Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Cinco de Mayo-Saturday, May 5, 2012

Unreal! I purchased my Hass avocados yesterday because I know they need a few days in a bowl with a couple of apples to ripen just in time to make guacamole for a Cinco de Mayo celebration this weekend. However, I just received the basketball tournament schedule for the weekend. My 11 year old has a basketball game starting at 8:10 PM this Saturday. Are they kidding? Don’t these tournament directors know that Cinco de Mayo is the new St. Patrick’s Day? Everyone celebrates Cinco de Mayo these days, and why not?

I love the melting-pot nature of adopted holidays and this one is so perfect for a gluten-free diet that it just screams to be celebrated if you are gluten intolerant. A good salsa, a good guacamole and a delicious bowl of corn tortilla chips with a fresh lime margarita and a collection of good friends is all it takes for a celebration! I saw a tweet from Slate with a delicious sounding guacamole recipe and then another guacamole tweet from Whole Foods which got me all excited about the weekend, but then the coach’s email came in with the game schedule.

When I was at Expo West, the one category I saw that had expanded greatly was the “chip” category. Blue corn tortilla chips used to be the new kid on the block in terms of an unusual chip. Many vendors now are infusing chips with spinach or sweet potato or tomato so they are getting great color and good flavor, I wonder if they count as a vegetable? And how bummed am I that can't I sit around on Saturday night stuffing my face with corn tortilla chips?

Some of these new chips literally are vegetables. There are many varieties of lentil chips and kale chips, some even have a south of the border flair. Brad’s Raw Foods has a Natural Nacho Raw Leafy Kale and Rhythm Superfoods has a Zesty Nacho flavor! I’m not sure they would hold up for dipping, but they would be a nice change of pace as a stand-alone Cinco de Mayo snack bowl by the pitcher of margaritas!

I really don’t want to go to this basketball game, I really want to be sipping a margarita and digging a corn tortilla chip into a bowl of guacamole! This is a holiday where no one has to make any special effort for gluten-free party foods for an invited celiac guest. For everyone else, I hope you have festive weekend plans and think of me in a hot gym cheering on eleven year olds playing basketball while you sip your margarita!

Kendall Egan

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