Thanksgiving Disasters

[Tephie]

Hi All,

I hope everyone had a safe and Happy Thanksgiving. This is the first Thanksgiving gluten free. My husband and I ended up alone this year, this was kind of nice though since we could experiment This was the menu....Turkey, home made stuffing, apple pie, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes and gravy. The stuffing needs a little bit of work. But the impromptu rolls were the worst lol The whole cookie sheet ended up in the garbage I realized after the fact that I forgot the zanthum gum, so I am not sure if that is what caused the problem. But they looked like seriously mis-shapen cookies...Oh well, the rest of the food was pretty dang good. Haven't tried the pie yet.

Come on everyone, make me laugh

Stephanie

[JennyC]

Everything turned out great but the stuffing. I was going to bring it to another home for a secondary stuffing dish, but I did not even bother. I did put a ton of effort into it. Oh well.

[Tephie]

How did you make it Jenny?

Everything turned out great but the stuffing. I was going to bring it to another home for a secondary stuffing dish, but I did not even bother. I did put a ton of effort into it. Oh well.

[EBsMom]

Oh, I'm so glad you started this thread! I've been stewing about my two "misses" all evening. First, the stuffing that I made in the crockpot was a gummy mess! I obviously put too much liquid in it, and I also think I cooked it too long. I love the idea of doing stuffing in the crockpot, so I'm going to work on this. My second big miss - and it really was a disaster - was the chocolate pie that I made for my dd. The crust turned out great - GFP mix - but the filling never firmed up. I made it in a double-boiler, with gluten-free flour, cocoa, egg yolks, almond milk, sugar, vanilla. I think I should have cooked it longer. It was thickening up nicely, and I assumed it would continue to do so when it was refrigerated. It did NOT! I spooned some of the runny-pudding-consistency filling out of the crust and into a bowl, and threw some fresh raspberries on top. My dd ate it, but indicated that I didn't need to attempt this dish again (too rich, she said.) Oh, well....at least the pumpkin pie was a big success. I fiddled with the recipe and added maple syrup....it was yum! (Trying to end on a positive note here, lol!)

Rhonda

[Tephie]

Sorry to laugh, but that is a great story I would never have thought to put maple syrup in it.

Thanks for sharing

Oh, I'm so glad you started this thread! I've been stewing about my two "misses" all evening. First, the stuffing that I made in the crockpot was a gummy mess! I obviously put too much liquid in it, and I also think I cooked it too long. I love the idea of doing stuffing in the crockpot, so I'm going to work on this. My second big miss - and it really was a disaster - was the chocolate pie that I made for my dd. The crust turned out great - GFP mix - but the filling never firmed up. I made it in a double-boiler, with gluten-free flour, cocoa, egg yolks, almond milk, sugar, vanilla. I think I should have cooked it longer. It was thickening up nicely, and I assumed it would continue to do so when it was refrigerated. It did NOT! I spooned some of the runny-pudding-consistency filling out of the crust and into a bowl, and threw some fresh raspberries on top. My dd ate it, but indicated that I didn't need to attempt this dish again (too rich, she said.) Oh, well....at least the pumpkin pie was a big success. I fiddled with the recipe and added maple syrup....it was yum! (Trying to end on a positive note here, lol!)

Rhonda

[MyMississippi]

I tried to make my mom's wonderful cornbread dressing ---using no wheat flour, of course-- I substituted rice flour---- it just wasn't the same ! ! It was crumbly and off color----- and a lot of work -- just to throw in the garbage can ! ! ! !

when you have to give up wheat flour-- you miss out on a lot of good food ! ! !

[taweavmo3]

Another stuffing mishap here!!!!! I completely forgot to cover it while baking, and it was dry as a bone. Everyone was laughing as they were trying to spoon my stuffing crumbs onto their plate. My cornbread had really crumbled up after I dried it out, so I didn't have high hopes for it in the beginning anyhow. The flavoring was right though, had it held up a bit better and if I had covered it, it would have been good.

