I Survived My First Party Post Dx

[floridanative]

Today I attended a tea party for my close friends 40th b-day. She had it catered and I had to take all my own food. I knew there would be tea sandwiches and scones I could not have....only the tea (yes it was gluten-free), honey, strawberries (not from caterer so no gluten preservative on them -yea!) devonshire cream and champagne were okay for me to have. Well I took six of two types of tea sandwiches and my own GFP scones which are better than my friends homemade ones. I thought there would be a b-day cake so I took a kinnikinnik brownie.

Okay so I arrive early as I was loaning some things to my friend for the party. The caterer's server was there and she was setting up a chocolate fountain......does she know anything about the chocolate they use...or have a package...of course not. So no chocolate dipped strawberries for me...I used honey and that was fine but I really felt aggravated that I could not partake in the chocolate fountian and I'm not a sweets eater anyway so I was shocked by my reaction. The tea sandwiches were one two massive platters and there was a huge tray of sweets which were of course not okay for me to have. So I sort of ate my food away from the main table as I didn't really feel like being around all that gluten...to me it was like being around a ton of rat poison so I kept my distance. The food I took was delicious and my lemon curd is better than what they serve at the Four Seasons high tea but I found that I ate 5 of my 12 tea sandwiches, 1 of my 3 scones and didn't touch my brownie as there was no b-day cake excpet for a flower one. I find that I don't crave carbs like I used to now that I'm off gluten.

Overall the party was very enjoyable if not wierd since everyone was ranting about the brie/apple and 5 other type sandwiches and how good the chocolate fountain was. So I guess my only complaint was that since my friend knew I couldn't eat most of what she ordered for the party and that it was costing me a small fortune to attend since I wasn't going to go without food, I can't understand why she didn't mention the chocolate fountain to me so I could have called the caterer in advance because chances are the choclate was fine but I couldn't risk it. She contacted me three times adding to the list of things of things she needed to borrow so there were plenty of chances for her to mention that she decided to splurge on the fountain. In the end I know that my friends aren't sitting around trying to worry about my new diet/lifestyle but I hope that if the shoe was on the other foot, I'd be a little more thoughful of others. Also, in the future I would take my own veggies and dips for munching. My friend doesn't have the healthiest diet so she didn't think to order anything like that for those that do.

Obviously I enjoyed myself a little too much since I'm up at 4 am and writing this. I had a little too much champagne which of course keeps me from sleeping soundly. Went out for 4 hours and then up like a light at 3 and I'm as dehydrated as h---. Okay off to try and get some more zzz's before morning arrives. As usual I've been much too wordy so I'm not expecting anyone to read this...it's not very interesting even to me. Just needed to get it down for myself. Good night.

[nettiebeads]

I enjoyed your post - it's good to hear success stories. I'm glad you were able to go out, socialize and not have problems with gluten. It proves that celiac does change certain parts of our lives, but it can't keep us from participating in life with a little forthought and planning.

Annette

[minibabe]

Wow, I am really glad that you had a great time. You mentioned some food that you ate there, did you purchase that at the store or was it all homemade? Dont be offened, but what is lemon curd? It sounds good and I would love to try it. Also what are scones? I might have seen them before but I guess I need to brush up on my tea party lingo

Thanks and I am really happy that you had a great time

Amanda NY

[jerseyangel]

Tiffany--I'm glad that you had a nice time at the party. I do understand how you were a little put out by the slight lack of thoughtfullness. The irony of you helping out by loaning things for the party and then having to forgo the food and the chocolate is a bit ! But spending the day with friends, champagne, and best of all not getting glutened is a great thing . I thought about you yesterday-- I finally got to Whole Foods to get the new issue of Living Without, and on the first (I think) page, there was a little story of a woman who had a nice experience at a tea at a hotel in Florida.

[Rusla]

I am glad you did okay at the party. I am sure you friend never thought that chocolate might contain wheat or gluten. My mother couldn't believe it when I told her so, she has taken up reading ingredients and found that to be true in many cases.

