Due to my line of work, two of my google alerts are set for “celiac” and “gluten-free.” I was reading through them yesterday and was cracking up over one of the alerts, “How to be Gluten-Free Without Being Socially Awkward.”
I clicked through the to skim the content when my eyes glazed over “Let’s start with the dinner party.” Holy Crap…brain synapses started firing because, indeed, I had a dinner party on this coming Saturday with someone new to my orbit and the hostess had no clue that I am a celiac! What if the entire dinner was pasta based and I sat there and pushed it around my plate? How socially awkward would that be and how BAD would the hostess feel that she served pasta after she found out my GF status?
I immediately sent the following email:
Hi –
So I was just reading through my google alerts and was laughing out loud at this one article, “How to avoid being gluten-free and socially awkward,” and then I remembered I had a dinner party this Saturday!!
Prepare or order whatever you had planned, but I am a celiac and gluten intolerant. I forgot to fill you in on that weeks ago but I just work my way around gluten at parties but don’t want to alarm the hostess if I choose not to eat a dish.
Can I bring desserts? Or anything else?
So sorry for late notice…just slipped my mind completely. Protein, rice, potatoes, salads….all great…I am not picky just gluten-free!
The hostess replied:
That’s so interesting since just last week Ariana declared that she will no longer eat gluten. I think it must be a trendy thing at school? She has no allergies at all. So I have been overloaded with information on gluten lately!!! At the moment, we have a lot of gluten-free food in the house oddly, since no one has a gluten issue!
We were thinking about a chicken dish with potatoes and salad, but John and the boys are away in Arizona this week enjoying warm weather. John is the cook so I’m leaving it to him when they return on Friday. Happy to accommodate since gluten-free has been top of mind lately!
Please bring a dessert, by all means gluten-free! Thanks.
My first thought was …PHEW…at least she has heard all about gluten-free food and then my second thought was, why the heck is Ariana doing this to her mother? She is one of my daughter’s friends so I am going to have to ask why this perfectly healthy young woman is going GF. There are a couple of celiacs among that friend group and even my daughter says that Glutino pretzels are far better than any gluten containing pretzels, but all any of them really need to do is cut out heavily processed garbage and add more fruits and vegetables!
But, back to the dinner party, I am safe from being socially awkward! Plus, I have two gluten-free desserts planned. The first is white chocolate dipped strawberries because they are a crowd pleaser. The second is this chocolate, peanut, pretzel bark recipe that I found in a magazine. Glutino pretzels will be perfect and the hostess’ daughter will be pleased.
Kendall Egan
confessionsofa17yearceliac 