In-Home Entertaining
As we slowly start to come alive as a country again, entertaining will start becoming a new normal and entertaining at home is likely to be much more comfortable. Especially if you are like me - I have spent the last year basically having total control over my diet, as I rarely leave the house and even if we order in or take away, it was from a very select few places that I know do gluten free well and honestly was a treat rather than the weekly norm at our home. Smaller groups are likely to be a safer bet for awhile until things are back to normal and I love doing small 4-6 group meals or even just heavy appetizers and deserts.
When entertaining, just ask if there are any food allergies, strong dislikes or even personal preferences. Once that is established the easiest way I have found to handle this is to not make it a big deal, simply put together a menu and float it out that this is what you had in mind but wanted to make sure you didn’t miss anything so you want to have an open dialog.
This gives you the chance to make it more comfortable for the person, who while they do not completely avoid red meat they have a strong preference for seafood, so it would be simple to add additional scallops to the meal and cut back one steak.
If you honestly do not know what they can eat, like many people are with the whole Celiac thing, you have 2 options, invite them to bring a dish to pass or just ask that they give you a couple of examples of things that would be easy to have on hand for them.
There are some people and some side items you can get away with making gluten free but if you are having something like cheese and crackers as an appetizer you can get creative and serve with unusual things like crunch master chips in place of crackers. Or if it’s not worth the drama, to only serve the perceived cardboard tasting gluten free table crackers, take control of the situation up front to avoid unintentional cross contamination. What this often looks like for me is having 2 separate food “stations”. One area containing gluten free bread/crackers usually in the kitchen and another with the gluten containing ones usually in the living room or on a side bar table (a sturdy TV tray or a card table with a tablecloth works wonderfully for this too).
Want to find a better balance with your Celiac lifestyle? Contact me at hello@justjamiesmith.com to learn how we can work together!