Has anyone thought about Thanksgiving? - Page 2

[WC_hapamama]

We always do Thanksgiving at DH's aunt's homes... they take turns.

Basically whichever aunt makes the turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes, and the rest is potluck.

I end up making a full range of sides and desserts for my kids, and bring an appetizer for everyone. It feels kind of ridiculous going on a 50 mile car ride (1 way) to one of his aunt's houses with basically a full Thanksgiving dinner minus the turkey.

[dannic]

I've been planning in my head a bit...last yr we were with dh's family and his mom was great in helping (non-flour gravy, non-dairy mashed tatoes, ect). But this yr we're with my family , which would be even better except that we are with extended (sugar-holics) family and it's all about how much sugar you can get into one meal--altho everything is totally from scratch and I swear the pie table is more full than the dinner table!
So I've got more on my shoulders. Eating is such a social thing, esp in my family and I try to make sure dd isn't left out in any way (altho, dh has decided to be on dd's diet and I'm pretty close now--and we;re fighting yeast!)
So pit turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, for sure and I'm thinking about:
stuffing-I've got an irish soda bread (gf/soyf/cf/refined sugar f) that MAY convert well to stuffing??? (test kitchen, anyone?)
pumpkin pie--a nut crust, pumpkin pie (I altered my mom's scratch p pie which is already sweetened with honey and used coconut milk instead and it's so good--I just have to perfect the crust)
and absent whipped cream, coconut milk works well--just refrigerate the whole can (unshaken), open and use the "cream" that has seperated. My daughter loves it!
Cranberry sauce-honey instead of sugar? Anyone tried this? I've always made ours, but haven't tried it this way yet....I love thanksgiving and I want my family to have choices esp considering the depth and breadth of the dessert table, lol. I'm loving all the ideas! Roasted apples, yum! Ooh, apple cider sounds good too! Happy experimentations! :

[springmum]

We've already had Thanksgiving here (Canada)
So I'll share what I did, even though we don't have similar sensitivities (we just can't eat corn, dairy, caffeine, wheat and are avoiding gluten and soy)
I'm bf an almost 6 month old, if that matters.

My family has Thanksgiving at my Nana's. I cooked our own turkey here and brought some of the meat with me.
I brought butternut squash, and sweet potatoes with me (went early) and cooked those there. I also brought an app. for everyone that I actually couldn't eat.
During dinner I just asked everyone to not use the spoons in the squash, sweet potato dishes in any other dishes.
My dad/ brother/DH were the least supportive - "here try this" or laughing when I asked not to x-contaminate - I got a little....shall we say... firm.... when I described what our son goes through if people don't pay attention and I eat something wrong - that shut down any further comments.

The next day was the inlaw's. I didn't even tell them ahead of time that I would bring my own food - of course they didn't have a problem when I got there and explained why. No one was insensitive or otherwise irritating.
I did bring a dessert for everyone that I could not eat (it's a favourite of theirs)

What's interesting is the day after the inlaw's Thanksgiving my little guy had the worst day he's ever had. Actually crying while straining to have a poo - never has that happened before.
I had only eaten fresh, homemade food that I had made, so the only thing I could think was that he was reacting to the organic turkey that I bought/cooked (since that was the only new thing) I was happy with my decision to bring my own food though, since at least it narrowed down the possibilities.

It stinks when you can't look forward to family get togethers because of all this... I hope the holidays aren't too stressful for you.

[kjbrown92]

Originally Posted by dannic

stuffing-I've got an irish soda bread (gf/soyf/cf/refined sugar f) that MAY convert well to stuffing??? (test kitchen, anyone?)
pumpkin pie--a nut crust, pumpkin pie (I altered my mom's scratch p pie which is already sweetened with honey and used coconut milk instead and :

Irish Soda Bread recipe?
pumpkin pie recipe? (I have a buckwheat crust or an almond meal crust, that are both good)

[Ruthla]

We don't make Thanksgiving a huge family get-together in our family. We save that for Hanukkah when it's a buffet and the focus is on candles and presents, not food.

Thanksgiving has always been just the immediate family, with the possible addition of 1 or 2 single adult relatives who live in the area. I make the turkey and all the fixings (although, more and more, DDs do the cooking with my supervision) and it lasts us several days.

Last year I made turkey with rice stuffing, yams, baked potatoes, homemade (and canned) cranberry sauce, and for dessert a GFDF pumpkin and apple pies. I've made squash casseroles in the past, but I think I skipped it last year; we had enough without it.

[mtn.mama]

Okay. Now I'm starting to get a little gripped about this. I started making a list of what we could possibly eat over the holidays (5-14 days 2500 miles from home). Yikes. Who knows what foods will be available in the area... its not like I can schlep two weeks worth of food on the airplane. And how can I pull off a rotation diet under these circumstances? I'm worried. OTOH, I'm going to turn it into a dairy free trip... I have never been off our homegrown raw goat milk and this is a sort of opportunity. Anyhoo, this trip is going to take alot more planning than I had anticipated. I want to cancel it and stay home, but REALLY I need to go through with it and step out of the bubble.

[Punchy Kaby]

Originally Posted by menomena

We live in the same town as my parents and ILs, so we have to double-dip. I am bringing all of my own food to my parents' house and snacks to ILs. (Parents' for the feast; ILs' for socializing after) Again, I live in the same town, so it's no big deal - just make food ahead of time and/or bring the raw ingredients with me the 30 minutes across town.

However... We're going to Boston for a week next week and I am freaking out over here trying to figure out how and what my family will eat. We're visiting relatives (DH's B&SIL&family) but staying in a hotel. I've staked out the closest co-op/TJ/WFs but they are all at least 30 minutes away and I won't have a car (FIL rents one and will drive me, but that's sort of awkward). I think I've got breakfast and snacks okay, but I'm going to have to "borrow" space in BIL's freezer & fridge so I have room for my chicken and brussels sprouts. Did I mention we're doing the FAILSAFE elimination diet?

I did the Failsafe diet and by far it was the hardest to travel with. I ate canned beans pureed with some kind of fat (ghee for me) on rice cakes. Also made rice muffins (no egg) with plenty of fat (again ghee) that were pretty filling.

[Punchy Kaby]

You all have some great holiday ideas here!

DS's favorite side dish is wild rice with mushrooms, onions, chestnuts, rosemary and sage, you can add celery if you like and cook the rice with chicken stock, it goes really well with turkey. Ds doesn't even realize there are mushrooms in it because I cut them very small. I cook the rice first, saute the other stuff, add more stock so the whole mixture is moist, then bake it all in a covered dish for about 45 min.