Thanksgiving is coming! Thanksgiving is coming!

It's the Monday before Thanksgiving.  My family is staying put this Thanksgiving.  There will be no 6 hour car trips to visit family.  Or 12 hour car trips (which, obviously, take even longer and involve way more crying on my part and way more potty breaks for children with small bladders). This means that I will be cooking a Thanksgiving meal all by myself.

Deep Breaths.

The good news is that I appear to have enough motivation to actually prepare things on time!  I have done almost all of my grocery shopping (I think I still need some fruit cocktail, but psssshhhhh.  What's a can or two? It could be a turkey and some potatoes and some olives and pecans and pumpkin and whipping cream and celery and carrots and, and, and. . . . So I feel like I'm doing very well.

Also, today I made cubes of bread for stuffing.  And I took pretty pictures.  And now I'm WRITING about it! So that means I am doing VERY WELL INDEED.  Now, I know that I have previously written a post about making stuffing, but that was several years ago and just contained one lousy picture.  So I'm going to post the instructions again . . . Enjoy!

Easy Lemon Meringue Pie

Thanksgiving.

Just the word makes you want take a big breath and brace yourself for the chaos that always comes before the holiday. This is the holiday that is all about food. For some that can be either really satisfying or vastly disappointing. Hopefully, with the help of our recipes on our blog and website (eatingglutenfree.com), we have made the holiday easier and more enjoyable for you.

And to add to those recipes, I just made the easiest lemon meringue pie ever! It was seriously, amazing. If you have time, give it a try and let me know what you think!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Eating Gluten Free,LLC



Easy Lemon Meringue Pie

Lemon Filling

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 large egg yolks
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Meringue Topping

1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/3 cup water
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup sugar
4 large egg whites
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Bake pie crust

Lemon Filling: Whisk sugar, cornstarch, and salt together in a large saucepan.

Add egg yolks, then gradually whisk in 1 1/2 cups water. Bring mixture to a simmer over medium heat, whisking regularly, 8- 10 minutes, until thickened. Remove from heat, add lemon juice and then the butter. Pour into baked pie crust.

Meringue topping: Mix cornstarch and 1/3 cup water in a small saucepan.
Bring to a simmer, whisking occasionally until thickened. Remove from heat when translucent and thickened.

Preheat oven to 325.
In a large mixing bowl, mix cream of tartar and sugar together.

In mixing bowl whip egg whites until frothy. Add vanilla.
Add sugar mixture 1 Tbsp. at a time. Slowly at cornstarch mixture, 1 tbsp at a time. Whip until stiff peaks form.

Distribute meringue evenly over the top, starting with the edges, and then the middle. As you top the pie lift up the back of the spoon and create peaks in the meringue.
Bake about 20 minutes or until the meringue is golden brown.

Cool completely before serving.

Peanut Butter Cup Pie

This is one of the recipes I taught at our class last night. As anyone who really loves me (and was therefore at my class) will tell you, it was FABULOUS. The strawberry pie was also really good . . . but you'll have to wait for another week or so before I post that one. Don't you wish you'd been at Macey's with me last night?

Peanut Butter Cup Pie

1 c. gluten free oreo cookie dough
8 oz. cream cheese
1 c. peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla
½ - ¾ c. sugar*
1 - 1 ½ c. heavy cream
1 Tbs. Mrs. Richardson's Fudge sauce**
peanut butter cups (for garnish)

Preheat oven to 375°.

Press cookie dough evenly into a 9" pie plate, covering the bottom and the sides. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes, or until the cookie dough doesn't smoosh under your fingers when lightly touched. Remove from oven and cool thoroughly.

Using the whisk attachment of a stand mixer, cream together cream cheese, peanut butter, vanilla, and sugar until smooth. Add cream and whisk on high speed until the mixture thickens and gets kind of fluffy. (This only takes about a minute with my mixer, but it's a really good one.)

Spread filling into cooled crust. Drizzle with warmed fudge sauce (I put it in a sandwich bag and microwave it for 5 seconds, then poke a hole in the bag with a toothpick and squeeze lines of fudge sauce over the pie). Garnish with chopped peanut butter cups.

Serve.

*If you’ve got a big sweet tooth, use the larger amount of sugar.

**I have this in my fridge all the time, which is why I used it in this recipe. You can use Hershey's syrup if you want, but I won't guarantee that it will taste as good!

