Hosting a Party....Gluten-Free and Gluten-Filled

Many times over the year, we all have opportunity to host a party of one kind or another. Birthdays, baby showers, wedding anniversaries, bridal showers and going away parties all seem to come up from time to time. Have you avoided throwing parties since changing your lifestyle over to a gluten-free one? Does it seem too huge of a challenge to accommodate both gluten-free friends and family and gluten-eating at the same gathering? It's not as hard as you may think. Careful planning will allow you to satisfy both sets of people.

This past month, we had a going away party for our oldest son. He left a couple of weeks ago to go through boot camp for the United States Marines. What was supposed to be a party that I had lots of time to plan for, ended up being a rushed event due to his departure date being moved up. Party planning went into over drive and we managed to throw a very fun event in the end. Initially I had about six weeks to plan this party, but at the last moment only had a week and a half. Talk about a panicked momma!

So, how do you plan a party for a mixed crowd? Simple, start as you would with any party or gathering planning and plan your guest list. Once you have a good idea as to who may be attending, you can plan your menu. How many gluten-free guests will be there? Are you going to do a pot-luck style or are you cooking it all, or perhaps you are having the event catered? There are also the decorations to consider, but for the most part, the focus is the food.

For this party, we decided to have a few close friends and family help us with the food. Some gluten-free people and some gluten-eating people. It worked well. Most of the food that we served was already gluten-free, but the gluten-rich food was kept away from the gluten-free foods. Thankfully, this party was held at our church and given the large number of gluten-free people that attend there, we have signs that have been made up to label gluten-free foods. This can easily done for your party, that way there is no confusion for your gluten-free guests.

On the menu for our son's going away party, we had many different dips, chips, veggie trays, meat trays, olives, pickles, peppers, cookies and brownies. Most everything was simple finger food fair. Easy to prepare, easy to set out and enjoyed by all.

One of the dips was humus. One bowl was placed out with a ring of gluten-free crackers around it, encouraging people to take a bit of each onto their plates. A spoon was placed in each dip, also to encourage people to put a dollop of dip onto their plate to enjoy with whatever chip or cracker they desired. This, hopefully, eliminated the chance of cross contamination.

Another key to having a successful party of gluten-free and gluten-eating guests is to make sure that all of your guests know that there is the issue of food intolerance or allergy. We were blessed with the fact that most everyone that attended knows very well that our family and several of our friends cannot have gluten, it has become second nature to most of them. I do know, however that for some of you, that may not be the case. For us, having all of the food on the same tables, buffet style works. For you, that may not work well.

If you need to make doubly sure that no cross contamination can occur, then set up separate tables for gluten-free and gluten-filled food. Find a way to label the gluten-free table and have them far enough away from each other that there will be no confusion. Even go so far as to letting guests know that there are gluten-free options for those that desire or need that.

With all of the different parties that I have hosted since gluten became an issue for friends and family, the biggest problem solver I have found is in careful planning and clear communication with guests that are going to attend. It is not always good enough to just talk to your gluten-free guests to make them aware of food options that are available to them. Often you need to take it a step further and also inform your gluten-eating guests that there is a need to keep the foods separate.

Sending our son off with all of our friends and family was a very memorable event. Thankfully we had many guests come and many wonderful food options for everyone there. It went surprisingly smooth, even given the short amount of time that we had to put it together. Having great communication with guests is very important to having a successful party, I think. No one wants to make another guest sick, everyone wants to enjoy the party and see everyone else having a good time. So don't be afraid to talk to you friends and family about the importance of keeping gluten away from gluten-free foods.

Another thing that I really enjoyed about this party was that even gluten-eating guests were enjoying the gluten-free foods. Some of them could tell no difference between the two and there was actually more gluten-filled foods left over than there were gluten-free. How cool is that?

So don't be afraid to host a party, invite a mixture of gluten-eating and gluten-free guests. You do not have to provide only gluten-free foods, have gluten-eating guests bring a dish or two. I had pita chips on hand for something different for our gluten-eating guests and they were actually one of the leftovers. We ate more rice crackers and corn chips than pita chips.

Have fun, celebrate, and eat great food with friends and family! Make some memories and enjoy the company of friends and family, every chance you get. Make it a great party...gluten-free or not!