My ten year old son’s birthday was the week after the school year ended, so we opted to delay his class party until after the fall holidays. After his teacher and I coordinated the date, she sent me a note about what refreshments to send. I was pleasantly surprised to see it was quite different than last year!

• rolls
• cheese – sliced or cottage
• salad or sliced vegetables
• hard boiled eggs
• birthday cake
• 1 bottle of drink
• papergoods – plates, cups, napkins, silverware

I don’t know what prompted this change, but I’m really glad to see they’ve shifted to a very different menu than what I was asked to provide last year. I’m going to let the teacher know how much I appreciate this.

It’s the night before his party and I’ve been getting ready the last couple of hours. I honestly was ready to go to sleep at 9:30 and thought I’d wake up early to bake, but realistically it would be hard for me to wake up at 4 am to start baking, and I would be likely to wake other people up with the noise. So here I am getting it done now with gritty eyes and a body that is yearning for bed. 🙂

It’s more work to prepare for this kind of party – especially since until a few hours ago I thought we were going to push it off for a week – but I’m really glad to provide something more nourishing for the class to eat.

I don’t want to send regular rolls for everyone else and to send my son with some substitute that would look very different from what everyone else was having at his party. However, I’m not an experienced gluten-free bread baker, and didn’t have time to play around trying out different recipes. It feels like a bit of pressure to make a gluten free roll that all the kids who are used to regular white bread will be willing to eat.

The stars in the sky all lined up when I found a recipe for which I amazingly had almost all the unusual (for me) ingredients. White rice flour, millet flour, potato starch, and tapioca flour. I didn’t have xanthum gum and a google search told me I could substitute potato starch. I just took the rolls out of the oven and tasted one when it was still warm. The flavor was good, though a little crumbly. I baked them in a silicone muffin pan and after waiting another ten minutes, they came out in one piece, so I think – hope? – they’ll will firm up when they cool down.

For the cake, my son told me he wanted cake with frosting and sprinkles on top. It’s late and I’m tired, and just didn’t have the energy to make frosting. I made him two pans of gluten free brownies and baked the colorful sprinkles directly on it. I hope he’ll be happy with it when he sees them in the morning.

I’ve chopped up the salad, boiled the eggs, packed up cheese and paper goods. I have no drink in the house to send – other than bottled water – and the boys have to be ready so early for their bus that it’s unrealistic to go out to the store before they need to leave. I’ll send the water so there will be something. At this point all that’s left is to wait for the baked goods to finish cooling down and wrap them up. Then it’s into bed for me!

Avivah