Starting with the days leading up to the big Turkey Day extravaganza, I started making the bread for my homemade gluten free stuffing on Monday night (which I made double the amount I needed, good to note for next time) and I also put the turkey in the refrigerator that day (3 days before Thanksgiving) because I read that was as long as you needed to properly defrost a 15 pound turkey (wrong, it would have been better defrosting for 5 days, it was still frozen when I took it out to cook on Thanksgiving, so we set it in warm water until it thawed the outside, then set it in the oven for 10 minutes on 350 until it thawed the inside...problem solved). Wednesday night we started on the deserts (a good thing and a bad thing)... I made an improvised berry cobbler pie (gluten free of course), gluten free double chocolate chip brownies (using the glutino brownie mix I bought from vitacost and just added 16 oz dairy free chocolate chips), and 2 pumpkin pies that quickly become one pumpkin pie (we ate one soon after it left the oven, we were never one for patience). The pie crust was also a glutino pie crust mix I got from vitacost that worked pretty well but doesn't roll or lift like a regular pie crust so we just pressed the dough chunks down into the greased pie tins and it worked.
Berry cobbler pie filling
4 cups mixed frozen berries (I used organic)
2 heaping tablespoons granulated sugar
1 heaping table spoon corn starch (or potato starch)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamin
1/2 cup water
1-2 tablespoons honey
2-3 tablespoons gratefruit juice
1 packet Quaker oatmeal maple and brown sugar
Mix together and pour into prepared raw pie crust, then top with following topping
1.5 cups rice flour (or all purpose gluten free flour)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter or Earth Balance sicks (vegan butter)
Mix together and spoon chunks over berry filling it will look messy but that's ok...tastes terrific!
350 for 40-45 minutes.
Pumpkin pie is pretty standard, I used canned organic pumpkin and instead of condensed milk, I used Silk Egg Nog...really gave it a kick!
Thanksgiving day was busy! I still had two more desserts to do (I know, can we have enough sugar), but because they were supposed to be hot and gooey, I waited until that day to make them. But before I start on those... the turkey was a masterpiece! After I defrosted it properly, I put it in my foil roasting pan and gave it a lemon juice bath inside and out and stuffed it with fresh thyme and rosemary, a whole large chopped yellow onion, and a whole thing of garlic (peeled and each clove smashed to release juices), then I gave the turkey a butter massage and seasoned the top, legs, and wings with garlic salt, dried thyme, pepper, and paprika. I put in the oven for 5 hours at 350 and only basted it twice every 2 hours...it was absolutely the best turkey I have ever had in my life and it was just a regular cheap turkey, nothing special. I am happy that I got to have that turkey as my last one (I will get to the reasons behind that later).
With the turkey in the oven, I started on my famous marshmallow sweet potato pie. The pie crust was the glutino mix and the filling is as follows...
Mashmallow Sweet Potato Pie
2 cans organic sweet potatoes (14 or 15 ounces each)
4 eggs
1/2 stick butter (completely melted)
1 cup organic cinnamon applesauce
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
(feel free to play around with spices, this is just a general guide line, I use slightly more cinnamon and ginger, it's to your preference)
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons honey
1 cup Silk nog
2 unbaked 8 in raw pie crusts
Mash all ingredients together real well (except eggnog), you can use a hand beater, food processor, or just old fashioned elbow grease and a wire whisk, then add eggnog and mix well again. Make sure the filling tastes to your liking, you can add more vanilla, spice, or honey for adjustments if needed. Pour in pie crusts. Bake at 350 for about 40-50 min, then top with marshmallows and put in for an additional 10-15 minutes (oven times vary, you want it just about done but not quite before you put the marshmallows on and leave it in the oven until marshmallows are gooey and lightly browned.)
I also made gluten free caramel rolls and though they came out pretty, the bread part wasn't what I liked, so I am still tweaking the recipe and if I find a better fix for it, I will post it.
My gravy was a masterpiece (seasoned perfectly from the turkey)! I had four cups of gravy left over from the turkey drippings. I used two for my organic potato buds and the other two cups for gravy which I added about 1/2 cup almond milk and 1 heaping sifted tablespoon of potato starch (I use a tea ball for my starch to sift and measure at the same time). Then just kept stirring with a wire whisk until simmering and let it simmer slowly for a couple minutes...perfection!
