Kimchee Themed Party: Son's Second Birthday

For my 2 year old...

My son is allergic to many many things. To list a few - dairy, soy, eggs, wheat, oat, barley, buckwheat, avocados, pineapple...the list is very long and that's just some on the hit parade. Incredibly however, he can eat kimchee ... shrimp or fish is not on his list of allergies so he is able to eat the stuf. And eat it he does. He LOVES kimchee. His first time eating it, Husband gave him an unwashed piece, he chewed it and turned to Dad and said, "More."

Even now, if I am cooking something with kimchee, like kimchee fried rice, chigae or just have some kimchee in a bowl, he can walk into the room, smell it and KNOW it's kimchee. (Mind you, he was doing this from about 19 months.) He'll walk in, and say "KIMCHEE!" He just likes kimchee that much.

While planning his birthday, I got the idea to do a kimchee themed party - all the different foods I could make with kimchee and just have fun. As I do love a good food party, we invited our house group from church and close friends and their kids. Which ended up being a lot more people than we had expected. Ummm....50. 23 kids and 27 adults.

But then I was challenged and excited...and decided to go all out and really cook for our party guests and have fun doing it. Mom and Dad came up to enjoy the party and try my kimchee dishes, and Mom helped a lot with the prep work. She chopped through three huge bottles of kimchee brought up from LA, and much of the time watched me work, muttering under her breath, "You're working too hard. You're working too hard. You're going to get sick. You're working too hard."

But I LOVE it. I love hosting and having people come and enjoy food, laugh a lot and have fun. It's such a privilege to feed others...I still get a high off of it. We had people come enjoy themselves and it was a total blast. The icing on the cake was singing happy birthday to Son. He sat alone in a chair, surrounded by 50 people, who sang to him. He clapped along, totally loving and enjoying the moment, and as I watched that I thought, this is totally worth it...seeing that joy in his eyes.

Menu

Appetizers
Kimchee Quesadillas
Hot Artichoke Dip

Sides
Potato Salad
Ginger Slaw
Sesame Noodles with Cilantro

Mains
Kimchee Hot Dogs
Kimchee Burgers

Dessert
Race Car Fruit Mosaic (made by friend JEL)
Pecan Caramel Bar s (not a SINGLE one left)
Korean Sweet Potato Pie
Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Cream cheese Frosting

Some photos...

Kmchee burgers., ready to be put in some buns