"Christmas Extravaganza" at Work

As me and some of my co-workers agree, "extravaganza" is stretching it a bit, no a lot, when it refers to our Christmas work lunch/brunch. We were promised fajitas and accompanying fixins for lunch. But "brunch" would be up to the department to pull together and a sign-up sheet was passed around.

I noticed that on this particular sign-up sheet, whole names instead of the usual initals were used to sign up under the usual categories which included "drink/soda/juice" and "popcorn/pretzels/chips." I guess people had been flaking out or not signing up in the past few. Well our work brunches are not really anything to get excited about so I can understand the lack of participation and care. It's usually filled with ten different types of chips, ten bottles of soda, super-market made cookies, muffins, and baked things of those sort.

Well even I am pretty apathetic about this whole thing, especially since I don't desire to put most of the food into my body (and occasionally when I do and I feel like crap afterwards). With the exception of one time when I made mini-breakfast burritos with potatoes, eggs, and chicken sausage, and the one time I made raspberry pavlova, I've been pretty non-participant. For example, the last lunch we had, too lazy to cook I brought in some chicken tamales from the Salvadorean bakery located near Boy's residence. They turned out to be horrible! Bleh. It was soggy and there were bones left in the chicken!



So you can see why I needed to make something delicious at least once to make up for that incident. So I made Brioche French Toast flavored with Grand Marnier, orange zest, cinnamon, and vanilla. Before frying I dipped one side into some unsweetened shredded coconut. I served this with maple syrup and creme fraiche flavored with the delicious Pittaffo Raspberry Honey.





In addition I made Curried Sweet Potato Hash with spicy and mild Italian sausage, green bell pepper, chipotle, and of course curry powder. This turned out delicious and spicy.

I couldn't bear the thought of the french toast being eaten with a glass of soda and chips on the side. Nor the hash with supermarket muffins and fanta. So I made Mango Lassi. This went really well with the hash, balancing the spiciness from the chipotle and curry.

Now I'm sure that most people did not arrange their meals on the elegant styrofoam plates as I had put together the menu, but I am glad I made the dishes. Because at least I gave myself, and a few others, an option of having delicious, simple homemade food.