away feeling accomplished. The engineer bro part of my brain is high-fiving itself on arriving at the simplest and therefore most elegant solution.

On my way out, I ran into Dan, co-host of Here's the Story and general person-in-charge. I wanted to talk to him a bit more about the audition, and he happily obliged. So we walked and talked about the new show, and he gave me several examples of the ingenious ways people are performing the task.

We parted ways. As I was walking back to my apartment from the theater, I edged closer and closer to freak-the-fuck-out mode.

"The simplest way is most certainly NOT the best way!" the entertainer part of my brain exclaimed as it punched engineer bro in the kidney. "Life on easy mode? What is wrong with you? You call yourself a try-hard? Do you even want to get the part bro?"

And so, plagued with the nagging thought that playing the part of the straight man is for underachieving suckers, I went to bed and promptly failed to sleep. By the time 6 AM rolled around and the light of dawn diffused into my room, I had a handful of new ideas in my head:

• Sit down for lunch with my roommate and talk about the saddest, creepiest, most bizarre shit until he doesn't know who I am anymore. I would start the lunch as a friend and end the lunch as a stranger.

• Sit down for lunch with the people who work at the restaurants I frequent. I love talking to people in the food industry, and this would be right up my alley.

And so on. By this point I've calmed down a bit, and started planning something more elaborate than what I've set up with Megan. I started planning multiple lunch excursions for the week.

But then, as I was aiming for the fences of insanity, another part of my brain spoke up. It  was neither hyper-practical nor flamboyant. It was quiet and composed.

"Why do you invite people to dinner parties?" it asked.

"Because I love meeting new people." the answer came out without a moment's hesitation.

"Well then, I'll leave you with that."

And in that moment, clarity washed over me: the reason I dine with strangers is to learn about them, to share myself with them, and to turn them into friends. Megan was not merely the most elegant solution to the problem posed to me: she was someone I wanted to know better. I didn't need to deconstruct the task of "sit" "with" "a" "stranger" "for" "lunch" to complete the task. In fact, I'd probably hate myself if I did something stupid in the name of entertainment.

Megan and I met at Vegetarian Express on Tuesday. She ordered the lentil soup and a juice cocktail ("it tastes like health!" ~ Megan). I ordered a tofu sandwich and a shake. We talked about everything and nothing. 

Megan was born in Michigan and went to college in DePaul. There, she studied psychology. She is working two unpaid internships right now. She guides visitors and performs a multitude of administrative and clerical tasks at Illinois Masonic, and she works with cancer patients downtown as a counselor of sorts.

Did I mention she is a three-time cancer survivor?

She owns a beagle-husky mix (she calls it a busky), which looks like a beagle with stunning husky eyes. She had just started to bake, and brought her first batch of cookies to her first Here's the Story potluck. She loves her job and wants to help as many people as possible (though getting paid for it would certainly be nice). The conversation went on. Family. Vegetarianism. Restaurants. 

The encounter reinforced my belief that the task required no gimmicks on my part to make it interesting. Good food and good conversation go a long way.

As we parted ways, I knew I will see Megan again soon. However, the next time we meet, we will no longer be strangers — not really.

Bonus: my delicious tofu sandwich with sweet potato fries.

Work Potluck Week Five: Pop Music Guilty Pleasures

This week, we made dishes based on our favorite pop music stars and/or their music.

I made a lemonade based on Lady Gaga and specifically the music video for Poker Face.  I made lemonade from scratch and dyed it blue. The completely edible garnish is supposed to resemble Lady Gaga's face. It did not come out as well as I wanted, but the resemblance was there so I won't complain too much. Pineapple hair, cantaloupe face, lemon peel lightning bolt, and blue raspberry rock candy stone on the lightning bolt.

Prototype and planning:

Baked beans: inspired by Tim McGraw's Something Like That. Fortunately, none of us got BBQ stains on our shirts.

Corn and black bean quesadillas: inspired by Nicki Minaj's Beez in the Trap. The yellow corn and black beans represent the bees, and the tortilla and cheese represent the trap.

