Celebrate March

It’s March, Glingsters! The month that ushers in Spring, which means we may all get to thaw out soon :) There is a plethora of reasons to celebrate this month and I don’t know about you, but to me celebration=food! I did a little digging, and came up with this super long list of reasons to celebrate in March. Some of these days don’t carry any significant foods or feasts that I could find, so I won’t cover them in detail. If I’ve missed something, please let us all know :)

• Greek-American Heritage Month

• Irish-American Heritage Month

• Spiritual Wellness Month

• 1 - St. David's Day (Welsh)

• 2 - Mothering Sunday (England)

• 5 - World Day of Prayer

• 17 - St. Patrick's Day (Ireland, United States)

• 21 - Naw Ruz (Baha'i, Persia)

• 25 - Feast of Annunciation (Christian)

• 28 - Palm Sunday (Protestant, Roman Catholic)

• 29 - Passover Begins at Sundown

• April 4 - Easter

Gluten Free Communion Wafers

Many Christian religions celebrate specific days in March. A good many of these will include partaking in Communion. This can sometimes present some difficulty for people who are gluten free. Did you notice that I included Easter in the list, even though it is in April? There is a method to my madness- Depending on your religion or place of worship, gluten free communion may take a little advance planning (hence the advance warning). You should talk to the person in charge of communion at your place of worship to find out what the specific guidelines are.

Sometimes a small rice cracker or a piece of gluten free bread is an acceptable alternative to communion wafers. When that is not the case, there are several inexpensive sources for gluten free communion wafers online:

• Ener G

• Christian Communion Supplies

• CM Almy

St Patrick’s Day

I’m all about St. Patrick’s Day! Everything is green (my favorite color) and people are downright raucous! As for the food for your St, Patrick’s Day celebrations, that is not my domain. Not to say that it isn’t being covered here on Gling- St. Patrick’s Day food is being covered so well by Valerie, that there would be little else for me to say on the subject :) Watch for her articles on the subject, including her newest, “St. Patrick’s Day Food...and it’s gluten-free!”. Also try her new St. Patrick’s Day recipes! You can find them by going to the recipes page and searching for the tags Irish and St. Patrick’s Day.

What I do have for you in the St, Patrick’s Day department, is beer! There are several varieties of gluten free beer to choose from. I’ve included some hard cider here too, for those who like me, prefer it.

Gluten Free Beer

• New Grist, made by Lakefront Brewery

• Redbridge, made by Anheuser-Busch

• Bard’s Tale

• Ramapo Valley

Hard Cider

• Woodchuck

• Cider Jack

• Original Sin

Naw Ruz

I wasn’t able to find a whole lot of information here. What I did find is that most of the foods that are traditionally used for celebrating are either naturally gluten free or easily substituted. For instance, the noodles used to make Reshteh Polo can be gluten free ones. If you have any additional tips to share, please add them in the comments section.

Kosher Foods for Passover

Many members of the Jewish community will be celebrating Passover this month. I wanted to include a couple ideas for kosher foods to help plan the celebration. (Not that Passover is the only time when kosher foods are needed, just that it seems a good time to mention them.) I recently had the pleasure of reviewing products from Katz Gluten Free. The food from Katz is delicious, and all of it is kosher. Need more? I found this mega-list of kosher gluten free foods on the GlutenSmart Website to help you out :) Also, be on the lookout for Valerie’s Passover recipes later this month.

It occurs to me that there is a huge range of variety in this post. I tried to cover the essentials of celebrating in March. Enjoy your celebrations!