Posts Tagged ‘social situations’

If It Is The Weekend It Must Mean Entertaining

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

GFM is entertaining again this weekend, though not in Halloween mode.  I was never a huge costume person, which is surprising actually.  I am however, VERY much looking forward to seeing my identical twin nieces (1 year old next month) dressed up as Thing 1 and Thing 2 with their older brother (4) as the Cat in the Hat. 

So what’s new with GFM?  Well, this weekend sees my partner and I entertaining yet again…quelle surprise!  We have actually enjoyed relatively quiet weekends as of late which were most welcome.  Our vacation to Switzerland is now less than three weeks away and I am looking forward to a bit of well-deserved R&R.  My gluten-free behind will be firmly ensconced at the Spa at Le Montreux Palace (one of my all time favorite great hotels) for the duration.  Well that’s not entirely true, I will be leaving for a fabulous once in a lifetime concert and party for one of the greatest sopranos of the 20th century. 

The pace of Montreux is what you make it and as long as you go before or after the famed Jazz Festival, you are treated to a wonderfully sleepy little town on the banks of Lac Leman that is the perfect hub for exploring the region.  I remember skiing just on the other side of the Alps that flank the city as a teenager and hope to revisit some of my old haunts with my partner.  Though every time we are in Montreux we say we are going to make a plethora of side-trips but just get so caught up in Montreux and its environs that we never leave until it is time to board the train back to Geneva.

For this weekend’s festivities, I am trying to plan my menu for the weekend festivities which is proving challenging as I never serve the same thing to recurring guests.  So I am running through, in my mind, everything that our guests have had during previous visits.  The hors d’œuvre portion of the evening always proves easy as I can rotate through my preferred cheese and nibbles portfolio.  The appetizer, main course, sides, and desserts remain elusive at this point.  I know in the end it will all come together so I am just going with the flow at the moment.  So stay tuned for the recipes from whatever I end up serving.

On Monday I am sampling a new gluten-free restaurant downtown for dinner with a dear colleague from the office (who selected it because of my Celiac) so look for a review soon thereafter.  I have already had a peek of their menu and am SO excited to sample what look to be fantastic gluten-free options.  The place has good buzz going on so it should be a great evening.

Sometimes It Is The Little Things

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

I was in a meeting with a colleague (and good friend of mine) the other day and in our discussion we realized that we had not been out socially in a long while.  I am fortunate enough to genuinely like the people I work with so social calls are not unheard of outside of the office.  When this particular colleague and I realized how long it had been, we agreed to get on each other’s calendars for a dinner in the near (well, November – hey, we are both busy people J) future.

Well, I cannot tell you how refreshing it was to see on the calendar invite the locale selected completely by my colleague was a new (to me) gluten-friendly Italian restaurant here in Manhattan.  I just found it sweet that without even so much as a question, she decided upon a restaurant that she knew would be safe for me and make for an enjoyable, worry-free, evening.  Not to mention a new and exciting restaurant to review.  It is nice when people understand Celiac and something as simple as choosing a restaurant becomes a much larger gesture. 

So next month I will be dining on gluten free pizza and pasta (and even gluten free desserts) on the Lower East Side of the city and look forward to sharing my experience will all of you.

That’s What Friends Are For

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

The other evening my other half and I went out to dinner with some dear friends of ours.  No, nothing surprising about that but what was different was the fact that they went out of their way to provide a safe, gluten free evening for me.  Now, that they did this was not surprising – they are great people and would do anything to make someone feel welcome.  I just found it interesting that two people who are not Celiac took the time to better understand what I could and could not eat.  They even did a dry run to the restaurant we would be eating at (they are regulars there) and questioned the chef to ensure that I would be well fed without having to worry about my gluten and shellfish allergies.  Oh, and you might have seen my Tweets about the cocktails and nibbles we had before heading out – my one friend heard me mention a bakery near them that I heard had gluten free Stromboli.  Well, when I arrived for cocktails they had TWO of them heating in the oven and a selection of gluten free crackers that were segregated from the gluten options by a small napkin wall.  Yes, I probably at almost an entire meat-filled roll myself but what was interesting is that even my friends enjoyed it and said it was very close to the real thing.  Well, to me it WAS the real thing and out of this world!

It is times like these that make being a Celiac easy but it also goes to show you that people do care and a little bit of education about the disease can have a great impact in helping non-Celiacs to better understand us.  So to my dear friends, you have no idea how special you made me feel.  We all had a wonderful evening, the company was second to none, and I was overly full at the end of the evening, so success on all fronts.

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