Oreo Pie

My neighbor Cyndi invented a recipe for Oreo Pie that is to die for. It is so good that I can't even think of appropriate descriptions. She was kind enough to tell me her secrets so I could make a gluten free one. (Her only stipulation was: "If you get to be a millionaire off of this, I want royalties!") I changed things a little, but this is essentially her creation. Thanks for sharing, Cyndi!


Oreo Pie

about 1 c. gluten free oreo cookie dough
8 oz. cream cheese
2 Tbs. butter
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 - 3/4 c. sugar (depending on how big your sweet tooth is)
a bunch* of gluten free oreos
1 - 1 1/2 c. heavy cream

Preheat oven to 375.

Press cookie dough evenly into a 9" pie plate, covering the bottom and the sides. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes, or until the cookie dough doesn't smoosh under your fingers when lightly touched. Remove from oven and cool thoroughly.

Using the whisk attachment of a stand mixer, cream together cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and sugar until smooth. Add oreos and mix well, leaving some larger pieces of cookie. Add cream and whisk on high speed until the mixture thickens and gets kind of fluffy. (This only takes about a minute with my mixer, but it's a really good one. It might take a little longer with a kitchen-aid.)

Spread filling into cooled crust. Garnish with additional oreos. Serve. Try not to eat the whole thing by yourself.

*This is a technical term that means "as many as you want." Cyndi says she uses a full pound of regular oreos. I probably used about half that much. I rolled about 2 cups of cookie dough out flat in the bottom of a 9x13 pan, baked it until it was firm in the middle, cut it into big rectangles with a cookie cutter, let it cool, filled them with lots of oreo filling, then threw them into the mixer.

Pumpkin Pancakes

Pancakes and waffles are one of the first foods I recommend to new gluten free cooks. The batter is easy to make, and they freeze and reheat well. They're great for peanut butter sandwiches, too. Besides which, it's easy to vary the recipe. This particular variation is one that my neighbor shared with me. The ones she brought me were full of wheat, but I was easily able to modify my own pancake recipe to re-create the delicious flavor.

Pumpkin Pancakes

1 1/2 c. Featherlight mix
1/2 c. GF mix
1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
½ tsp. salt
1 Tbs. baking powder
¼ c. sugar
¼ c. brown sugar
1 Tbs. cinnamon
3 dashes mace
3 eggs
1 ¾ c. milk
½ c. oil
1 c. pumpkin
¼ - ½ c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. In another bowl, combine eggs, milk, oil, and pumpkin. Add to dry ingredients and mix well (there should be few, if any, lumps). Stir in chocolate chips. Cook on a hot griddle until bubbles appear on the surface of the pancakes. Flip and cook on the other side. Leftover pancakes may be refrigerated (or frozen) and reheated in the microwave.

White Sandwich Bread . . . really!

Bread is one of the foods that people with Celiac Disease miss the most. Rolls, stuffing, sandwiches made from leftover turkey . . . all of these things require a bread recipe. If you want a GF bread that works well for all of these, try the following. People always say: "Wow! This tastes like bread!" Success!

Betsy's Favorite White Sandwich Bread Recipe

2 c. GF mix
1 c. Featherlight mix
1/4 c. sugar
2 ½ tsp. Xanthan gum
1 ½ tsp. Salt
3 ½ tsp. yeast
1/4 c. oil
1 3/4 c. warm water
1 tsp. Rice vinegar
3 eggs

Mix dry ingredients in large mixing bowl. Place yeast on top. (Don't mix it in yet!) Combine water, oil, and vinegar. Pour the water mixture on top of the yeast and let it sit for about 3-5 mintues. Mix well, then add eggs. Beat on high for 5 minutes.

Turn oven to 375. Grease 2 loaf pans or 12 english muffin rings on a 13x18 pan. Spoon into pans (or English Muffin rings), and let rise for 20 minutes. Bake loaf pans for about 35 minutes. Bake muffin rings for 20 minutes.

Thanksgiving! Aaaaggghhh!

So, I started this blog with the intention of posting a new recipe every week or so. And I did really well at first . . . but then life hit. There have been broken feet and thumbs, snapped achilles tendons, 5 different cases of strep throat, and a chronic sinus infection at my house. Not to mention the Halloween costumes I made for my kids (Belle, Indiana Jones, an Army guy, and a Poison Dart Frog). Well, let's just say I got a little busy.

But it's Thanksgiving in just 2 days! And I really NEED to post some holiday recipes! So my husband is packing the car for the 12 hour drive, and I'm typing away!