lee and i used to be in this fantastic vegetarian dinner club. we met with beth, trinity, paul, sylvie and miriam about once a month. whoever was hosting cooked an entire vegetarian meal--sometimes themed for an upcoming holiday, sometimes a celebration of an event in one of our lives, sometimes just simple food. one meal i'll always remember is when beth had just moved into a new apartment we had veggie burgers and root beer floats. these were great times!
so i've tried to recreate something of this with other friends. my friend, ashley, is allergic to wheat. i thought: maybe we can do a little dinner club and some of my more adventurous friends won't mind cooking restrictions? we'll even make it a pot luck to lessen the burden of cooking gluten free. well, i've pulled it together, but not without difficulty. i have a great pal at work who loves a cooking challenge and we've gotten together for dinners before with our husbands/boyfriends. but other friends have turned the invitation down :( i had hoped people would just like to have a meal with friends once a month! it has made me little sad.
katie and ashley both asked for a list of what i could not eat. here's what i sent them--i've never enumerated it in this way before! it astounded even me a bit:
in the gluten category:
wheat
semolina
barley (this includes malt flavoring or syrup)
rye
spelt
durum
triticale (whatever this is...)
kamut
oats--unless they specifically say GLUTEN FREE
texturized vegetable, soy or any kind of "fake" protein
soy sauce or other asian sauces unless it specifically says GLUTEN/WHEAT FREE
couscous
"normal" pasta and breads
tabbouleh
wheat berries
beer
whiskey, scotch, cognac (all other liquor is okay)
anything with caramel coloring
check packaged broths--many are NOT GLUTEN FREE
in the non-gluten category, i have other problems:
walnuts and pecans--this is where i should also say that nuts make me panic so i stick to cashews, almonds, pinenuts, and peanuts...
quinoa--i am apparently allergic to this magical gluten free food :(
soy and other bean flours--no problems with other soy products or beans, just if something (usually a baked good) is made with soy or other bean flour
we were also invited over to share thanksgiving dinner with friends of ours. they didn't think that i couldn't eat ANYTHING at a traditional thanksgiving table. of course i don't eat turkey, but now--no stuffing, biscuits, cornbread, gravy, not even green bean casserole. just the mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce. they're super easy to work with, but i basically will be cooking an entire thanksgiving dinner and then have to cart it all the way out to the suburbs to reheat. it made me sad to think it's just easier to eat by ourselves at home!
so i'm sorry for the rant. tomorrow night is the first gathering with the new dinner club, that we have affectionately dubbed "food freak dinner club." we are a cozy group of 5, and i just hope it works out. i'll post some pictures and some recipes i hope. i'm just wishing for some quality dinner time with some great friends again and i really hope this works!
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I miss veggie dinner club, too! I don't know very many vegetarians here. That list of yours is pretty daunting! I think I would have struggled trying to figure out an entree that doesn't include a blacklisted ingredient. Do you eat a lot of rice? I hope the new dinner club works out for you.
ReplyDeleteI miss the dinner club, too! And to think we thought of it as the "picky eaters club" even before you had so many restrictions! Good luck with the new club! I hope it works out!
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