Update Re: Help with kids' birthday party foods

On Jul 14, 9:56 pm, cjra <cjroh...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jul 14, 5:29 pm, Becca <be...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:



Janet Baraclough wrote:

I'd advise you to cater to the children, quite simply, and don't
waste energy trying to wow their parents with a creative/ superhealthy
spread.

When small children are very excited they aren't very hungry, and
while they are all hyped up at someone elses house is NOT a time they
will try out anything unfamiliar.

Janet is right, when you get children together, the last thing they are
thinking about is food. They will take a bite, run off to chatter with
their friends, then come back for a second bite.

It was 102 (F) today, and when I gave a party on June 13th, it was 99 or
100 outside. I know how you feel about having a party when it is this hot.

What I would do, is serve fruit, cheese & crackers, mini-burgers with
chips and I would make tiny little cupcakes.

I would cook the hamburger patties and the cupcakes the day before the
party. I would buy (yes, buy) the small Parker House rolls and use
those for hamburger buns. I would make tiny meat patties, serve cheddar
cheese as an appetizer because most children like it, and I would serve
strawberries, grapes and I would buy apple slices from Sam's, because
they are cheaper than I can buy in the store, they are treated so the
apples will not turn brown and they are ready to serve. This way you
can spend time with the parents and the children, and not spend all your
time fussing over the food.

BTW, for an appetizer, I made mini muffalettas using the Parker House
rolls and everyone loved them.

Since the party begins at 3:00, it is the hottest part of the day, so
have plenty of beverages for the kidlets. Have a great time.

Becca

Thank you all for the suggestions. Now I have lots of ideas to work
with.

I'm not planning of serving a ton of food, just enough for an
afternoon snack besides the cake. I really like the fruit ideas and I
may do something like a 'chex party mix" and definitely cheese cubes.
I think I'll save the hot dogs for the evening (lots of kids, esp. the
older ones, will be staying for that version of the party).

Most of these kids, esp. the older ones, have hippie-granola-organic-
eating-vegetarian type parents, so they're used to "different" foods.
I'll be doing my usual tapas spread for the evening party, so I don't
want to spend too much time preparing the kid foods, but I want to
make sure they don't go hungry. And yes, we'll definitely have lots of
drinks on hand.

Thanks again. This has helped a lot.


So here's what we did for the kids:

Cheese cubes (pre-cut)
veg tray with dip
fruit cubes
chex mix (which didn't get touched)
mini-pizzas - made these with biscuits, spaghetti sauce and mozzarella
cheese
assorted drinks

Except the chex mix, it all went very fast, once I took it outside
where the kids were playing. It was a "cool and comfortable" 95F or
so, with a short rain, so nearly all were outside playing between the
bounce, sandbox, kiddie pool. Most popular were the veg tray and
fruit. Well, and the "pizzas" did pretty well.

Oh yeah, and cake and ice cream.
The party then turned into the evening party and round 2 (I made the
Thai food and it turned out great, if a bit spicy):
Thai Green curry (veg)
Thai Red curry (chicken)
jasmine rice

appetizers:
tapenade
roasted red pepper dip
hummus
7-layer dip
DH's famous french bread
pasta salad (sun dried tomato+mozzarella+olives)
black bean salad

Sangria
Assorted other drinks

It was actually hotter in the evening (more humid), but with the band
playing and dunk tank going (two houses merged for the party, then a
3rd added in), no one cared. All turned out great.

Now, if I could just convince people NOT to bring food over for our
parties. grrrrrr. I appreciate the thought, and it seems a few people
have finally learned that I have TONS of homemade food they don't need
to bring their grocery-store packaged stuff, there's one or two who do
still. Just means more stuff leftover and/or toss, which I hate to do.
We always end up with more beer than we started, but that's ok as that
keeps until the next party.


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