Friday night standing dinner party
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Anonymous
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I read this blog post today: http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/08/simpler-entertaining-friday-night-dinners-end-loneliness-how-to-build-community-after-having-kids.html
an am inspired by the idea. In a nutshell: This family in Philly has an open invitation to friends and acquaintances to come over for Friday night pasta and meatballs. I'd love to try something like this, but I'm trying to think of an easy dish that would be more friendly to vegetarians and gluten free folks. Am I asking too much? Any suggestions? (Maybe forget about the gluten free folks and just go with a vegetarian ziti? |
Anonymous
| Maybe 2 crock pots of chili? (one vegetarian, one with meat). Serve with cornbread. |
Anonymous
| Love this idea! Chili or taco bar could work. Maybe pulled pork or au jus sandwiches? |
Anonymous
| Make zucchini noodles for those who are gluten free. Make eggplant meatballs for the vegetarians http://www.skinnytaste.com/2014/05/vegan-eggplant-meatballs.html (they freeze amazingly). Let folks mix and match. |
Anonymous
| Taco bar. Just put out lots of fixings--meats, veggie bean dish, rice, guacamole, salsa, shredded cheese. Folks can pick and chose for dietary restrictions. Works for vegetarians, gluten-free (use corn tortillas), dairy-free (can skip cheese/s. cream). And you can ask folks to bring e.g. their favorite salsa or other item. |
Anonymous
| Just cook the meatballs separate from the sauce (or have two pots, one with meatballs and one without). For vegans, just make sure there is no cheese in any of the sauce, etc. |
Anonymous
| You can also get gluten free pasta. They probably picked that as it is cheap. |
Anonymous
| Love this idea-maybe will start one after we get past our current newborn stage... |
Anonymous
| Could do rice and grilled meat/veggies. |
Anonymous
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Pasta and meatballs works because you can freeze meatballs ahead of time and easily defrost in a sauce. The other suggestions are kind of time consuming for the end of the week.
However, you can make vegetarian meatballs and serve salad. I would keep it simple, though. If you have to cater to too many different tastes, it's going to get stressful. |
Anonymous
| Baked potato bar |
Anonymous
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We're Italian and do Sunday Dinner, and all our friends know and are welcome to come. They need to let us know by Friday night. I make garlic bread, salad (dressings on the side), lasagna, baked parm, eggplant parm, baked ziti, and meatballs with gravy. My boyfriend makes pizzelle and cheesecake. In the winters we do Italian wedding soup too.
We've done this for over ten years. Once a kid asked for a pb& j sandwich, and once a kid asked for scrambled eggs, but other than those, everyone can find something to eat. |
Anonymous
Yes! This is such a great idea, OP. And I agree. It needs to be simple. It's Friday for pete's sake. There are so many threads about how Friday is takeout night for everyone, and this is sure more gracious than that. That being said, it could probably be done without catering to people too much. Gluten-"free"? Splurge. It's Friday. (Celiac, OK, I'll make you something special if you are a good friend). |
Anonymous
Unless they're gluten free |
Anonymous
Oh, don't be such a PITA. I have celiac and I can eat eggplant parm and salad with Ital. dressing (most brands). |