Eating Somewhere Besides Home part 2

Friday night went fine (right up to the point when I did something stupid). The dinner was buffet style with the food on a table in the corner of the room. We ate while sitting on couches and chatting. The meal consisted of ham, sandwich fixings, potato salad, chips and dip, a veggie tray and sundaes for desert. At first I felt awkward, but soon I relaxed again. What happened was that after the prayer on the food was said no one moved. Even after I got up to get my food no one moved. I tried to tease them into coming and getting some food which didn’t work either. Finally when I had to ask where the plates were because I could not see them, people came. I forgot to bring my own sandwich fixings so I just had ham, cheese, veggies and chips. After people were going back for seconds I decided that I would like some more of the veggies (which was a stupid thing to do because the veggie tray was right next to the rolls and people had been picking them up with their fingers). After dinner we had sundaes. Several of the toppings looked homemade, so I skipped them. (If they were store bought I could read the labels and make sure they were ok.) I had vanilla ice cream and almonds. It was not until we were on the way out of town that I started to not feel well. I had made sure to pack some antacids and some pepto-bismal tablets, so I took some of the later. Between the pepto-bismal and talking to my husband I was able to distract myself enough that we made it to my sister's without incident.

Saturday, while we were out running errands we stopped by a great locally owned restaurant for lunch. The owner's wife is Celiac so he has created a gluten-free menu. He also has a dedicated area in his kitchen, with its own fryer, for making gluten-free foods. After our errands we hurried back to my sister's to start on the Fettuccine Alfredo. By the time we got there her husband had started cooking the chicken and making the salad. I got busy making the Alfred sauce, sauteing tomatoes and cooking gluten-free noodles. My sister soon came and joined the party sauteing the mushrooms. After the mushrooms were finished my husband came to cook the wheat noodles. By this time my parents had shown up and there was a full kitchen. My sister's stove is located in the bar that separates her kitchen and dining room. I mention that because my husband was on the dining room side cooking the wheat noodles. I was on the kitchen side talking to my Mom when out of the corner of my eye I see my husband reach for my gluten-free pasta spoon and start stirring his noodles. I stop mid-sentence, turn towards him and start repeating "No, no, no." When he keeps ignoring me I grab the spoon out of his hand and hand him the wheat pasta spoon. (I tried to do it as nice as I could.) His reply was, "I thought that you were still talking to your Mom." (The reason why I acted so quickly was that when you are cooking pasta the starch that is cooked out of the noodles is really hard to get cleaned off of the utensils and strainer you use and can lead to cross-contamination of other foods you use those utensils to cook later on.) Then I rinsed off the gluten-free pasta spoon really well and finish cooking my noodles. Apparently I caught it in time because I don't recall having any unusual symptoms that evening. The meal was delicious. My parents brought gluten-free brownies and ice cream for dessert.

Sunday afternoon we went and visited with my parents. They feed us a big lunch: Teriyaki Chicken, rice and veggies with left over brownies, vanilla ice cream, and sundae toppings for desert. We stopped by my In-laws at dinner-time and my husband had some dinner. They were having Chicken Noodle Soup with homemade bread. I pulled up a chair and visited with everyone while they ate. I think I had some tootsie rolls when we got back to my sisters that night.

Monday morning I got up and made cornbread for breakfast. My favorite kind I made by mistake the first time. I added potato starch to the recipe instead of potato flour (they are NOT the same thing) and the cornbread came out nice and fluffy. I had never had fluffy cornbread before and I found out I like it better than the normal stuff. For lunch we stopped by the Olive Garden and eat another big lunch. We knew that we would be driving home when we usually eat dinner.

So over all it was a good experience, but I learned that no matter how tempting those cucumbers are that I should be more careful when I go back for seconds.