Dietary requirements

I had a ring from Noeline on Friday, the woman whose birthday we celebrated last week. Could she bring over some Covid tests for Stephen on Sunday? Stephen hadn’t attended her dinner because he was feeling unwell and as Noeline was going past the next day, offered to drop the tests off. However, she had cancelled her plans and was now asking to bring the tests out on Sunday instead. Stephen was already feeling much better but we thought the tests would still be good to have.

‘’Of course,’’ I said, ‘’and why don’t you come for lunch?’’

‘’Can we have pizza,’’ she asked. ‘’Conrad and I both like yours?’’

On Saturday, Genevieve rang and invited us to lunch at her house the next day, but as we already had our lunch planned, I suggested she join us instead. ‘’I have already made a pizza,’’ and I will bring that,’’ she told me.

It was Levi’s birthday on Sunday and I thought I would see if he and his family wanted to join us as well but he already had other plans for the day.

For some reason, even though I knew Genevieve was bringing her pizza and Levi wasn’t joining us, I still made two very large pizzas, more than enough for the six of us. I had prepared the bread dough for the base the night before and the yeast had risen well overnight.

Mid-morning, I received a call from Noeline. I thought she was going to cancel on me. Instead, she told me she had two friends staying and what should she do with them.

‘’Bring them,” I said, now knowing why I had made so much pizza.

Due to a mix up with her clock, our guests didn’t arrive until 1.30pm. We were well and truly ready to eat by that stage and I pulled the bacon-laden pizzas from the oven.

‘’Has that got pork in it?’’ were our guests first words. “We don’t eat pork.’’

My heart skipped a beat. Fortunately, Genevieve came to the rescue. ‘’Mine has beef chorizos on it.’’ Potential disaster averted.

These two didn’t eat pork due to their religious beliefs. I have a friend who is gluten free, another who is a vegetarian, another who is almost vegan and one who can’t eat seeds. When I was following the keto diet, I couldn’t eat too many carbohydrates. It was difficult when I was out anywhere, trying to find something that would suit my dietary requirements. In fact, it was while away that I stopped the keto diet as I couldn’t find the right foods. I always meant to resume it when I got home. Then I got Covid and I haven’t been on it since.

Having people to dinner isn’t as easy as it used to be. Can this person eat this, can that person eat this? Generally, solutions can be found, but it is definitely good to know ahead of time, that someone has a particular requirement and not be caught off guard as I was on Sunday.

And it works both ways. My poor gluten-intolerant friend has often been caught out when someone professes something to be gluten-free but it hasn’t been. She pays for it the next day. Hers is a genuine case of not being able to tolerate gluten in her diet and not someone just following the latest fad.

When I was planning my upcoming workshop, Ashleigh suggested a shared lunch. These are always good, but I said no straight away, as I didn’t want anyone to stress about what to bring or suffer because something purported to be gluten-free, for example, actually wasn’t. It will be much easier for everyone to prepare what they like to eat themselves. For times like these, the less stress the better.

I have been contemplating starting the keto diet again, but do I really want all those restrictions?