AN 11 YEAR OLD'S PARTY

My granddaughter had her 11th birthday party this past weekend. All 17 kids who were invited attended. The economy and no one is traveling on Memorial Day this year?
They were loud...LOUD! I guess we were the same at that age too? My gosh, I couldn't believe how much 8, 11 year old boys could eat and drink! Of course the girls did their share of eating also, but it was the boys I saw around the food table. We put out Pita bread and Hummus and Tziki for snacks.. gone in a blink of the eye. Everyone kept telling us that kids don't eat that kind of stuff... heck if they don't. We went through 2 gallons of lemonade, had to find the container of Cool Aid, which made a couple of gallons, a gallon of Cranberry juice..that kind of put a damper on their drinking.. it was just too healthy but they did opt for water, which we had plenty of and for free!. We also had barbecued hot dogs and hamburgers had Chinese Chicken Salad and fresh fruit salad. The kids did a good job on all that too. What was left, we grown ups got to eat. This was a "No birthday cake" party.. had to have pie. 3 pies gone in the blink of an eye..well, maybe there was half a cherry pie left over. My daughter and sister and I just kept looking at each other in shock every time something was devoured. The kids were fun, they had fun playing games and all in all it was a great party. The boys left and the girls stayed over for a sleep over. Luckily they have a huge workshop in the back of the property.. we backed in the truck and SUV and had a pull out couch, set up a digital projector and the girls had a drive-in night. Plugged in the microwave so they could have popcorn, also there was candy, soda and chips.. These girls can do damage to junk food! I think they ate all night long. They were up by 8 and my daughter fixed pancakes, sausage, eggs and juice for breakfast. By 11:00 am they were all being picked up and we got to have some much needed quiet.
Here us a recipe for the Chinese Chicken Salad..

Dressing:

3/4C vegetable oil

1/4C sesame oil

1 C rice wine vinegar (don't substitute with any other kind of vinegar)

3tsp or 1 packet chicken broth powder base

1 C sugar

2tsp black pepper

stir together well.

For the salad you can use what ever you like. Here are some suggestions: Romain lettuce, shredded cabbage, iceberg lettuce

shredded chicken (to make it easy use a rosisserie chicken)

Chinese parlsey (cilantro)

sesame seeds

green onions sliced thinly (white and green part)

pineapple chunks or mandarin oranges

chopped peanuts

something crisp, fried won ton strips or chow mein noodles

mix all together toss with dressing or serve dressing on the side. You can also serve the fried won ton or chow mein noodles on the side as well.. that way it doesn't get soggy.