Every year there are last minute "disasters," things don't turn out exactly as planned. Luckily everything this year turned out eatable at least. Although it may not have been as pretty or as tasty as planned.
So here is what we had:
Brined Turkey - This is the first year that the turkey was too salty. We made the vegetable broth instead of using store bought chicken broth and Hubby didn't taste the broth to see if it tasted good and so added extra salt (homemade broth always needs more salt than I think.
Dressing - my in-laws did try to make a gf dressing but it was too bitter (they used just soy flour) so they went ahead and made the regular version. So we quickly threw together a dressing that was gf/df. For a first try, it did taste pretty good, I think I want to play with it a bit more before I post the recipe.
Gravy didn't turn out well, it needs alot of work because I didn't stick to the recipe. Sigh. Dinner was waiting on the gravy and so I tried to hurry it. It was edible but wasn't good.
sweet potato casserole It really did turn out well gluten-free and dairy free - also lower sugar. This is a keeper.
cranberry sauce - Daisy made this one, she did 2 Granny Smith apples instead of just one and probably put more sugar than I would. But she is not big on tart stuff.
bread or rolls - since we had to make dressing at the last minute, we didn't even attempt to do bread or rolls.
mashed potatoes - made with ghee and goat milk and soy milk. (We are doing dairy free for the casein and goats milk is very low in casein.)
Creamed Spinach - blah. I found a recipe but it wasn't something I would recommend. it was seriously lacking.
Fruit ambrosia - This turned out really good. Yum. it is more of a method than a recipe. You can check it out here.
And for the end of the meal, we have desserts.
I was really, really sneaky and made brownies that had black beans. I didn't tell anyone what was in them until they had tried them - because I am not stupid. The kids LOVED them, Hubby thought they were good but they did taste a little unusual (I think he has more hang ups on the GF thing than the kids). They were very dense, fudge-like brownies and not overly sweet. EVERYONE was surprised that the main ingredient was black beans. I will be making these again and playing with the recipe doing things like adding nuts or seeing if I can make them more cake-like just for variety. If you want to check it out, here is the recipe I found.
I also made Gluten-free Lemon Bars from Living Without. These had a wonderful flavor but they didn't turn out quite right. I used ghee instead of butter and probably should have used less. It also took quite a bit longer for the crust to cook up - again maybe because of the ghee. I don't know. I was also expecting the lemon layer to be on top (like a lemon pie) but it didn't really do that and that maybe because there was something wrong with the crust. Either way, it tasted really good so I will try playing with the recipe some more to see if I can get it to turn out.
And then Daisy made something like these Raw Date Truffles except instead of dates, she used prunes - because that is what her mom had bought. We also added a little bit of powdered sugar to the rolling cocoa because otherwise it was too bitter. Otherwise we really liked them, I want to try with some other fruits just so see how the other fruits compare. It was also nice to know that it was a healthy treat - no sugar (except for a tiny bit in the rolling cocoa and I used presweetened coconut).
Hubby was really wanting green bean casserole and I could have done it except for the fried onions on top. At some point it will be do-able but I am having too much to learn to cook and so that is going to be put off for another day.
How was your holiday meals?
So here is what we had:
Brined Turkey - This is the first year that the turkey was too salty. We made the vegetable broth instead of using store bought chicken broth and Hubby didn't taste the broth to see if it tasted good and so added extra salt (homemade broth always needs more salt than I think.
Dressing - my in-laws did try to make a gf dressing but it was too bitter (they used just soy flour) so they went ahead and made the regular version. So we quickly threw together a dressing that was gf/df. For a first try, it did taste pretty good, I think I want to play with it a bit more before I post the recipe.
Gravy didn't turn out well, it needs alot of work because I didn't stick to the recipe. Sigh. Dinner was waiting on the gravy and so I tried to hurry it. It was edible but wasn't good.
sweet potato casserole It really did turn out well gluten-free and dairy free - also lower sugar. This is a keeper.
cranberry sauce - Daisy made this one, she did 2 Granny Smith apples instead of just one and probably put more sugar than I would. But she is not big on tart stuff.
bread or rolls - since we had to make dressing at the last minute, we didn't even attempt to do bread or rolls.
mashed potatoes - made with ghee and goat milk and soy milk. (We are doing dairy free for the casein and goats milk is very low in casein.)
Creamed Spinach - blah. I found a recipe but it wasn't something I would recommend. it was seriously lacking.
Fruit ambrosia - This turned out really good. Yum. it is more of a method than a recipe. You can check it out here.
And for the end of the meal, we have desserts.
I was really, really sneaky and made brownies that had black beans. I didn't tell anyone what was in them until they had tried them - because I am not stupid. The kids LOVED them, Hubby thought they were good but they did taste a little unusual (I think he has more hang ups on the GF thing than the kids). They were very dense, fudge-like brownies and not overly sweet. EVERYONE was surprised that the main ingredient was black beans. I will be making these again and playing with the recipe doing things like adding nuts or seeing if I can make them more cake-like just for variety. If you want to check it out, here is the recipe I found.
I also made Gluten-free Lemon Bars from Living Without. These had a wonderful flavor but they didn't turn out quite right. I used ghee instead of butter and probably should have used less. It also took quite a bit longer for the crust to cook up - again maybe because of the ghee. I don't know. I was also expecting the lemon layer to be on top (like a lemon pie) but it didn't really do that and that maybe because there was something wrong with the crust. Either way, it tasted really good so I will try playing with the recipe some more to see if I can get it to turn out.
And then Daisy made something like these Raw Date Truffles except instead of dates, she used prunes - because that is what her mom had bought. We also added a little bit of powdered sugar to the rolling cocoa because otherwise it was too bitter. Otherwise we really liked them, I want to try with some other fruits just so see how the other fruits compare. It was also nice to know that it was a healthy treat - no sugar (except for a tiny bit in the rolling cocoa and I used presweetened coconut).
Hubby was really wanting green bean casserole and I could have done it except for the fried onions on top. At some point it will be do-able but I am having too much to learn to cook and so that is going to be put off for another day.
How was your holiday meals?
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