Saturday, November 9, 2013

New Traditions

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. The gratitude for the blessings of the past year. The pumpkin pie. The food coma and football. Love it all.
My grandmother's crossstitch and my grandfather's turkey candy dish are always a part of my decorations.
My favorite dish growing up was my mother's stuffing, specifically the little brown crust peeking out from the turkey when it was done. She got up early to dice celery and onions and then bake cornbread in my grandma's skillet . We woke up with the smell calling us to the kitchen. The stuffing was a mixture of the cornbread, Pepperidge Farm croutons, the veggies and broth.

The hours we waited for it made it worth it.I always felt like I couldn't move after I ate it and slept a nap that rivaled any bear's hibernation. DEFINITELY Food Coma. Turns out that happened because I was ALLERGIC to the wheat and the cornbread. Weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth. Yup, its that bad. It's like I lost a connection to the family.

My granddaddy with my sister and my Nanny holding me at my grandfather's train yard. Nanny was a great cook. So many of the family traditional recipes are hers.

Oh the emotional, family ties to food. That's why folks with allergies really appreciate it when their loved ones try to make dishes they can eat. It's tough being a person that goes to family events with a whole list of "can't eat that" echoing in her mind. Especially when you are the only one affected.  So it is good to have a go-to list of dishes to take along because families can be afraid to cook for those with allergies or just not have the knowledge. New traditions don't have to be tasteless but...

I know, I know. Creating new traditions can be hard. It's risky. The dish won't taste exactly the same. You just may not like giving up the memories of the old for the reality of the new. But no pain, no gain.
 

Not sure how I feel about the new tradition of holiday blow-ups. But I know my grandkidlets love them.

Looking at Thanksgiving this year, I knew I would miss stuffing the most. So I set out to create a moist, delicious stuffing that was good and good for me.

Hunting down GF croutons:

I hunted Whole Foods for Gluten Free Stuffing. Unfortunately for me it has corn product in it. Fortunately for me, I found SmartGrains Croutons.



They also make a stuffing but the store didn't have it. If you can't find a gluten-free stuffing, you can make croutons out of gluten-free bread by cutting it into cubes and toasting at 350 for about 15 minutes, turn off the oven and then let them sit in the oven overnight to dry.

Mix approximately one package (or two cups homemade croutons) in one cup chicken or turkey broth. Stir until croutons are moistened. You may need to add more broth. Let sit while you move forward with the other ingredients.

Less bread.
 The aroma of sauteed veggies: 
   
So thankful, the smell of one diced onion and one diced bunch of celery in 2 tablespoons of butter is still the same. But I am also making it new by adding a cup of grated carrots for Vitamin A and color. Fifteen minutes until the onion is translucent.

More veggies.

Mixing it up:
 
Add a half teaspoon of salt and the same of sage (optional) into the veggies and stir. Then add the moistened croutons and veggies all together, making sure all the croutons are moistened.  NOTE: Do not overstir! You want the croutons to fall apart. You don't want them to disintegrate.

Getting that crust:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Bake for 45 - 60 minutes until the top is brown and the moist stuffing is baked through and not quite as moist. Top with foil if necessary to prevent burning.
Yummm. Even Man O loved it. And I picked off every crusty bit for me.
And yes, it tastes like stuffing. I couldn't have the cornbread but I love this recipe. For a once or twice a year celebration, the expense of the croutons is worth it.

So what have you had to give up as a holiday food tradition? Have you made new ones? Do you have family members with allergies? How does your family handle it?  

23 comments:

  1. Oh, yummy!!! I love stuffing. It wasn't really a tradition in my house but I had a Southern neighbor who made it for dinner, for no reason! I was in love! Stuffing on a Tuesday?? Take me home!

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    1. I can only have it as a special occasion treat, all the carbs, you know. But I love the ritual of making it as much as eating it.

      You want to start a civil war. Talk stuffing ingredients.

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  2. I agree. People are very, very tied to their stuffing recipes, for the most part. When we got married and I made my version of stuffing for DH, he never looked back at his mother's recipe. My version (my mother's) sounds very much like your Nanny's version and was one of the things that people spoke of at her viewing. They don't know I know how to make it.....:)

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  3. My daughter is allergic to dairy and some nuts and sensitive to wheat plus we're vegetarians -- so our holiday meals never look traditional. We use spelt flour in all our baking and she's fine with that though I know people with gluten issues can't handle spelt. Our holiday traditional meal is tofu stir fry (yum right?) LOL. It's labor intensive with all the veggie chopping and tofu marinating so it's usually reserved for special occasions. We serve it over a nice whole grain rice and optional toppings -- like sesame seeds, chopped sunflower seeds, special sauces...yum...I'm drooling already. That's what we had for Thanksgiving this year and it's what we'll have for Christmas dinner too. :-)

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    1. That is so great. You have given me some great ideas for this end!

