If you do birthday parties at home, come in...

What do you serve for food? DS's birthday is late fall, so too late for a BBQ. Last year we just did a sandwich tray with some appetizers and side salads. I think we are inviting a larger # this year and just looking for some ideas.

I do not plan on cooking much, if any of it myself. TIA.

Re: If you do birthday parties at home, come in...

For DS birthday which is in April, I did a lot of appetizers and cake. It was a 1pm start time so it was in between lunch and dinner. For his baptism, I did a brunch - served bagels, croissants, pastries, quiche, ham, egg/chicken salad, and green salad. Everyone loved the food.

Re: If you do birthday parties at home, come in...

I pretty much did Emerson's 1st Birthday at home. We used the clubhouse at my Grandma's townhouse complex BUT we didn't cater anything. For apps I just had bowls of trail mix and Chex Mix on the tables. For dinner I made trays of homemade sausage and peppers and penne ala vodka along with a big green salad, fresh italian bread, and a 6ft hero of chicken cutlets, fresh mozzarella, and roasted red peppers that I ordered from an Italian deli near me. For dessert I made cupcakes, bought cookies, got a sheet cake from BJ's which was AWESOME, and my BFF made brownies and homemade chocolate dipped pretzels. Everything was a huge hit and it was all pretty simple.

Re: If you do birthday parties at home, come in...

We usually go a little overboard on food and have it half catered, half home cooked and a hero

But this year for my DS's 4th I think we are going to do pizza's...Some specialty pies for the adults ( chix marsala pizza, buff chix pizza, those types) and plain for th kids...Possibly a hero also...We have my DD 1st coming up also, so its starting to get a little crazy

We also seem to have a problem with RSVP'ing, so we figured if we do pizza, its something we can somewhat oredr in short notice

Re: If you do birthday parties at home, come in...

We will have pizza since most kids his age can eat it and cake, plus salad for any grown-ups. That's about it, I don't go crazy.

Re: If you do birthday parties at home, come in...

heroes, tray of ziti, green salad, potatoe and mac salad

Re: If you do birthday parties at home, come in...

I cook. A lot. So I am no help directly.

My girlfriend always orders from an Italian food place. It's relatively inexpensive.. they bring all the racks and sternos and set up so it's easy too.

Re: If you do birthday parties at home, come in...

DS' birthday is in June so we do a BBQ.

Burger
Sausage
Hotdogs
salad (potato or pasta)
Lettuce type salad with veggies

This year we added a big hero.

Re: If you do birthday parties at home, come in...

We kept it simple with a pizza party and added ziti, salad, meatballs and some appetizers

Re: If you do birthday parties at home, come in...

DD's is in early November. Last year we did catered sandwiches, salads, a crockpot with really yummy mini-meatballs, Mac & Cheese & chicken fingers for the kids. Oh, and spinach dip & a couple of other appetizers.

This year, I'm just starting to plan, but I'm thinking about doing a crockpot of meatballs with red sauce, rolls & cheese on the side for people to make mini-MB heroes, sliders (mini-burgers -- DH will thow them on the grill quick -- they only take a few minutes) & some mini chicken sandwiches, salads, maybe some chili in a crockpot, chicken nuggets & mac & cheese again for the kiddos. Not sure what else yet. Maybe some smoked turkey breast, which we can do earlier in the day on the smoker.

Re: If you do birthday parties at home, come in...

For DS 1st birthday we catered food from Mama Theresa's. (i made sausage and peppers, ziti and meatballs but we catered 2 chicken dishes, eggplant parm, chicken fingers and mozz sticks, a big salad, some foccacia etc)

For his 2nd birthday I made everything, but you can cater this too....
We had
-ribs, pulled pork, mac and cheese, cole slaw, corn bread and baked beans. Everyone loved it and it was a little different.

Re: If you do birthday parties at home, come in...

DS is a Jan baby and his menu )a bit early but Im anal) consists of the following so far.

Baked Ziti
Loin of pork
Chicken fingers (for the kids)
Salad
Some Indian dish (DH family is Guyanese)
Maybe a hero (not big on heros)
Shrimp Scampi (for those that dont eat beef/pork)

All I will be making minus the Shrimp and the Indian food.

Dessert.

Message edited 9/22/2009 5:39:08 PM.