Friendsgiving

Getting ready for Friendsgiving

Every year I travel back up to Vermont to spend Thanksgiving with my family.  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it's all about family, good food, and it opens up the holiday season.  I like Thanksgiving so much that for the past two years I've traveled to Toronto to join my college roommates for Canadian Thanksgiving in October as well. Might as well double up on the joys of Thanksgiving if you can, right?

This year I'm happy to be adding a third Thanksgiving to my list in the form of Friendsgiving.  This afternoon I'm heading to a friend's house with several others to hang out, eat, chat, and watch football.

I spent yesterday and today cooking up a storm.  I'm bringing roasted Brussels sprouts, creamed spinach, stuffing, and pumpkin spice muffins with a cream cheese filling.  I'm even bringing gluten free gravy as to not miss out on any holiday staples.  Other people are bringing turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, a dessert someone is accommodating to be gluten free just for me, and lots of other things.  Not everything will be gluten free, but a whole lot of it will be.

I'm really excited about the stuffing I made for today.  My friend Mallory posted a recipe for kale and sausage stuffing that I had to try.  I haven't had very good luck with gluten free stuffing thus far in life, but this homemade stuffing is really good.  I used Canyon Bakehouse's Rosemary and Thyme Focaccia for the bread and added some mushrooms to the veggies.  Thanks for the recipe Mallory!

And those pumpkin muffins cooling up above?  One of them is already gone.

Some of my other go to Thanksgiving recipes include:

Sweet Potato Puree

Mashed Cauliflower

Pumpkin Pie

What are your favorite Thanksgiving staples?

Thanksgiving 2012

I didn't take any pictures while I was home.  This is from the summer.
But it is the view from my backyard.  Vermont is lovely.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  It's all about food and family.  I like it so much that this year I went to Canada for Canadian Thanksgiving just so I could celebrate the holiday twice.  Around Thanksgiving time most food bloggers post all sorts of new recipes for the holiday.  I didn't because we eat the same thing every year and I love it.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Last year we had to adapt Thanksgiving to be gluten free.  With the experimenting last year, this year was a breeze.  My mom even made me homemade gluten free stuffing this year using Udi's bread since I've never tried a packaged GF stuffing I've enjoyed.  I bought a mini GF pumpkin pie at the local co-op since I really didn't need an entire full size gluten free pie laying around.  It was pretty delicious.  We also had the creamed spinach, sweet potatoes, and mashed cauliflower again.  This year we added brussels sprouts to the menu, which I love.  I also had Almond Nut Thins around for all the cracker and cheese appetizers.

I spent six days at home laying low, eating good food, and visiting with family and friends.  What could be better?

Canadian Thanksgiving!

Last weekend I went to Toronto for Canadian Thanksgiving.  The fact that it was Canadian Thanksgiving was just an added bonus to the fact that I got to see my three roommates from college.  I transferred to McGill junior year and was very fortunate to land in an apartment with such great people.

This is us in college.

I've seen all three of these ladies several times since college, but this was the first time the four of us had been together since we lived together.  We only got to spend a few hours all together this visit, but it was aca-awesome.  We chatted and saw Pitch Perfect. Go see Pitch Perfect.

Sunday, Amanda's aunt graciously took me and Padmini into her home for Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving in Canada is pretty similar to Thanksgiving in the United States in that it revolves around family and eating lots of good food.  Amanda's family is Italian so in addition to the traditional Thanksgiving cuisine (turkey, ham, stuffing, potatoes, vegetables, and cranberry sauce), they had focaccia and eggplant parmigiana.

Their Thanksgiving was amazingly nearly gluten free.  I couldn't eat the focaccia, eggplant parmigiana, or stuffing, but I could eat mostly everything else.  They make their gravy with cornstarch instead of flour and her sister got me gluten free stuffing and gluten free pumpkin pie!  Canadians are so friendly.

Not only was the food amazing, but the company was great.  Thanksgiving at my house is all about food and crazy family dynamics and it was very similar at Amanda's.  From the sister of her uncle by marriage that mostly spoke Italian and asked me when I was getting married, to her uncle that said that he too could be stunning with all the bullshit women put on their faces, to Amanda and her brother in law getting into a heated discussion about organic food, I had a great time.  I had such a nice time I'm thinking of inviting myself back next year as well.