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  4. I love stuffing recipes! I even love the ones I was sure I'd hate, with fruit and nuts. I was a disbeliever, but then I've come to realize the blend of taste sensations is what gave birth to SALTED CARAMEL CHOCOLATE COVERED CANDIES.... Well, in light of that, I'm a mix-it-up kind of gal now!

    Love these pics, Julie, and your facebook pic of All Saints/All Souls inspired me to put that together for next November. I found a sweet country sideboard at the co-operative (Shops at West Ridge) and this new/old dining room will have a special spot for those gone before... and then my Nativity set will take up residence there. I'm painting the second half of the floor today, and then we can put furniture in the room. THIS IS VERY EXCITING!!!!

    What's not exciting is that finance boy in NYC can't come home for Thanksgiving. He just moved there from Boston, new job, no time off and they're open on Friday.... :( This will be my first holiday without him. I'm going to visit him and Zach in early December, so just ten days later, but it's weird to have a holiday without Luke. He's stinkin' funny and huge... He's the throwback Neanderthal Blodgett and he puts the angel on top of the tree. He's our very own personal "Bumble". Dagnabbit.

    Kav, that actually sounds delicious! Except for the tofu nonsense, the rest of it, the rice pilaf-style stuff would make me happy!!!

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    1. Noooo, so sorry about finance boy. It's hard to skype feasts.
      Salted caramels! YUM.

      And I love that you picked up on the All Saints/Souls idea. I am thinking it makes the beginning of the holiday season a little better for those who have empty seats at the table. It helped me, I know.

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    2. Aw, Ruthy! I love that you miss him coming home. Does that make sense? We all want to be missed. I pray his absence brings you both closer!

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  5. The food coma. LOL. The giant pictures of stuffing. LOL. (Tofu Turkey? Strange.)

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  6. I put Italian sausage in my stuffing.

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    1. *books tickets to Tina's for Thanksgiving*

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    2. *meeting Virginia at the airport on the way to Tina's*

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  7. Oh my gosh! That giant picture. Yum! However, most Texans (REAL Texans) call it dressing. I do not know why. :/ At our house, the mr. helps with the chopping of the celery and onions and it becomes a family project. There's really no such thing as too much sage.

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    1. See, civil war. And the weird thing it is labeled as the smallest it can be.

      Dressing versus stuffing. A whole debate in itself.

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  8. wow I could only WISH family would mix it up! ours is basically the same meal eater, thanksgiving, and Christmas and just the past several years have new dishes been 'allowed' to show up! the old school crowd doesn't want a thing changed and it's a gluten and diabetic nightmare. I'm not a fan of turkey, dressing, and ham(I actually prefer the kind at Lulby's or even -gasp- the frozen dinners LOL!) but it's not the holiday without them because since childhood I've had the same stuff with the same recipe. we've also never had the turkey whole - it was always cooked behind the scenes, white meat cut off and put on a platter, and the other parts made into the cornbread dressing and that gravy with the guts in it...maybe if people never made the same meal people wouldn't start associating food with the occasion and focus on seeing people instead...dunnno...this recipe looks good though
    Susanna

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    1. OH, food fights. They add strain to holidays don't they.

      Sending my sympathies. Been there.

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  9. I have my own recipe for dressing/stuffing (We don't stuff the bird - sometimes it's hard living with a food service professional. He knows way too much about food borne illness).

    And then my MIL has hers.

    I love them both.

    I've tried to make my MIL's - many times. I wrote down her directions (of course there's no recipe!) and followed them to the letter. Every year I wonder if this will be THE YEAR that I get it right!

    But no cornbread. Cornbread stuffing is definitely a southern thing. :)

    As for allergies - the only thing we need to avoid is MSG. But when you cook from scratch, that usually isn't a problem. I do need to be careful which brand of turkey I choose, though. I read all the labels!

    And I'm SO looking forward to Thanksgiving! I love every part of it....

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    1. Dang, I admit to being a microbiologist who doesn't stuff the bird though we loved when my mother did. But she took every bit out and my dad took the meat off the bones to be safe.

      Love scratch cooking. No other way to go.

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  10. I love, love, love stuffing! Any kind of stuffing, but always end up making the traditional kind sans additions. I have a chicken casserole recipe that includes stuffing, but somehow the version spooned out of our Christmas turkey always tastes best. We had ham for our Canadian Thanksgiving last month, so I'm already waiting impatiently for the Christmas turkey and trimmings.

    The one food allergy in our family is shellfish -- no shrimp, crab, etc., for my hubby or youngest daughter. I'm not a fan of shellfish anyway, so it's not a big sacrifice to avoid serving it.

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    1. And no contrast MRIs either. Scary stuff allergies.

      I've always wanted to try chocolate cookie stuffing. It's really bread pudding. Isn't it amazing how a word changes everything.

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  11. Julie, your family recipe sounds like ours! I think you've made a good GF and corn-free recipe! Now I'm craving Thanksgiving. It's just about my favorite holiday, too.

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