I am lucky, since my change or diet when my friends or family and I get together they try to make sure they have foods I can eat.

[Guest nini]

the last wedding I went to had a chocolate fountain, and EVEN IF the chocolate was safe (which I didn't bother to find out) I wouldn't touch it because I saw other people holding their forks of pound cake right in the stream of chocolate in the fountain and of course being a fountain that chocolate just keeps recycling through... It made me too nervous (I asked the caterer if it was just a constant fresh supply of chocolate or if it was recycling it... got the hydra with two heads look... of course it's just recycling it into the fountain, where else would it go???)

Anyhoo... Tiffany, glad you had a good time and enjoyed your gluten-free goodies. I've noticed that too, since I've been gluten-free, I just can't eat the carbs like I used to, and I get full so much quicker...

[mouse]

I am so glad that you went Tiffany, even tho you had to take your own foods. You at least were able to enjoy the friends and the celebration. Yes, I think that sometimes friends have no idea how careful we have to be. But, sometimes we just have to accept them as just friends and not caretakers of our diet. You should be proud that you did go and did have some fun. It is a first step and it gets easier. Hugs

[floridanative]

Thanks everyone that read and replied to my lengthy post. Nisla I'm so glad you mentioned that the choc. fountain choc. is recirculated.....that didn't even occur to me! Of couse they had pound cake and rice crispy treats so IF the choc. was safe, I could have had some strawberries and maybe a marshmallow with it before anyone else since I was there early and then I could not have any after the gluten stuff was run through...as usual you are on top of things.

Amanda - scones are an English sweet biscuit and my friend usually makes her own. I found some prepared frozen ones from Whole Foods GFBS and they were better than my friends but then I baked some from GFP scone mix and those were out of this world good. Traditional scones are very dense, hence it's easy to make a gluten-free version that takes like the real thing. But the GFP mix made a very light scone and I love them! Scones are served with devonshire cream and/or lemon curd which is a creamy lemon spread and most prepared ones contain wheat. So someone one this board told me about Stonewall Kitchens gluten-free version and it's better than my old brand. And I used kinnikinnik bread for my own salmon/cream chs and cucumber/goat chs. sanwiches. They were scrumtious but I didn't even tell anyone even what they were...I didn't want anyone to ask if they could have one of my sandwiches as that would have put me over the edge. I'm not ready to share my gluten-free food yet.

Patti - thanks for telling me about that article. I'm going to WF today so I'll try and pick up a copy since I don't subscribe to that magazine but I might eventually. For now I have GFL instead.

...and what is a hydra anyway? Am I showing my age?

[Rusla]

I love scones. Hydra is a many headed creature.

[Judyin Philly]

I'm so glad you had a great time. Loved the long post of a nice day out. Gives us all hope.

I wouldn't have thought of the chocolate fountain either...thank you.

I have a friend who has a 'special' girls tea the afternoon of Christmas Eve and last year she knocked her self out to do a gluten-free tea for me as well as the others. She knew about gluten-free as her hubby is doing it to.

I'll be indebted to her. First time i was attending a ladies special day out and could eat and not take anything. She even did tiny indiv shrimp custard tarts. She just put mine in a custard cup but felt SOOOOOOO BAD BECAUSE I'M ALLERGIC TO SHRIMP . I think she was ready to cry when i appoligized over and over and she said, 'Oh don't worry, my hubby will be happy cause he'll get to eat it'

what a class act she is.

thanks for the lemon curd think i saw another one somewhere will try to find it.

judy in philly

[mouse]

Floridanative. I am glad that you tried Stonewall Kitchens. I have not used my lemon curd yet and will have to get the gfp scone mix so that I can do that. I use their Curried Mango grill sauce for basting the Hormel Cure 91 ? spiral cut ham. It tastes so great and my family really loves it.

[kevsmom]

Also what are scones? I might have seen them before but I guess I need to brush up on my tea party lingo

Amanda NY

Whole Foods has Cranberry Orange scones in their freezer section of the bakehouse that are wonderful! They are a lite baked treat that is not too sweet.

Cindy