Everything else turned out good though....lots of compliments on my food, which was nice (except my stuffing crumbs!) But I told dh that we are getting food this Christmas from the gluten free restaurant nearby. After cooking nearly every day of the year as it is, I want one holiday where I can just sit back and enjoy the food that someone else cooked. It was a good Thanksgiving...no gluten worries, but I am pooped! (no pun intended, lol)

[Guhlia]

For those of you with stuffing mishaps, try this recipe! It turned out amazing for me with some tweaking. Be sure you don't add all the liquid called for, just enough to make the bread really moist. I highly recommend using Kinnikinnick's cheese tapioca bread for this!

Open Original Shared Link

I used celery seed instead of celery. I added much more onion. I ommitted mushrooms and marjoram. I lightly toasted the bread instead of using day old bread.

[kschauer]

My chocolate pie did the same thing! It was chocolate soup! My dh put in a bowl with ice cream, it made a good chocolate syrup I guess. The crust turned out great though, I used almond meal, gluten-free crushed ginger snaps, brown sugar and butter. I was just diagnosed with celiac's in October, so I'm really new to all of this. Thanks to everyone for the great recipes. We are eating again with friends on Saturday so I will have more opportunities to experiment. I don't know what to do about my stuffing, it was like cardboard, you had to cut it out of the pan with a knife! Ha! My dh is such a good sport.

[hathor]

I made a pumpkin pasta recipe (we're vegetarians) using Tinkyada. One has to cook it first, then bake with the assorted ingredients. I managed not to have the pasta be mushy when initially cooked (something I find it harder to do with Tinkyada than some other pastas -- I like pasta more al dente than lots of you guys I guess ), but it was a pretty nasty texture coming out of the oven. Obviously more liquid got absorbed during the time in the oven.

I think next time I will try only cooking the pasta for half of the allotted time and see if that helps.

[blueeyedmanda]

I wouldn't say this was a disaster but...

I had gotten grainless baker cubed bread already made up for stuffing. I was so excited I was going to have gluten-free stuffing, which would be a first in the 4 yrs since I got my diagnosis. So...I get to my mom's house and I forgot the gluten-free bread for the stuffing....No stuffing for me this year.

It was not a total loss, since there was so much food....I was full anyway.

[Guhlia]

I tried to make my mom's wonderful cornbread dressing ---using no wheat flour, of course-- I substituted rice flour---- it just wasn't the same ! ! It was crumbly and off color----- and a lot of work -- just to throw in the garbage can ! ! ! !

when you have to give up wheat flour-- you miss out on a lot of good food ! ! !

Try using the following flour mix in place of all-purpose flour. I think you'll find that it produces results almost identical to wheat flour.

3 parts white rice flour

2 parts potato starch flour

1 part tapioca starch

Then, add 1 teaspoon xantham gum per cup of flour used in a recipe.

I have had VERY few failures with this flour mix. It acts similar to wheat flour and it tastes very close to wheat flour. I always use Kinnikinnick brand flours because I think they taste better and have a better texture than others. You can order them online at www.kinnikinnick.com .

[alamaz]

Last year I cooked the bag of giblets in the turkey and thought that would be my one t-day boo boo.

This year i was in a rush to make the pumpkin pie. usually i make a crustless pie but decided to go with the back of the can recipe and use a crust. i whip it together wednesday night and about 11:30 get the munchies and decide to try a slice. thank god i did! Talk about disgusting! Apparently, after relooking at the can, I realized I left out the sugar. Pumpkin pie without sugar is not very good

[kevsmom]

Oh, I'm so glad you started this thread! I've been stewing about my two "misses" all evening. First, the stuffing that I made in the crockpot was a gummy mess! I obviously put too much liquid in it, and I also think I cooked it too long. I love the idea of doing stuffing in the crockpot, so I'm going to work on this. My second big miss - and it really was a disaster - was the chocolate pie that I made for my dd. The crust turned out great - GFP mix - but the filling never firmed up. I made it in a double-boiler, with gluten-free flour, cocoa, egg yolks, almond milk, sugar, vanilla. I think I should have cooked it longer. It was thickening up nicely, and I assumed it would continue to do so when it was refrigerated. It did NOT! I spooned some of the runny-pudding-consistency filling out of the crust and into a bowl, and threw some fresh raspberries on top. My dd ate it, but indicated that I didn't need to attempt this dish again (too rich, she said.) Oh, well....at least the pumpkin pie was a big success. I fiddled with the recipe and added maple syrup....it was yum! (Trying to end on a positive note here, lol!)

