Cookaholics Bulletin Board

I'm catering a dinner in two weeks which is pretty evenly split between adults and kids, although the age of the kids range from 5-12.

I'm going to do my special cheeseburgers, french fries, tater tots and buttermilk chicken tenders with ranch dressing for the kids. (All made from scratch, as you would imagine.) I need to get a veggie in there they may actually eat. Suggestions?

btw...the adult menu is much more what you would expect from me.

Amy

Broccoli and carrots are pretty kid friendly. Also raw veggies with dip.

Mary

Celery sticks with infused cream cheese?

I agree with Mary. My 5 yr old great grandson's favorite snack is carrots, cucumber, radishes, celery, cauliflour, broccoli and red peppers. He especially LOVES red peppers. He will take a plate of this over cookies.

fitzie

Do kids really like ranch dressing? Mine did not. They preferred something closer to ketchup such as Thousand Island, sweet and sour, or just plain ketchup. Are they supposed to be finger foods and cold? For those, I agree that carrots are a must, bell peppers cut in strips (red, orange and good, green not so much), celery with cream cheese or peanut butter (if allergies are not a problem), jicama cut into thin strips, little trees (i.e. broccoli and cauliflower). If part of a meal, add peas and corn, french cut green beans and snow peas. My granddaughter loves edamame.

My kids loved homemade chicken nuggets and french fries and still do as adults. My granddaughter now asks me for that as well (though her favorite is steak fries.). I've never made homemade tater tots though my kids and I both love Ore Ida. I would love to learn how to make them from scratch. Would you be willing to share your recipe?

Maybe instead of french fries you could do sweet potato fries. They are pretty much the only veggie Cary will eat. Thank goodness he loves fruit.

I think Jessbelle is right, sweet potato fries would be great, especially since you are doing tater tots.

Alina,

I made them for the first time last night and used Kenji's tater top recipe.

We had guests over (one of whom is a self-proclaimed tater tot fanatic), and he deemed them delicious. I unfortunately did not try them. I had zero appetite.

Amy

Amy, when you made the Tots, would the shredded potato mixture work if it were put through a Sausage stuffer attachment and then cut as they were coming out?

Todd,

The potato isn't really shredded, more crumbled. I don't really think the sausage stuffer would work, I think it would over-work the potatoes. If you've ever formed nigiri sushi, that's how I would describe the technique.

Amy