Gluten-Free Fest Weekend for All

My good friend Christina from Calgary came to stay with me last weekend - a very rare but always welcomed occasion - and it was the perfect time to really test out my gluten-free cooking/baking and hosting skills.  I fortunately passed with flying colours, otherwise she would have probably spent her time keeled over on the bed dying because she actually suffers from celiac disease and absolutely cannot have any gluten.

I hosted a little get together on Saturday night, she was a trooper, jet legged and all (having just arrived from Europe) she gave her best and only passed out by 10:30pm while the rest of us played trivial pursuit ... I know, we're so hardcore!  It was a great time nonetheless and the game matched my unplanned rainbow theme of the night, rainbow food, rainbow napkins, etc.

Here are some of the highlights ...

Veggie Cups in Spicy Tofu Dip with slices of carrots, zucchini and red pepper.  Salsa dip, hummus dips and fresh tabuli salad made by my friend Kathryn.

Fruit Glasses: Green grapes, strawberries, plums and oranges topped off with 100% pure maple syrup.

Rainbow Raspberry Cocktail: Raspberry Vodka with Soda water over rainbow coloured ice cubes.

To make the ice cubes you will need about 6 ice trays, water and food colouring.  I made yellow, orange, red, green, blue and purple ice cubes just by adding a few drops of food colouring to water and then freezing it.

We had so much left over that I was able to make a yummy, healthy breakfast the next morning for my guest, which consisted of: Scrambled tabuli eggs (I added tabuli in the eggs while cooking over a pan); a few toasted slices of the flaxseed bread, a couple scoops of hummus dip and a veggie cup.