Mystery Dinner Menu

[pinktroll]

My daughter is doing a murder mystery dinner for her 12th birthday. One of her friends has celiac and so I need to make sure everything is gluten free. My husband also has celiac so I know how to do this but I need some ideas on what food to serve. The mystery is set in victorian times and I would like to do a plated dinner that I will serve to them. Can anyone think of some menu ideas that would be easy to partially prepare ahead of time, yet kind of fancy yet, appealing to 12 year old girls? I will be doimg this for 8 girls. I would love to hear any suggestions. Nikkie

[Lisa]

How about a Chicken and Rice Casserole (that can be made ahead of time), with a nice salad, garlic bread (for the others).

Ice Cream with chocolate sauce, with sprinkles.

Steaks, BPotato, salad

Chilli with gluten free cornbread

Chicken salad on lettuce leaf, marinated pea salad, fruit salad

[GFBetsy]

How about a Chicken and Rice Casserole (that can be made ahead of time), with a nice salad, garlic bread (for the others).

Ice Cream with chocolate sauce, with sprinkles.

Steaks, BPotato, salad

Chilli with gluten free cornbread

Chicken salad on lettuce leaf, marinated pea salad, fruit salad

You can make gluten free garlic bread, too. I invented this spread after looking at the ingredients on a commercial garlic bread spread. Just make your favorite gluten-free bread, then use this spread on it. It's really good!

1/2 c. Butter or Margarine

1/4 c. Parmesan cheese

1 tsp. Garlic powder

1/4 tsp. Onion powder

1/2 tsp. Italian Seasoning

1/4 tsp. salt

Combine all ingredients. Spread on slices of gluten free bread. (The website www.eatingglutenfree.com has a great recipe.) Place bread slices, butter side up, on a cookie sheet. Broil until browned, keeping a close eye on them so they don’t burn. (The edges will turn black before the middle is browned – but you can cut the crusts off later!) Remove from the oven and serve as a side dish.

For other meal ideas, a roasted chicken would have a Victorian feel. And you could do roasted potatoes (peel, quarter or cut in eighths, toss in olive oil and salt, then bake at 350 or 375 for an hour or so) and add other vegetables. Cream puffs are quite easy to make gluten free (Bette Hagman's Original Gluten Free Gourmet cookbook has a great recipe on page 111). Or you could make a homemade vanilla pudding or individual custards and drizzle chocolate across the top. (I personally don't think I'd do the custards . . . but that's cause it sounds like too much work!). If you want recipes for any of these, just PM me.

Have fun! I let my 7 year old have a "dinner Party" for her birthday. We did lasagna and salad and a gluten-free pumpkin roll for desert. All the kids had a great time, though I think they did more giggling than eating! Except for the pumpkin roll . .. THAT they inhaled like they'd never had dessert before in their lives!

[flagbabyds]

I don't have any food ideas, but I just wanted to say that that sounds like a really fun birthday party!

hope she and all the girls have fun!