21ST CENTURY DINNER PARTY. Dreaming in the days of COVID-19
So, we’ve been “social distancing” for a while: avoiding gatherings of more than 10 people (some places more than 2 people), hard surfaces, people with sniffles…I am really starting to wish I could have some friends come for dinner when this is all over (if it is ever all over).
Nothing too complicated; just a nice main dish (maybe a roast?), some potatoes or pasta, salad, a nice bottle of wine and the most decadent dessert I can come up with (Guinness chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting is on my mind).
I make the guest list for my imaginary meal that includes 6 neighbors, my husband and me. That is where the trouble starts. One person is “clean keto;” no potatoes, pasta, bread, or dessert. Two people are “low carb;” can we have cauliflower instead of starches? One person is on WW “purple;” easy on the cake and bread. Two of us are “Gluten-Free.” One of us is on a “low FODMAP” diet; dump the cabbage, the cauliflower, and the cream cheese frosting. AND two of us are doing intermittent fasting and can’t eat dinner after 6:00 p.m.
I look up recipes for GF, low carb bread and sugar-free cake. I plan the dinner for 5:00 p.m. Starting to get complicated here.
At this point the only thing everyone can eat is the meat entrée (if it isn’t too fatty), Roast beef or lamb is high WW points (12 pts per 4.5 ozs. That’s 75% of the purple daily allotment. Yikes!).
OK, maybe we bag high fat meat. How about lasagna and salad? We could go with zucchini instead of pasta. Hard cheese is low FODMAP. Forget the ricotta cheese. Now we’re cooking. What to serve with it, though? Salad, salad is good, everyone can eat salad. Right?
Well, sort of. Depends on what is in it and the kind of dressing. Avocado oil is only $8.00 a bottle on Amazon, (avocado oil dressing can be had for a mere $7.00) of course that has 5 WW pts per serving. There are two people on the guest list that don’t eat vegetables just on general principals, so dump that menu.
How about we don’t have dinner and just play cards and have some snacks? What kind of snacks, you say? It is easier to list the snacks that people can’t eat; forget nuts, peanuts, onion dip, potato chips, crackers, cheese, cookies, candy, cake, on and on, ad nauseum.
I finally settle on a plan for everyone to eat dinner at home, come for cards, and bring their own snacks, and drinks. I will provide fizzy water, wine, coffee, and tea but you may have to bring your own sweeteners and “whiteners” for the hot drinks (I have Nutpods and stevia).
It will be fun to be together, laugh, and remember that friends and fellowship are the important things. Sigh, I do miss cooking for my friends. Actually, I just miss my friends, full stop (as the British would say).
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