Thanksgiving Poll

[tarnalberry]

Ok, the last options a little melodramatic, but sometimes... :-) I just thought I'd try to get a feel for how people feel their Thanksgiving goes - both logistically, and emotionally. Be it with family, friends, or just you and your significant other...

[Carriefaith]

I just experienced my first gluten free thanksgiving last weekend (in Canada). I helped to cook and made my own gluten-free stuffing and my mom made me gluten-free apple pie! YUM! I watched all the food like a hawk to make sure that the gluten gravy and gluten dressing didn't go near the veggies and meat. Thankfully, All the "gluten" foods were on the opposite side of the table as me. Overall it went well and no gluten reactions!

I did go to another thanksgiving dinner but I brought leftovers from my dinner since it wasn't very gluten and lactose free friendly

[Thomas]

Happy Thanksgiving

[tarnalberry]

I guess I should answer my own poll - verbally.

Thanksgiving at my inlaws last year (first time gluten-free) went fine, and we'll do it the same way this year. Everything was gluten-free, after I asked if they wouldn't mind, and there was definitely no resistance. I usually do most of the menu planning anyway ('cause I like it!), but there's usually a basket of bread that other people have as well. They follow the Ornish diet, so everything is based on whole foods anyway, and none of us in the family use much in the way of packaged products (though I'm the biggest nut on that tree), so it's not hard to make it gluten-free in anyway. (Honestly, and this is just because of the way I've cooked for the past eight years or so, I don't know how it could be hard to make Thanksgiving gluten-free. It's just basic staples... But, that's me, and we're not ones to stick to hardcore "traditional recipes" or "traditional menus". :-) )

If I can find a Gluten-free Casein-free bread mix that my husband likes, just for giggles, I might try to make fresh bread for Thanksgiving dinner and have it be completely gluten-free. That would amuse me. :-)

[burdee]

This year I will celebrate my first gluten-free Thanksgiving and will have been gluten-free 7 months by then. I plan to make our whole household (just me and my hubby) gluten-free very soon. With me, a diagnosed gluten/casein/soy intolerant celiac, and him with lifelong ADHD symptoms, eliminating ALL gluten from our house seems like a great idea. I look forward to making gluten-free stuffing for our turkey, a gluten-free/DF pumpkin pie and possibly gluten-free cranberry breads for my husband who likes at least 3 starches with Thanksgiving dinner (bread, stuffing and sweet potatoes). Understanding that I have gluten/dairy/soy intolerances and learning to avoid those 3 ingredients has actually made me LOVE cooking for the first time in my life. For soooo many years, I feared food, because I didn't know what was making me hurt. So I avoided eating until I was starving and then wanted to eat NOW, if not before. That didn't make meal preparation much fun. Now I LOVE to prepare gourmet meals and bake gluten-free/DF/SF goodies. I plan to make gluten-free/DF/SF fruitcake the day after Thanksgiving.

BURDEE

[terri]

Every year we have Thanksgiving with my husband's cousin and his family. We alternate homes. This year is my house and will be my first gluten-free Thanksgiving. So, I'm going to make it totally gluten-free. I plan on a cornbread and sausage stuffing, mashed and sweet potatoes, corn and green beans, homemade cranberry sauce, turkey and homemade cranberry bread. The gravy will be homemade and thus gluten-free also. My mother in law is adapting her wonderful cheesecake recipe to be gluten-free by substituting gluten-free graham wannabe crackers and rice flour and Madagascar vanilla extract. I think that takes care of everything. I may make a pumpkin soup as well. You know, that is what I would have served without this disease except I would have included those brown and serve rolls... and a regular stuffing. Next year however will be at their house so I will just bring my own. I certainly don't expect them to make a gluten-free meal just cause of me. She doesn't stuff her turkey so I'll be alright there and her veggies are okay too. We'll cope.

[burdee]

Hey Terri: I just last night persuaded my husband he would like my gluten-free cranberry bread better than his traditional Pillsbury Crescent Rolls. Do you have a good recipe for gluten-free/DF/SF cranberry bread???

BURDEE

[plantime]

Rolls, stuffing, and pies are the only things not gluten-free at my Thanksgiving table, so I just don't eat them. Due to allergies, the rolls are the only thing that I have eaten before that I cannot have now. My family is good about it, they are careful not to cross-contaminate me. I don't think they like listening to me complain about not feeling very well when I do get glutened!

[kabowman]

I am testing food now to ensure it tastes as close to "normal" as possible for us and my husbands' family. Tonight, I am testing gluten-free, rice break dressing with homemade chicken broth!

I will probably break down and include white flour rolls unless anyone can suggest a really good receipe for me to use that doesn't require some of those hard-to-find flours.

My father-in-law is also truely alergic to corn and lactose and he refuses to avoid those foods. However, since I cannot eat any of those myself, and if I keep it out of all or most of the food, it will be pretty hard for him to get sick at my table!

-Kate

[terri]

Nope, Burdee, I don't have a recipe at all! I'm going to try to find one or substitute Chick pea flour for one of our BGF days (before gluten free).

[Guest madissoninva1]

I'm going to Seattle to meet my boyfriend's parents for the first time this Thanksgiving and I'm really nervous about having to be gluten-free. He's working with his mom to try to make it work but I have a feeling I need to carry a lot of my own things on the plane with me from Virginia. He asked me if it was ok to stuff the turkey. I thought it was, as long as I get my meat off the turkey that is nowhere near the stuffed portion. HAve a lot of you had problems with stuffed turkies? I really don't want them to go out of their way and change their meal for me.

Madisson

[Connie R-E]

totally gluten-free, and everyone's totally happy about that

We've been gluten-free for so long, we don't even think about it!!

Connie

gluten-free since 1-'98

[lilliexx]

i usually go with friends to their family thanksgiving dinners since my family isn't around here, but i could never impose on people i dont know that well so i'll probably skip it this year.

i may make a small gluten-free dinner for my son and i. i thought about ordering the stuffing and pie crust mixes from gluten free pantry and then having turkey with mashed potatos.

does anyone know if the libby's pumpkin pie mix is gluten-free??

[gf4life]

This will be our second gluten-free Thanksgiving. We do all gluten-free for two reasons, the first being that I cook it all and the second simply to avoid contamination. The holidays are busy enough and I don't need a sick family! We haven't had a Thankgiving with family since we moved to another town (3 hrs away from them) because my husband always works on Thursdays and he doesn't have enough time in his job to be able to take off on a holiday, unless it falls on his day off. So I cook for our little family of 5 and we eat before he goes to work. Last year we did all gluten-free for practice, even though we were all still on gluten at the time. It was really good. This year I have more practice with baked goods and breads/rolls, so it whould be even better! I'm looking forward to it.

God bless,

Mariann