4301

Culinary Arts (7-13yr) Food Memory Game

June 2002

Stephanie in Deltona, FL USA

Runner-Up

7-13 years Girls Culinary Arts Party 

The perfect party for all young aspiring chefs! It will give kids a chance to really mess around in the kitchen like they've always wanted to, and at the same time, have a great birthday experience with friends. I also think these ideas are very economical. 

GUESTS: keep the guest list very small, please remember! Invite only your closest buddies and those who you are obligated to, about and not exceeding 6 people. This group should be a compatible one, and one which the birthday girl will thoroughly enjoy. Remember, it’s her day to shine! 

INVITATIONS: Print up a card or hand make a notice reading; Recipe for a Super Culinary Birthday Party = 1 part beautiful birthday girl, 6 parts girlish guests, 2 parts cake and ice cream, and Million parts fun! Blend Well on ________ (party date) at _______ (party time) on _________ (party address). Please come and make it a delicious day of games and giggles! Keep the timings somewhere from noon to 9:00pm.

TO REMEMBER: Specified lights off time, off limit rooms, volume restrictions, and especial courtesy reminders are good to post up somewhere so they’ll be accessible during the party. Keep to the rules and have a blast. If the party planning and prep seems like a lot of work, try to break it down over a few weeks with shopping lists, to-do lists, a calendar, and a daily planner.  

DECORATIONS: Clear the house of breakables of course, then start sprucing it up! Streamers, any kind and color look especially spiffy, helium filled balloons, always an uplifting sight, vivid posters and templates and banners, definitely have a hang-up over those, multicolored light bulbs and strings of rope lights strung about, a bright idea, charming music playing softly in the background, oh so groovy an inspiration, and a table laden with quick party snacks to welcome guests as they walk in the door, as well as give them somewhere to loll till things get rolling delicious thought! Keep the area bright, sweet, pretty, and attractively decorated.  

FOOD:  2:00 Sandwich Buffet; serve inexpensive beverages like a gallon or so of Kool-Aid drink mix or two liter bottles of store brand cola. Put lots of ice in the cooler to go with it. For the main course, guests make their own sandwich masterpieces. Supply slices of ham, turkey, pepperoni, salami, and corned beef. Supply loaves of swirl rye bread, White Mountain bread, pumpernickel bread, and cinnamon raisin bread. Supply veggies like lettuce, sliced tomato, sliced dill pickles, sliced or shredded Kraft cheese, olives, and sweet relish. Supply popular spreads and toppings like mustard, mayonnaise, pink and blue butter in squeeze bottles from Parkay, fruity jams and jellies, and peanut butter. These are all the ingredients kids should need for their dream sandwiches, so let them get to work and chow down. But don’t forget to remind them that there’s no wastage allowed.

Keep quantities reasonable and prices in mind. Your best bet is to buy the above items wholesale at a discount bakery or supermarket. Fruit cups, pretzels, and goldfish crackers can be served here too.  6:00 Dinner (served late to allow plenty of time for romping and getting hungry after lunch) = you can buy premade frozen pizza dough at the supermarket at a great value. I use Pillsbury. Or, take a little effort and whip up your own dough. Then purchase goods like Ragu pizza sauce, sliced pepperoni, sliced olives and bell peppers, and lots of shredded mozzarella cheese. Give each guest a ball of dough, a clean floured surface, and a share of toppings and sauce. They'll have a blast making and baking their own personal pizzas! This is fun and time-consuming, and also very filling! Keep lots of napkins on hand. Also, Snacks like potato chips, pretzels, and cheese doodles are convenient, customary, and complimentary here. If your drink source is diminished, serve bottled water, cans of soda, and juice boxes to thirsty party animals.  

GAMES/ACTIVITIES: Until all the invited have assembled supply a few magazines to flip through, a deck of cards to play with, and some crossword books or comic books to pass the time.  At intervals in the activity, turn on some danceable music and rock! Host lip syncing contests maybe! Play truth or dare or limbo, or bingo. Anything short and fun goes.

1) First you need to break the ice once everyone's arrived. Give each guest a piece of paper and a pencil. She then has 10 minutes to think of as many words as she can that can be derived from CULINARY BIRTHDAY BASH. The phrase can be written at the top of the paper to aid the hunt. At the end of ten minutes, the guest who has proved the superior word hunter is claimed the winner and awarded a bottle of nail polish in cherry red, blueberry blue, watermelon pink, or kiwi green.  