Rhonda

My son started making what he called "Pudding Plop Pie" when he was about 3 years old. We would use the instant chocolate pudding and put it in a plastic container with a tight fitting lid[/u]. He would shake it up real hard for a couple of minutes and "Plop" it into the pie crust. (This was before I was diagnosed, and we used the ready made graham cracker pie crust - gluten-free graham cracker crust works just as well). After refrigerating for about an hour, he would take a container of defrosted Cool Whip and "Plop" it on top of the pie. TADA! Pudding Plop Pie. This was a great "cooking" project to work on with a little one (after you make the pie crust). They will be so proud to say, "I made it myself".

It's also a great gluten-free treat to bring to a holiday meal. Everyone will love it.

[EBsMom]

Apparently, after relooking at the can, I realized I left out the sugar. Pumpkin pie without sugar is not very good

LOL! Sorry for laughing, but I've done the SAME THING with a pumpkin cheesecake! It was years ago, on a Thanksgiving eve. I got the cheesecake in the oven and was cleaning up, when I noticed the bag of sugar sitting on the counter and realized I'd never opened it. I had to run out to the store to buy more cream cheese and start all over. I was up until 2 a.m. or so. It was a very sleepy Thanksgiving for me the next day. Glad you realized before you served it!!!

Rhonda

[bluejeangirl]

Everything turned out good this year. The only thing I'd change is to put more salt in the stuffing. I made both tranditional and G.F. stuffings. The G.F. was made with rice bread from the Sillyak bakery. The texture was good but lacked flavor. If you look on the package of crutons from regular brownberry though it contains alot of sodium. So I think I was looking for the same saltiness. So it was a minor error, who needs all the salt anyway.

Gail

[Joni63]

Mine needed a little more salt too. I'm used to Stove Top mixed in with regular bread so my stuffing wasn't as spicey as I'm used to. Also, I think next year I will bake it in a separate pan or use the crock pot method because it tends to get mushier inside the turkey.

Overall, I was pretty happy.

[holiday16]

Not too disastrous, but when I took a bite of the stuffing I made it was slightly sweet! Had to think a bit, but I guess what happened was I made the bread from scratch and since I can't have lactose now I used almond milk and it changed the flavor a bit. That wasn't enough to affect it all so I thought some more and realized when I made the cream of chicken soup I put in it, I used some lactose free milk which is sweet! Won't be doing that again, but it did make for an interesting flavor.

On the plus side the texture was great and it tasted better with gravy on it. Everyone at our dinner (8 people) were gluten free except my son and dh so at these type of meals everyone still appreciates the food even if it's not perfect )

[bakingbarb]

Oh, I'm so glad you started this thread! I've been stewing about my two "misses" all evening. First, the stuffing that I made in the crockpot was a gummy mess! I obviously put too much liquid in it, and I also think I cooked it too long. I love the idea of doing stuffing in the crockpot, so I'm going to work on this. My second big miss - and it really was a disaster - was the chocolate pie that I made for my dd. The crust turned out great - GFP mix - but the filling never firmed up. I made it in a double-boiler, with gluten-free flour, cocoa, egg yolks, almond milk, sugar, vanilla. I think I should have cooked it longer. It was thickening up nicely, and I assumed it would continue to do so when it was refrigerated. It did NOT! I spooned some of the runny-pudding-consistency filling out of the crust and into a bowl, and threw some fresh raspberries on top. My dd ate it, but indicated that I didn't need to attempt this dish again (too rich, she said.) Oh, well....at least the pumpkin pie was a big success. I fiddled with the recipe and added maple syrup....it was yum! (Trying to end on a positive note here, lol!)

