I'm happy to report that Thanksgiving Dinner was a great success. jenn and I were like a well-oiled machine in getting our low-key meal for four on the table. Jenn and the boys LOVED the tofurkey and are obviously glad that I'm not part of the competition for their special food. My stuffed squash was really good, though next time I could probably skip the squash and just eat the stuffing. I used Near East Rice Lentil Pilaf and added collards, walnuts and tofu to it. Very tasty! My collection of raosted veggies (segregated because the vegetables for the rest of the family were basting in the juices of the gluteny tofurkey) were good too, though next time I will refrigerate the parsip (I've learned to treat it like a pale carrot, not like a potato) and to cut the beet pieces smaller or pre-cook them somehow. they were rather hard and tough. Still, a good time was had by all.
Like everybody in America, we are preparing for Thanksgiving. It will be my first gluten-free Tofurkey Day. Which means no Tofurkey for me. Of course, we didn't eat tofurkey for most of our Thanksgivings together, because we heard it was awful. In the intervening years, we ate stuffed squash, which was ymmy. It was acorn squash with a wild and brown rice stuffing that had tofu, dates, nuts and cheese. Then we heard tofurkey was good, so we tried it a few years ago. It was great! Turkey was my favorite food as a kid, so it was nice to have this very turkey-like food in my life. Squash took a back seat and we recreated our tradition around it and one of the best parts of that is that the boys like it. The squash is a tough sell. For me, the squash will make a reappearance, and I expect it won't be too angry that it lost its place of importance for awhile in our traditions.
The good news is I have an easy answer for people who ask what I will be eating for Thanksgiving. I will not to be a whiner or feel sorry for myself. I will not. I came into a motherlode of apples over the weekend. So when life hands you apples, make apple crisp! It gave me a chance to crack open GF flour mix I had bought awhile ago. The crisp came out not so crispy, and the apple stuff came out kind of goopy, like apple pie filling from a can. With that ringing endorsement, I have to say it was actually very good. I'm thinking it's the zanthan gum that gave it that texture; multi-trial learning will reveal more. And I still have at least 20 pounds of apples to get through.
It took me the better part of a week to talk to an actual human being to be able to get an appointment at Jefferson's Celiac Center. The date is set for December 20th. I haven't been feeling the best lately, but I don't know if it's related to the celiac or not. Mostly my plan is to tough it out and hope it resolves on its own. Otherwise, I have around six weeks to put up with it.
In other news, I joined the local celiac support group. They hold meetings and events twice a year -- I just missed one in October. I should be receiving all kinds of groovy info in the mail soon, and I'm sure the March get-together will be here before I know it. Jenn and I had a great lunch at El Rey on Wednesday. It's a Steven Starr restaurant. I was afraid it would be all crowded but it wasn't. It looked like a retro diner and it had a pretty interesting menu. Lots of gluten-free things. I ordered a spicy mushroom soup and fried eggs over tortilla chips smothered in green chile. It was not my healthiest lunch choice, especially taking into account the volume of chips and salsa I ate in addition to my lunch order. But, it was tasty, and I chaulk it all up to research for GF dining near my workplace.
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