2) This hot potato variation is a pleasing starter too. Fill a jar with large, thin custom made candy hearts. Make them out of pale, multi-hued paper and on them, write silly dares such as, "act like a tomato" "confess what was the weirdest thing you ever ate" or "tell someone in the circle that the food at her house stinks." appoint a grown up DJ, and of course as usual, when the music stops on you, you draw a paper heart from the candy jar. If the dare fazes you, you're out. And once you've completed three dares anyway, you're kicked out! The winner wins a box of real candy hearts, which she can use later to decorate her menu.  

3) Chill and kick back, and create the sandwiches.  

4) Now it's time to work off those calories! Play restaurant tag/ a slight variation on TV tag, it goes like this. Someone is 'it'. The others are the runners. If someone is in danger of being tagged, you squat down and shout out the name of an eatery. You’re safe in this position for 10 seconds while the tagger either waits or goes running off after someone else. If you get tagged, you're out of the game. The tagger tries to get everyone out. Once the runners have run out of restaurants, then it's a free for all for the tagger!  

5) now it's time for a memory game. Sit in a circle and start off with the youngest person. She says "I went on a picnic and I brought apples." then the girl sitting next to her would say," I went on a picnic and I brought apples and baked beans." so it goes, each player reciting what the players before her added, going in alphabetical order. Apple, baked beans, creamed corn, deviled eggs, etc. whoever outlasts everyone else's memory and imagination is awarded two frosting-licious tubes of the Bonne Belle birthday cake flavored chopstick. 

6) This activity will take up a lot of time and is the central entertainment of the party. Buy several boxes of Betty Crocker readymade chocolate cake mix from the store. Measure out the cake mix into individual Ziploc bags labeled with each guests’ name. One box= 2 bags. Have the guests line up like in an assembly line to receive their bags of dry mix, tucked in a basket with eggs, butter, milk, a copy of the mixing instructions, and whatever other stuff they’ll need. Set them up on a clean countertop with little bowls, wooden spoons, spatulas, butter spray, and small baking pans. Supervise as the little cooks mix and blend and fold their ingredients into a velvety batter, grease their pans and pour it in, and slip it into a piping hot oven.

While the cakes are in the oven, keep the kids occupied with one of these crafts. They can either decorate their own apron with glitter glue and fabric paints, or decorate their own foam placemat with permanent markers and decorative gems. When all the cakes are baked, let them cool for 10 minutes, then put each little creation on its own aluminum plate and supply tubes and cans of icing as well as butter knives, right angled spatulas, hard sugar decorations, sprinkles, and food coloring. Once the cakes are baked and frosted, eat up and clean up! Don’t forget to point out safety factors on using the oven, and to explain to guests how important it is to be safe and sanitary in the kitchen, which means cleaning up after themselves.

7) have the guests sit on the floor. Spread around tons of old and new glam magazines and cooking magazines, ranging from Seventeen to Food & Wine. Also supply stuff like construction paper, stickers, glitter, scissors, glue, markers, crayons, ribbons, sequins, rhinestones, patches, and glitter-glue. Let the girls get to work creating a menu that they would serve in a restaurant of their own. Encourage individuality and style in this activity. It’s time consuming and pretty fun! 

8) take a break and concoct the pizzas!  

9) Hand out goody bags and just sit and chat while finishing off the pizzas and getting ready for the guests to leave. Hasn’t it been fun? 

10) Scrapbook all your memories soon after so nothing is lost. And send photos and sweet tokens to all the guests! 

FAVORS: you can find kiddy chef’s hats at craft stores or in catalogues. Or make your own, though this might be tricky. Then fill the hats with a layer of confetti or anything shredded and colorful, a handful of deflated balloons, a wooden spoon, a miniature whisk, and a pack of edible hard sugar decorations. Include a thank you notice, some delectable candy, and a few pretty recipe cards you can print up cheaply off of a computer. Ta dah! Cute, bright, and enviable loot bags! The confetti, balloons, candy, and hard sugar decorations can be found at a good price in a dollar store or discount bakery somewhere. It might be a bit expensive to purchase the spoons and whisks, but ask a retailer if you can buy these items wholesale or get a discount on some old-fashioned or slightly imperfect miniature ones.   

BE YOURSELF AND HAVE FUN!

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