The stuffing was also very good but it took a little adjustment to get used to gluten free stuffing as opposed to regular (since this was my first time eating gluten free stuffing). And it did get better and better with time...by day 3 after Thanksgiving, it was miraculous!
Gluten free Stuffing from scratch (originally got from http://glutenfreebetty.blogspot.com/2010/11/gluten-free-stuffing.html, before my adaptions)
Start with homemade gluten free bread recipe on previous blog
9 cups of stale seasoned gluten free bread (takes 3 days to stale after baking)
1/2 butter
one chopped red onion (diced small)
3 stalks celery chopped (diced small)
1 pound ground sausage
2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic salt
2 teaspoons finely diced fresh thyme
2 teaspoons finely diced fresh rosemary
1/4 to 1/2 cup chicken broth
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Brown and crumble sausage over medium heat. When fully cooked, remove sausage from pan and add butter, onion and celery. Cook onions and celery until onion is transparent (about 10 minutes). Mix in the remaining ingredients, including herbs and toss lightly. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Add 1/4 cup chicken broth, stir. ("You don't want it too wet as gluten free bread is prone to sogginess and easily disintegrates.") Place in greased 2 quart casserole dish and sprinkle a couple more Tablespoons of broth over the top (I put another 1/4 cup). Place lid or foil over the stuffing and bake for 45 minutes.
I also made asperagus sauteed in olive oil, turkey bacon, garlic and diced red onion...PERFECT!
What wasn't so perfect was my cow dairy free hollandaise sauce, (the eggs curdled and it just wasn't hollandaise sauce), the caramel rolls and my over fried left over bread (from the stuffing)... those were the only cooking snafus I ran into. So all in all, a VERY good Thanksgiving feast. And the LAST one we will every have with meat. (more to follow on that below).
Thanksgiving Dinner with all the trimmings
The pretty but not so tasty gluten free caramel rolls
The "sign" of how well your Thanksgiving feast really went...a comatosed hubby with a sleepy smile :D
Now onto the big changes that have taken our family this past weekend.
I made a lot for that Thanksgiving Day, MUCH more than we could ever eat ourselves (since it was just hubby, me, and the four kiddos), but I did it so that we would have food all weekend and I didn't have to cook! That worked out well, but by Sunday, I was Thanksgiving food-out and wanted something different. As I was looking on our computer for recipes that worked with our remaining meatless ingredients in the house (I was so done with turkey by this point), I found a post online about a documentary called "Earthlings". It sounded like the kind of documentary hubby and I would be into because we like to know how the world really works so that we are well-informed in our decision making. "Sheeples", we are not. This documentary was all about the treatment of animals for our food, clothing, entertainment, etc... Hubby and I decided to rent it and we watched it during our meatless dinner of homemade potato fries topped with Amy's vegan chili. Good choice as to what awaited us during the movie.
Needless to say, we didn't finish our dinner (even though it was meatless), as the movie was above and beyond anything I could have ever imagined in the way of showing us what really goes on in the world with humanity, "specie-ism", and how we treat those that we feel are "below" us... like animals. What a wake up call that was for my husband and I! I was dehydrated by the time the movie was over and am still a bit shaken up but I am solid in one thing and so is my hubby... There is no way we can consciously consume the life of an innocent sentient being anymore. There is no way that we can choose to ignore the fact of what we are really eating when we go to the grocery store and choose our packaged slaughter that is much easier on the eyes in the store than how it got there. Our bodies are not graveyards. And though deep down I have always known and felt this (I even went vegetarian once before for about a year), there was a part of me that was choosing to ignore what my soul knew was wrong. And I imagine this happens across the board with most people. My hubby was the biggest carnivore around and this movie flipped a switch on in him I have never seen before. It was like finding out you were a murderer when you were just doing what everyone else was doing, what society says is acceptable and expected of you. Like I mention in most of my blogs, I learn everyday something about myself that I didn't know before (or had suppressed), and this was one of those things. Our family has made the decision to no longer be a part of this "system" any longer both for the animals and our bodies. That is our choice and we are very happy in it.
I am still debating whether or not to show the kids the movie, I am thinking the oldest will most likely be the one who needs to see it the most as he is also the one that is very invested in the "system" still. I will have to meditate on that one. But for now, it's lots more vegetables for us in this house, that is for sure.
Pleasant Holidays all around!
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