Depression era cake: inspired by Jay Z's Hard Knock Life. The cake batter contained no butter, which was scarce and expensive back in the day.

Creamy purple cabbage salad with raspberries: inspired by Prince's Raspberry Beret, Purple Rain, and Cream. 

Work Potluck: Inception and Previous Themes

Inception: Honey Humpday

A little over a month ago, I was sitting in the bibliothèque at the office, furiously  hammering away on the keyboard of my laptop. My single track mind was further railroaded by that special combination of too much caffeine and too little food, and I was oblivious to the movements around me. That is, until I heard the unmistakable sizzle of fat in a pan. A few minutes later I was offered a grilled cheese sandwich with Gruyère cheese, pear, jam, and honey. It was delicious. I shared the grilled cheese and other honey-laced dishes with my coworkers, which was a welcome break from searing my eyeballs with the laptop screen.

"Happy Honey Humpday," a coworker said.

"Okay, so what do I have to do to be a part of this?" I asked.

"Well, choose a color then pick a course at random."

A few minutes later, I had my assignment for the next week: a red side dish for Wainbow Wednesday (yes, we pronounced it that way for the entire week.)

Week Wone: Wainbow Wednesday

Everyone chose a color and picked a course at random. For my red side dish, I made a chilled red pepper soup topped with crème fraîche and thyme. Other dishes included currant scones (purple dessert), paella (yellow main dish), fauxjito (green beverage).

Week Two: Tiny Thursday

The week's theme was "small things." I drew beverage and made tiny virgin (can't daydrink at work :( ) sangria shots with mangoes, green grapes, pomegranate seeds, and white grape juice agar gels flavored with rose extract. Other dishes included mini pizzas, Waldorf salad lettuce wraps, and raspberry cheesecakes.

Week Three: Movie Wednesday (We Ran Out of Naming Mojo)

For this week, everyone picked a dish based on their favorite movie(s). Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from this potluck, but I can tell you all about the dishes and the associated movie clips we watched.

Atlantic Potion (inspired by The Little Mermaid): citrus soda, grapes, and blue ice cubes with gummies frozen inside

French salad (inspired by Moulin Rouge): homemade French salad dressing, lettuce and cherry tomatoes

Beans and rice with mango salsa (inspired by Jurassic Park, because the movie takes place off the coast of Costa Rica): watch the clip.

"Will someone please pass me the fucking" asparagus (inspired by my favorite movie, American Beauty): chilled asparagus with honey dijon dressing and lemons, the dish was a replica of the asparagus Lester requested and eventually threw against the dining room wall.

Persian style rice and tofu with walnuts and pomegranate molasses (inspired by The Color of Paradise, which I want to see now!)

"Choose Your Own Adventure" cookies and icing (inspired by multiple movies): choose from star (Star Wars), plane (Top Gun), football helmet (Remember the Titans), and T. rex (Jurassic Park). In true Calvin and Hobbes fashion, I put a T. rex on a plane.

Week Four: Hometown Wednesday

We put everyone's hometowns into a hat and drew randomly. I drew Stillwater, MN, and made a traditional hot dish with sautéed mushrooms and onions, cream of mushroom soup (from a can!), frozen vegetables, a ton of cheddar cheese, and topped the whole thing off with tater tots.

Beijing: my boss made dumplings from scratch. They were impressive.

Lexington, MA: lemon iced tea for the Boston tea party

Carmel, IN: unfortunately Indiana is kind of a culinary wasteland (someone prove me wrong), so we had a corn and cucumber salad because, well, corn and cucumber both grow in Indiana. The person responsible was tempted to make something that more realistically reflected the culinary traditions of Indiana by slathering canned corn with mayonnaise, but we were all very glad he chose not to pursue authenticity in this instance.

Berea, KY: cookie and ice cream sandwiches

Fort Thomas, KY: cat's head biscuits. The biscuits do not contain cat heads, or any parts of cats for that matter. Instead, they were named for their approximate size: the size of a cat's head.