My Dairy Free Thanksgiving Table

Thanksgiving is only a couple short weeks away, and most us of are already planning either our menu or where we are going to spend the day. For those of us with food intolerances or allergies, this can turn into a rather difficult challenge. Most holiday food, especially for gatherings, has a lot of dairy in it that is both hidden and obvious. If you are playing hostess for the day, trying to decide what to serve non dairy-free people can be tough, especially if they are used to eating all things with cream, milk, butter, and cheese.

This year we are going to be spending the day with my parents. It's no secret that Thanksgiving is my Mom's holiday in our family. She hosts Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve, I get Christmas Day. It works out very well. Ever since I was a kid she always made the dinner, and it was/is always absolutely delicious. My favorite smell (other than the smell of my babies) is walking into her house on Thanksgiving Day. It takes me back to my childhood every time.

~Thanksgiving a few years ago~


There have been a few years in my adulthood that we haven't spent Thanksgiving with my parents, but not many. Usually the years they go to visit my brother and his family we spend the day with my in-laws, and I host at our house. But even the few years we have been on our own, I have stuck with her traditional menu. Last year we hosted friends of ours from South Africa who had never celebrated Thanksgiving. They brought a few of their traditional foods to share, such as Bobotie and a Trifle. We watched the Macy's parade, made Shirley Temples for the girls, drank mimosas, and ate until we couldn't eat anymore. This year they have taken our holiday back to South Africa with them and are sharing the day with friends of theirs who also used to live in the States.

~Last year's Thanksgiving~



Mom and I have come up with our traditional Thanksgiving menu this week so we can get our shopping done early. My oldest has also picked out the centerpiece she wants to make.

What we have to look forward to:
*denotes what I am bringing

Appetizers
~Veggies and a dairy free sour cream dip*. (this dip is a tradition in our family- Mom has been making it for years, and luckily I have figured out a way to make it dairy free. I will share the super simple recipe in a later post)
~Roasted Red Pepper Pesto Dip*
~Mini Crab Cakes*
~Mimosas

Dinner:
~Fresh- not frozen- Turkey: simply oven roasted, not stuffed (takes longer and dries out the breast meat)
~Mom's homemade Stuffing. So simple, yet SO GOOD.
~Mashed Potatoes
~Peas
~Mashed Butternut Squash with Cinnamon and Nutmeg*
~Roasted Acorn Squash (Recipe will be posted after Thanksgiving)
~Green Bean Casserole*
~Candied Yams
~Sweet Potato Cornbread*
~Mom's Homemade Cranberry Orange Relish (recipe will be posted)
~Dinner Rolls
~Stuffed Celery Plate*
~Pickle and Olive Platter

Dessert:
~Apple Pie
~Sweet Potato Pie*
~Pumpkin Pie*
~Pumpkin cupcakes

Of course we will also have wine with dinner, coffee or tea with dessert.

That's a lot of food and we are definitely going to have leftovers! Luckily it will be cooked between 2 kitchens. Seems like a lot of work, but between Mom, Dad, David, and myself we get it all done very efficiently. This year my oldest is also very excited to get to help make dinner. Last year she got to help make dessert.




So there you have it- our Dairy Free Thanksgiving. Just because you are Dairy Free does not mean you have to miss out on a good meal. And it does not mean you need to spend hours slaving over a meal of fancy or strange dishes that dairy loving people may not like. You can have a simple, elegant, comforting, delicious meal and no one will ever even know you cook without dairy. Sometimes simple is better.

What is on your Dairy Free Thanksgiving table this year?

Happy Cooking this Thanksgiving!!

Fresh Idea- Oven Roasted Green Beans

All summer long we have been getting fresh green beans from our CSA. While we were at the beach my mother in law roasted some of our fresh green beans. I had never done them this way, usually I boil them or saute them. So I was pleasantly surprised to discover this new (to me at least) method of cooking fresh green beans.
I actually had no plans for tonight's dinner, as my husband was at a business dinner in DC, so it was just myself and my 3 girls. I decided on sauteed tofu with pea shoots and bok choy over rice, and the oven roasted green beans. I did boil a small amount of the beans for the Littlest Girl, I don't think she's quite ready for garlic yet:-)

This is so simple, yet so very good.

All you need is:
1 lb Fresh green beans, rinsed and the ends snapped off
2 cloves of garlic, minced
olive oil- I eyeballed it, but it was about a tablespoon or so
salt and pepper


Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with olive oil spray to prevent sticking.

Toss green beans with garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. Make sure they are coated well.



Spread on the baking pan. Cook for about 20 minutes, or until they start to wrinkle slightly.



These were absolutely perfect for tonight's dinner- quick, easy, and kid friendly. And yes, my kids eat tofu- all three of them. The husband, however, is a different story:-)

Baked Cornish Game Hens with Green Beans and Tomatoes

We had a good friend over for dinner tonight since her Fiance is out of town. I wanted something that was relatively simple to make, but that was a little less "everyday". I decided on Cornish game hens stuffed with lemon, onion, and garlic, with roasted rosemary potatoes and green beans with tomatoes and garlic. None of this came from a cookbook.

Oven Baked Cornish Game Hens:
4 game hens
1 lemon
1 sweet onion
1 bulb garlic
olive oil
dried rosemary
salt and pepper to taste


It's hard to take picture of raw poultry when you're preparing it, so I took this about 15 minutes into cooking, after I cleaned up.

Method:
Slice a lemon and an onion each into quarters. Peel several cloves of garlic.
Wash hens and place breast side down on a rack in a roasting pan.
Squeeze the lemon wedges over the hens. Stuff one lemon wedge into each hen, along with a quarter of the onion, and a couple cloves of garlic.
Brush olive oil on top of each hen.
Sprinkle each hen with ground salt, ground pepper, and dried (.or fresh) rosemary
Cover with aluminum foil. Bake at 400 degrees. for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, remove foil. Continue cooking, allowing the skin to brown, until juices run clear.




Green Beans with Tomatoes and Garlic:
Ingredients:
whole green beans- I used Traders Joes organic frozen green beans
1/2 pint grape tomatoes, halved
2 cloves garlic, minced
teaspoon dried Thyme
teaspoon dried Rosemary. (In the summer I prefer to use fresh herbs)
Tablespoon Olive Oil.



Method:
Preheat oil in pan, add minced garlic, thyme, and rosemary and cook for about 30 seconds.
Add green beans, turn down the heat, and cover. Let cook until the beans thaw and are hot. If using fresh green beans (I do in the summertime when they are available) boil them to al dente then add to the pan.
Add about a teaspoon more oil if the pan is dry, and add tomatoes.
Cook until tomatoes are soft.




We served it with roasted red potatoes and rolls. For wine we paired it with a nice Reisling.