Monday, November 23, 2009

Sans Gluten in Mitchell, SD

Firstly, I wanted to say thank you to everyone that posted such nice comments on my last entry. I seriously have the nicest readers EVER!

So we went to a wedding in Mitchell, SD this weekend. The home of THE WORLD'S ONLY CORN PALACE!!!!  Actually, my own hometown had a "grain" palace at one point, but it burnt down and we gave up on it.  (It was most likely NOT gluten-free, by the way.)   If I remember my 8th grade South Dakota history correctly, that is.  Which is unlikely. I had more important things on my mind then.

Where was I?

Oh yes.

The wedding was at Holy Family Catholic Church, and the very awesome priest there showed us where the fridge was so we could keep our GF goodies on hand while we were there.  (We brought hot dogs, a pre-sliced loaf of homemade GF bread [the electric knife we bought for slicing bread ROCKS], pb, jelly, bananas, yogurt, string cheese, Envirokids cereal bars, etc.)  Yay very awesome priest!

The reception was at the Ramada. Which, while the hotel itself doesn't have free breakfast (boo!), it did have mini golf!  Whoa, 70's flashback!  Also, the catering people at the Ramada's convention center actually made my kids gluten free meals. Whenever this happens, I feel like I walk a really fine line between a) not at all trusting that anyone else knows what they're doing and b) being really appreciative that they even tried. The meal came with what was very clearly rice penne, topped with what we were assured was a gluten-free fettuccine sauce, served with broccoli, mashed potatoes, and grilled chicken. The only stickler was the breadstick, which I'm sure was NOT gluten free, but we pulled those off, and let the kids have-at. And I have to say… so far, so good!  The wait staff was also extremely patient with my insanity. Good job, wait staff!

Finally, we made a quick trip to "Wayne & Mary's Nutrition Center" in all of our wedding regalia, and let the kids pick out "whatever they wanted that we can't get at home." Wayne & Mary's made this extremely easy for my kids by putting all of their gluten-free products on red shelves.  I also really liked that they had a reference section placed right with their gluten-free foods that had handouts and books like "1000 Gluten Free Recipes." Nicely done, Wayne & Mary's.

I have to say, overall, the trip was a major gluten-free success, but that weddings are, on average, 47% less enjoyable when you can't drink.

4 comments:

Diamond said...

You have to share what they picked out!

Anonymous said...

I absolutely loved the corn palace!!

Lindsey J said...

I love how accommodating places are getting. I was in a wedding in Fargo last month and the rehearsal place not only made me an off-menu vegetarian GF curry (that was AMAZING), they also served a flourless chocolate cake to everyone and reassured me in it's GFness (and, based on my lack of symptoms after, it was). The next night, at the wedding reception at a different location, they served me a stir fry. I'm still less convinced that the sauce was GF but my symptoms the next day could have been gluten or over-imbibement (made up that word).

In Catholic/gluten-related news, my priest just ordered me some special low-gluten hosts so that I can receive communion again. I'll report back next week as to how it goes.

Unknown said...

Diamond - they picked, mostly, cereal, some Enjoy Life caramel apple bars, some Kinnikinnick Montana's Chocolate Chip cookies (I had to double check that wasn't Montina, like the flour, but it wasn't). All YUM so far!

Lindsey - I'm very interested in your experience with communion. I haven't crossed that bridge myself yet, so definitely let me know how it goes!

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