Reflections on the office holiday party

I imagine that just about every American company holds some kind of employee gathering to commemorate the Thanksgiving holiday. In the dot-com days, they were often swanky, catered affairs. More recently, they're pot luck events. And they are almost always paired with a charitable canned food drive.

If history is any indication, my company's Thanksgiving celebration will feature a company provided turkey-like loaf of meat, the store brand variation of Stove Top stuffing and mashed potatoes that taste remarkably like the box from which they were poured before boiling water was added. This savory lineup juxtaposed against an employee-stocked dessert buffet -- a trans-cultural collection of celebratory sweets from around the globe.

In other words, bring lunch. Stop by for dessert.

I'd planned to contribute Peabody's Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake, which got rave reviews from open house guests last year. But I am running out of refrigerator space while my fruit bowl is overflowing with pears. So decided to add the cheesecake to Saturday's menu and went searching for a worthy application for the pears. And found it here.

I tweaked the recipe slightly replacing a cup of all-purpose flour with whole wheat pastry flour and adding a splash of pear juice to the brown sugar topping.

I also bagged up a dozen meatballs to share with selected colleagues... figuring I might be able to entice some RSVPs out of people if I gave them a sneak preview of Saturday's menu. Both the meatballs and the cake were a hit, and a couple of people with other plans this weekend are now conflicted. A dozen people asked me for details on next year's party (it's traditionally the Saturday before Thanksgiving) and I now have nine positive RSVP's for our open house in 2008!

Technorati Tags: A year ago today found me in a different kind of reflection.

NaBloPoMo 2007