Thank you Amanda for having me at your family gathering and thank you Padmini for hosting me.  Thank you Tahnee for being you.  I love and miss you all.

Creamed Spinach

Creamed Spinach is a holiday staple around my house.  My mom makes it every Thanksgiving, Christmas, and sometimes Easter.  I've been helping her with it for years, but it's one of those dishes she doesn't have a recipe for.  This year we noted what we used so I could share it with you.  We used to make it with wheat four, but when I had to go gluten free we switched to rice flour.  It tastes the same.  I hope your family enjoys it as much as ours.

Ingredients:
4 packages frozen chopped spinach
1 small onion, chopped
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons rice flour
1 1/4 cups milk
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon sugar

Directions:
1) Cook the spinach according to the directions on the package.  Drain well.
2) Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Add the onion and saute until soft.
3) Add the flour to the onion mixture, whisk until smooth.
4) Slowly add the milk, stirring constantly.  Add the salt and pepper.
5) Keep stirring and allow to thicken slightly, about three minutes.
6) Stir in the cooked spinach and sugar. Heat throughout and serve.

Sweet Potato Puree

From allrecipes.com

My mom has made Sweet Potato Puree for the last two Thanksgivings.  They are easy to make, not too sweet, and are a good side dish.  The recipe is right off allrecipes.com.  You can find it here.  I'm using their picture too because I forgot to take one of my own.

We used 6 large sweet potatoes and 2% milk instead of whole milk.  If I was making it on my own I'd probably use skim milk because that's what I have in my apartment.  I'd also probably use a little less butter, just because 6 tablespoons seems like a lot.  Otherwise, this is a great recipe that I'm sure will be making appearances at many of our Thanksgivings to come.

Smart Grain Sage Stuffing

I picked up this stuffing at G-Free NYC.  I made it for our pre-Thanksgiving day feast tonight and I was very happy with it, especially since the gluten free stuffing I tried last year pretty much sucked.

To make the stuffing I started by sauteing up some onion, mushrooms, and celery.  Then, in a large pot, I melted half a stick of butter into a quarter cup of gluten free chicken broth.  To that I added the sauteed vegetables and package of sage stuffing.  I combined it all and then we cooked it right in the turkey.  It started to crumble a little as I was taking it out of the bird, but it held up pretty well.  I'll be bringing left overs of it to our real Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow so I don't have to miss out on Thanksgiving day stuffing.

I can't seem to find a website for this company, but I'd recommend it for any gluten free holiday.

Mashed Cauliflower

I saw this recipe for Mashed Cauliflower on Elana's Pantry.  I love mashed potatoes, but sometimes they can be a bit heavy.  For the pre-Thanksgiving meal we had tonight, I wanted to try something a bit lighter.  This recipe is a nice substitute.  It has a great flavor, is really easy to make, is much healthier than mashed potatoes, and is still a good vehicle to hold gravy.

Ingredients:
1 large head of cauliflower
2 tablespoons butter
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Steam the cauliflower until very tender
2. Put the cauliflower, butter, salt and pepper in a large bowl and mash (or puree)
3. Top with some more butter and parsley if you'd like

That's it.  Enjoy!

Gluten Free Thanksgiving!

Tomorrow we are off to my aunt's house for Thanksgiving.  My mom wanted to have turkey left over at our house, so we did a pre-Thanksgiving dinner tonight.  The best part of tonight's dinner?  The entire meal was gluten free!

Tonight we had:
Turkey
Gluten Free Gravy*
Gluten Free Stuffing
Mashed Cauliflower
Broccoli
Gluten Free Pumpkin Pie

Tomorrow we are making and bringing:
Creamed Spinach
Sweet Potato Puree
Gluten Free Apple Crisp

Everything we bring tomorrow will be gluten free as well.  I'll bring left over stuffing and gravy to have with my meal tomorrow.  I'll also bring some gluten free crackers for the appetizers.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I'm very happy that my family is being so accommodating to my needs.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

*I'm not posting a recipe for the gravy because my mom makes it and I honestly don't know how.  I do know she made it gluten free by using rice flour instead of wheat flour to thicken it.