Rhonda

Rhonda is there another thickner you could use in place of the gluten-free flour? Personally I think it is a bad choice in this type of filling. Cornstarch, arrowroot, tapioca starch would all be better choices.

[bakingbarb]

Another stuffing mishap here!!!!! I completely forgot to cover it while baking, and it was dry as a bone. Everyone was laughing as they were trying to spoon my stuffing crumbs onto their plate. My cornbread had really crumbled up after I dried it out, so I didn't have high hopes for it in the beginning anyhow. The flavoring was right though, had it held up a bit better and if I had covered it, it would have been good.

Everything else turned out good though....lots of compliments on my food, which was nice (except my stuffing crumbs!) But I told dh that we are getting food this Christmas from the gluten free restaurant nearby. After cooking nearly every day of the year as it is, I want one holiday where I can just sit back and enjoy the food that someone else cooked. It was a good Thanksgiving...no gluten worries, but I am pooped! (no pun intended, lol)

I made cornbread stuffing also but didn't let the cornbread dry out enough so it was too soft. There is a gumminess/moistness that comes from the bread not being dry enough to start.

I liked everything else though. I didn't even try to make rolls this year, I wanted to relax and not try something else new this time.

[bakingbarb]

Try using the following flour mix in place of all-purpose flour. I think you'll find that it produces results almost identical to wheat flour.

3 parts white rice flour

2 parts potato starch flour

1 part tapioca starch

Then, add 1 teaspoon xantham gum per cup of flour used in a recipe.

I have had VERY few failures with this flour mix. It acts similar to wheat flour and it tastes very close to wheat flour. I always use Kinnikinnick brand flours because I think they taste better and have a better texture than others. You can order them online at www.kinnikinnick.com .

Don't forget the xanthan gum!!!! The first batch of cornbread I made I didn't know about xanthan gum- ha ha ha

[babinsky]

OK...I cheated...I had 25 people at my house and I am the only Celiac! I did regular stuffing and gravy for everyone else....challanging since I do not use a recipe and couldn't taste it this year. Went by smell...got lucky, my husband asked if I could make it again...this is doubtful and next year will push that task to a relative..LOL....I had Whole Foods do a pan of gluten free stuffing and gravy for me and they have a wonderful pecan pie. I was only diagnosed about a month ago and decided to do whatever it took not have to "do without" for the holidays. They did a wonderful job....different than what I am used to but very good. I have not yet learned to be a good enough gluten-free cook to tackle the holidays yet but I am learning.

[silly celiac]

I'm still easing into the cooking- I never cooked before going gluten-free! But we made some foods to share that were safe for me in case there was nothing for me to eat (we went to 2 different houses yesterday)- well at both houses, it was the grandma that put me into a gluten panic. One tried handing me a dirty knife (dirty from the turkey cooked with stuffing) to cut our pot roast. The other was making gravy when we arrived and after she used a spoon to scoop out the flour, she wiped it off on her shirt and threw it back in with the clean spoons! EEEEK!!!!!

Needless to say, I used a fork to eat- no spoon.

But overall, it was a good first Thanksgiving without gluten.

[Vlynx]

Thanksgiving Disaster!! My two sons and I was diagnosed in July of this year with Celiac. For the past two months I have been trying new gluten free recipes for our Thanksgiving Meal. Everything turned out delicious. After the meal I placed all the leftovers on the kitchen island and some how I knocked over an empty wine glass which exploded tiny pieces of glass all over my wonderful leftovers. Everything had to be tossed into the trash. Verna

[Rosebud710]

I bought a gluten-free stuffing mix and it turned out dry - I thought I'd have time to get some gluten-free gravy, but I didn't so I was stuck with this dry concoction.

I had a hit and it was pumpkin pie made with gluten-free graham cracker crust. My non-gluten-free family loved it!

Laura