I made gluten free Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday and I have to say, it went pretty well. Of course we will all be going to my mom's on the actual Turkey day, but since there is a lot of gluten involved in the traditional meal, Maddie and I will be unable to truly stuff ourselves.
For our mini Thanksgiving I made a half turkey breast, stuffing (made with gluten free bread), mashed potatoes, gravy and fresh cranberry sauce. The turkey cooked in about 1 1/2 hours and was quite moist for being just white meat, and the stuffing was reminiscent of my mom's stuffing, although not as good.
As for the cranberry sauce -- make your own if you have 10 minutes to spare. Really, that's all it takes and I think it's quite a bit beter than that canned stuff. Here's what you do... get a bag of cranberries, boil a cup of water + a cup of sugar. Add the cranberries, bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes. The cranberries will pop, so may I suggest one of those spatter screens.
One bag of cranberries resulted in this much sauce -- enough for our mini gluten free Thanksgiving, a small jar for the freezer and another jar to take to my mom's for Thanksgiving.
Oh, and remember that lemon curd I made? I made some mini gluten free scones and we ate them this past weekend too. Super yummy!
Looks wonderful. I really don't have plans to go away this Thanksgiving as I have to work on Black Friday. I think I'm just resting and maybe watching a movie. Kids are going elsewhere to eat. Should be quiet for sure. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!
Posted by: Rowena PHilbeck | Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 02:49 PM
You're making me hungry!
The cranberry sauce recipe that I've done for the last 7-8 years is only very slightly more complex: 1 c. sugar, juice of an orange + grated orange rind, 1/2 tsp. grated ginger. Simmer until sugar is dissolved, add 1 bag cranberries, cook until they pop. Add 1/2 c. chopped toasted pecans and dash of Grand Marnier if desired.
The rest of our dinner will be similar, but with swiss chard & mashed sweet potatoes. The dessert that we're taking to our friends' house will be a GF pear-apple crisp, with almond flour.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of your family!
Posted by: Kathy in San Jose | Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 12:57 AM
Looks yummy! I've never understood why anyone would buy canned cranberry sauce - it always taste stale to me. From scratch couldn't be easier as you have described. I just realized I did not have any cranberry sauce. For the first time in my life, I had Thanksgiving dinner in a restaurant. It was just one daughter, my partner & me. I was recently diagnosed with pernicious anemia which meant daily (M-F) trips to Northwestern for B12 shots (after tomorrow, it's weekly for a month & then monthly). Also had an opera & high school reunion this month & another opera Sat & Monday I leave for Baton Rouge to visit the other daughter. So, since I wasn't sure if I'd feel up to making the meal & there were just the 3 of us, we made reservations at Mike Ditka's. I was very pleasantly surprised at the quality of the food & the efficient & friendly service. We eat there a few times a year so we knew the food was good but it is not so common for a restaurant that doesn't do buffets regularly to maintain the level of quality when they do them - especially when they had the number of people they did. But Ditka's came through with flying colors - delicious food, great service & the buffet lines were set up so that you didn't have to wait terribly long for anything. I did feel kind of bad for all the employees who were working on Thanksgiving Day. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving.
Posted by: Donna | Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 05:27 PM