Need menu ideas

[NAchef]

I have my daughters birthday coming up this next w/e and I am not sure what to cook. We have thought about making a turkey/thanksgiving style dinner, but we did that a couple months ago for another birthday. We thought about a couple different soups (Taco soup, Seafood chowder) but thought we may want a different variety.

The one problem we have is a few people have alergies to different foods or have a very bland taste and will not try new things.

Pork, cheese and peanuts can cause issues with some. I would like to have dish with rice if possible (so I can use the new rice cooker) But I am not sure what to do.

I was planning an making a mango salsa to keep everyone going while things are cooking but I have too many things going on to decide on the main dishes.

Give me ANY ideas you have, I would love to hear them all!!!

Thank you!!!

 

[Fisher's Mom]

How old is your daughter, NAchef?

 

[NAchef]

She will be turning 10

 

[Fisher's Mom]

That's such a lovely age - congratulations. My kids have always enjoyed participating in the cooking and they love theme parties. Does your daughter like this?

Anyway, one of the things that came to mind is a variation on this:
Hot pot - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
You could have a variety of ingredients sliced and prepped with the stock pot in the center of the table on a hot plate. Then everyone could select what they want to cook. You could have plenty of cooked rice and perhaps buckwheat noodles on the side, along with a variety of small dessert items. Maybe individual little tea pots and different teas. Plus an assortment of different sauces - hot, spicy, sweet, etc.

If she will have guests the same age, have on hand some chopsticks for each child. You could decorate with some paper lanterns and maybe get a little Chinese-style hair ornament for each girl.

You could do a similar thing with and Italian theme and build-your-own pizzas. Having a lot of different toppings prepped and ready makes it really fun. You could serve different pastas and sauces, too.

 

[Claire]

A taco bar is fun for kids (put out all the ingredients: some seasoned ground beef, a few salsas, grated cheese, chiffonade iceberg, chopped tomatoes, maybe a pot of chili, soume flour tortillas and some "taco shells", each takes what they want). Also suki yaki. These are meals where everyone can eat what they wish. If allergies are a problem, watch that mango; a lot of people are allergic to it.

 

[quicksilver]

My mother always asked what we wanted for our birthday dinner.
The surprise was always how consistantly good the real thing was to the memory.

 

[Uncle Bob]

We always asked our children what They wanted....maybe threw out some ideas and let them decide. In the end it was their decision!! Not anybody elses.....

 

[NAchef]

We do have a dinner that we do on their actual birthday that will be something they like and ask for.

The dinner we cook on the w/e when grand parents, aunts and uncles come out is a bit more and they will pick out the type of cake and ice cream they get on that day.



Thanks for the ideas Fisher Mom and Claire, those are great. Looks like I have some things to look at and maybe a bit more to check on allergies.

 

[Mama]

My kids always enjoyed a "make your own pizza party" I made individual dough balls for the kids and cut up all kinds of different toppings and they would shape their own dough and top them. I would stand by the oven and bake there pizza on the stone as they were done "decorating" them.

 

[Claire]

I'd forgotten the pizza thing. To simplify on Mama's idea, make "French bread" pizzas. Find some kind of unsliced loaves of bread. Cut in half horizontally (this can be loaves of french bread or boules or anything similar, each loaf makes 2 pizzas.) All the traditional toppings, let the kids go wild (did this for my nephews once). They only take a few minutes in a hot (450?) oven, just 'til the cheese is bubbly. Instant gratification is the name of the game with kids this young.

 

[Barbara L]

You mentioned soups. How about a couple soups and a salad bar, or soups and sandwich bar?

Barbara