What should I bring for our Mexican-themed lunch at our staff meeting on Thursday?
My co-workers are SO much more into food than I am. They settled on a Mexican lunch for our staff meeting. One gal is bringing the main course, the other some sort of dessert. What would be a good dish for me to contribute? For some reason, cornbread keeps coming to mind….
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
31 Answers
Cornbread is not “Mexican”—though corn tortillas certainly are. Bring a good salsa and/or pico de gallo and chips. Guacamole is always a favorite, but “good” guac requires a bit of skill, and it’s best made right before serving. You can get really fancy and prepare the guacamole in front of everyone ;-)
Frijoles de olla. Easy, cheap, scales well, plays nicely with many things, and makes good leftovers. Just beans, onions, lard, water.
1lb pinto beans
½ small white onion, sliced
2 tb lard
Bring it all to a boil with 10 C water, reduce to simmer, and cook, covered, till soft. Add salt to taste near the end.
Some of the guys hanging out in front of Home Depot with signs looking for work, especially if they’ve been unsuccessful in the effort and could use a good meal.
The implication was “a hungry Mexican”.
Chips and queso!
or if I the boss is gone
Tecate and Negra Modelo!
Chips just sounds so lame. I want to put SOME effort into it, even though my heart isn’t in it. Besides, I just remembered, someone else is bringing 7 layer dip.
@CWOTUS Interesting how my mind didn’t even leap to “Mexican” right away. I only see Mexicans working, not begging.
So buy designer chips but you can’t have mexican food without a chip appetizer and someone else is bringing the main course and dessert and a seven layer salad.
No…seven layer is a dip. She will be bringing chips.
Its’ got vegetables in it. Call it a salad.
@rojo… Why are you being difficult? You’re acting like you’ve never heard of it before! 7 layer DIP is a DIP. Bottom is refried beans, then sour cream mixed with taco seasoning, then guacamole, then a thin layer of tomatoes and green onions then cheese! I think it calls for black olives too, but I never use them. You scoop it up with CHIPS! You don’t eat it with a fork or a spoon! .......Haven’t you ever heard of it before? Having tomatoes on it doesn’t make it a salad, any more than tomatoes in salsa make salsa a salad. The person making it will be bringing CHIPS to eat it with!
Thanks for the other, but I don’t really want anything with meat in it. I know I can leave it out, and stick with the beans, but so far we have two things of food with beans in them.
I’ll stick with the cornbread recipe I found. It really sounds good!
It does look good!
BUT…. it has peppers in it so it is a salad.
LOLL! Aright! I’m bringing co’n bread salad!
You misunderstand me, @Dutchess_III again. I meant no slur on “begging Mexicans”, but I have seen a lot of Mexican & Central American gentlemen standing outside of Home Depot stores looking for day labor from anyone who will hire them. So okay, maybe not “holding signs”, exactly, but the “un-sign” is “please hire me for the day.”
And the first response I made was clear about “looking for work”.
I love cornbread. I associate it more with Native American Indians, but my Mexican Mother-in-law does make a cornbread recipe. You can add little pieces of jalapeño if you want to heat it up, but personally I like my cornbread the typical “American” way.
You can also make quesadillas. Corn or flour tortilla with cheese and chicken, or just cheese, or cheese and some veggies. Little oil in a pan, put the tortilla in, the stuffing, then fold over in half. Later cut in half to make basically little triangles.
My MIL also makes a cold salad with pealed cold boiled potatoes cut into cubes, add defrosted peas and carrots. Then fold in half sour cream half mayo until everything is litely coated, and a little salt to taste. But, Americans won’t perceive it as Mexican. But, a lot of people will probably like it, since Americans tend to like potato and pasta salads.
A salad (iceberg, raddish, tomato, cucumber) with a little red wine vinegar, lots of lemon and some olive oil. Mexicans put lemon on raw veggies, including tossed salad.
Jicama slices with lemon and salt.
Chicken Enchiladas
Cheese Mole Enchiladas
Mexican Pasta Salad
Seven Layer Dip
Mexican Caesar Salad
You could also create a salsa bar with chips and at least 4 different salsas. Don’t bother to make them from scratch unless you have the time and thrill of it, just pick out 4 differerent jarred salsas: green (chile or tomatillo or serrano), red (guajillo or tomato and fruit such as pineapple or mango), chipotle (smoked chilies) and hot (could be jalapeno, serrano, scotch bonnet, ghost, or habanero). A very cute, and timely presentation is to serve your salsas (or shredded cheese, chopped onions or diced tomatoes or guacamole) in hollowed out little baby pumpkins.
I did that once for a chili potluck and everyone thought it was very festive.
@Kardamom Thanks! But one person is already bringing the main course, enchlada’s. Another is bringing 7 layer dip….honestly you guys…my heart just isn’t in this. My co-workers are FAR more into food than I am. I just want something simple to make, but good. I just don’t have the urge to spend hours on the food. It’s a staff lunch, for crying out loud!
@Dutchess_III I’m with you. Last pot luck I went to I bought chicken taquitos frozen, baked them, and brought salsa and sour cream along. I didn’t want to cook for it or clean up much, and I cook almost every day for my husband. I couldn’t be bothered.
Nacho chips, shredded cheddar cheese, chopped onion and salsa.
Since you haven’t itemized who is bringing what, we’re all just shooting in the dark here.
Or just bring plates, napkins, paper cups, ice… whatever the organizer needs that doesn’t involve cooking.
@CWOTUS Pay ‘tention! I HAVE itemized! Several times. One person is bringing enchiladas, which I assume is the main course, another is bringing some sort of dessert, another is bringing 7 layer dip. Also, there are plenty, plenty plates, napkins etc. AT OUR OFFICE! It’s for a staff lunch.
I guess I’ll pay attention somewhere else. I haven’t seen even one “list of items”. Pay attention yourself.
I never bring chips and dip to pot luck ever, unless someone has organized who is bringing what. The last pot luck I went to there was only 10 of us (5 couples). Three people brought dips with crackers or chips, two of the dips were in carved out bread and looked basically the same). I brought the taquitos (thank goodness) and the hosts provided bad fruit salad and bad wraps of turkey and cheese. I was hungry all night, went to McDonald’s on the way home at 10:00 at night.
@Dutchess_III Enchilladas are heavy. Bring some taco’s. You can make them with ground turkey, lots of lettuce, tomatoes, cheese etc.
The lunch has probably happened already, but I thought of another thing you can bring. Carnitas. Basically what we Americans would think of as roasted pulled pork. If you have a BBQ place near you, just get the pork without the sauce. Then add fried onions on top lemon and salt. Really the pork should be recooked in some oil, and then you can sautee the onions in the grease left behind, but if you want it healthier you can skip the pork fry/sautee part. You can bring rice or soft tacos or salad to go with it, if no one is bringing any of those things already. (soft tacos would be tricky, they need to be heated a little, and kept warm).
It’s done. I took the Internets corn bread. It was good, but it was INSANE! Man, the recipe said it made 6 servings, so I decided to double it to 12 because there were about 6 of us. Well, when all was said and done, it filled a 9 X 14 dish with what looked like cake. There was enough to feed 50 people!
As I started making it I kept doing double takes….4 sticks of butter, melted. 2 cups of sugar. 8 EGGS!!! Two cups of cheese! I thought, “OMG. I’m gonna kill my co-workers before they get out the door!” They eventually got around to mentioning some flour and corn meal.
It was good. Have a ton of it though. Anybody want some Internets corn bread?
It probably freezes well. Save it for thanksgiving.
I wouldn’t mind having a piece of that right now!
Answer this question 
Composing members:
0
