Thanksgiving Dinner

     I work Thanksgiving day, so I spent some of my cooking day this weekend making Thanksgiving dinner for myself to take with me.  It is not a cheat day, so I will have a paleo Thanksgiving dinner, but I am including gluten-free information as well.  I am more about function than presentation and want my food to taste good, not necessarily look good.
     Because I focus on practicle cooking and eating, I don't host many dinner parties.  I do regularly feed a pack of ravenous 14-year-old boys and they have not complained about how the food looks.  My sisters got all of the creative genes and can make a bowl of soup look gourmet.  I'm lucky if I can put food on a plate before my son inhales it, so making it look nice isn't a high priority.
     My Thanksgiving dinner looks like this:  Turkey, yams with butter, cooked spinach with bacon mixed in, salad.
     I have been eating it for almost every meal because there was so much turkey.  You won't hear me complain.  I froze quite a few meals for myself to take with me to my Moms as she is hosting dinner this year and told me to bring my own gluten-free stuff.  Some people knock themselves out to accommodate food allergies and it is just too overwhelming for others.  Try not to judge and always communicate with people who don't want to cook for you.  It might be that they are scared of making you sick and it is too much anxiety.  I am responsible for what I put in my mouth, no one else.
     Side note:  Holidays are especially hard for food allergy sufferers.  Holiday memories are surrounded by food, smells, connections between people we love and the dinners we had with them.  It is so difficult to separate those cherished memories from the foods associated with those memories.  Many a tear has been shed because favorite foods could no longer be eaten for special days and the substitutes just don't cut it.  What we have found is that creating new memories with new foods is extremely important.  The holidays are stressful enough without feeling sorry for ourselves because we can't eat Grandma's special treats.  We can feel picked on and sad and stay in bed watching netflix or we can find new holiday traditions and make new memories associated with our holiday foods. 
     Enough about shattered family dynamics, let's get our gluten-free Thanksgiving dinner on!

Turkey  Get a gluten-free turkey, http://www.gfreefoodie.com/finding-a-gluten-free-turkey/
Mashed potatos
Gravy
Stuffing
Biscuits
Candied Yams

     Mashed potatoes are so delicious.  Peel and boil 8 potatoes and cook until tender, heat 1 cup of milk with 2 Tablespoons of real butter and then mix them all together until fluffy white.  Add salt or pepper to taste.

Gravy is something gluten-free eaters miss and packaged mixes just don't taste that great.  I have a few good recipes.  The first is gluten-free the second is paleo. 
     Gluten-free gravy-Get all the ingredients together as you need to stir the whole time.  Melt 2 Tablespoons of butter in a pan on low heat, add 1 Tablespoon of gf bisquik mix (or 1 Tablespoon of gf flour mix) and stir it until smooth.  Slowly add 1 cup of turkey drippings/juice, stirring quickly the whole time and then slowly add 1 cup of heavy cream.  Keep stirring over low heat until thickened to your approval.  Add poultry seasoning, salt, pepper, celery salt, garlic salt or whatever seasonings you like.
     Paleo gravy-Paleo gravy is simple and is actually called bearnaise sauce.  Melt 2 Tablespoons of butter and let it cool.  Separate 1 egg yolk from the egg white and whip it with a fork.  Slowly stir the egg yolk into the cooled butter and then put the pan back on the stove on low heat.  Slowly stir in 1 cup of turkey dripping/juice and cook until thick.  Add poultry seasoning, salt, pepper, celery salt, garlic salt or whatever seasonings you like.

     Biscuits-I used the new Betty Crocker Gluten-Free Bisquik and it is my new favorite choice for biscuits.  The recipe is on the package. 

     Stuffing-I used half the batch of biscuits to make my stuffing.  Crumble up the biscuits and let them dry out.  On the stove top, melt 1/4 cup of butter (1 stick) and saute fine chopped onions and celery and add 1/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning to the butter mixture.  I mixed the biscuit crumbles with the butter mixture and cooked it in a glass cake pan at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  It is really good with gravy on top.
Here is an actual recipe from my sister:
STUFFING
Yields a 9x12 pan
1 Cup onion
2 Cups celery
2 Cups margarine/butter
2 tsps salt
½ tsps pepper
2 Tbsp poultry seasoning
2 lbs (16 cups) dry bread pieces  (make home made GF and dry it out in oven 275 for 30 minutes or until dry)
4 cups boiling water

Melt butter in a frying pan and sauté onion, celery and seasoning.  Pour boiling water over the bread and stir until it is moistened.  Add the butter mixture and stir well. 
Bake uncovered for 1 hour at 350 degrees
    
     Yams-I washed and sliced a yam and boiled it and put butter on it.  That was my paleo yam.  Here is the decadent and delicious gf recipe from my sister.
Five regular size yams (9 x 12 pan)
Peel, cube, boil until barely done, drain and pour into pan
Sauce pan, 1 stick of butter, two cups of brown sugar, stir over the top and bake it in the oven until it boils, about 30 minutes.

     Making a turkey is a good idea any time of year.  Having lean protein in the fridge ready to eat and to make soup or sandwiches is never a bad thing.  Turkey is delicious and good for our bodies.