I celebrated my 73rd birthday Dunday with a gluten free spice cake from a mix by Namasta foods. My grandchildren were flabbergasted when they saw me eating it — they had no clue that this great cake was gluten free. When I sat down to write this post, I was surprised that not only is it gluten free, but it contains now soy, corn, potato, dairy, casein, peanuts or tree nuts, and is Kosher.

My other ‘favorite cake’ for the year was a strawberry angelfood cake (a mix from Kinnickinik)  that the family enjoyed at Thanksgiving. Wonderful cake recipes came bakes returned to my gluten free life this year. Click here to read more about it.

While we are on the subject of gluten free cake, you might consider these three recipes for gluten free fruitcake or these three cheesecake recipes (one of them is actually a video demonstration).

Interested in more articles like this? Click on the category GLUTEN FREE RECIPES at the top of the page. To narrow things down further, click on the two arrows after the category title to see the sub-categories.

Try these “Five Easy Gluten Free Kwanzaa Recipes”. If you need more ideas, here are five more recipes provided by Triumph Dining.

When I began researching this article, I had heard of this celebration but really knew almost nothing about it. I discovered that it is one of the few holidays young enough to have an official web site and that its frequently-asked-questions section contained lots of interesting information.

This recipe for “Steakhouse Potato Salad” really looked great to me. Finally, watch this video in which ‘Grandma Martha‘ prepares candied yams while discussing Kuanzaa with her grandson.

In all the recipes that I examined, most suggest using alcoholic beverages of some sort but specify that this is optional. Also, all the recipes require flour but I see no reason why gluten free flour mixes could not be used.

Here are three more recipes for gluten free fruit cake. In all three of these, the writers slip in comments to the effect that fruit cake baked at home is superior to anything purchased commercially. I hope they are right! Since the three titles almost exactly the same, I will simply suggest that you click here and/or here.

My last suggestion is not a recipe but a musical tribute to the the fruit cake. Enjoy “Grandma’s Killer Fruit Cake”

People living gluten free can enjoy fruitcake during the holidays or at any other time of year. In researching this post, I read one blog stating that one of the good things about celiac disease is that it gives you an excuse to avoid fruitcake. Opinions differ on this question.

♦  If you are pro-fruitcake, try this recipe published by Whole Foods.

♦  This article from Celiac dot com includes an excellent recipe.

♦ This recipe comes from a blogger who believes that “cooking’s not rocket science”.

Delicious side dishes are important in any holiday feast. Here are two choices — both involving pecans, one of my favorite holiday tastes.

This pecan-topped sweet potato casserole is a wonderful addition to any holiday meal. It’s gluten free if you used gluten free bisquick instead of regular flour (I know that from personal experience) and double-check to make sure that the vanilla you use is celiac-safe.

Our second demonstration is labeled “gluten free pecan pie”. It tastes great! But why alienate some of gluten-free-phobics by presenting them a crustless pie. Just cook the same recipe in a brownie pan or muffin tins or anything else that does not suggest “pie”.

The final “episode” of this series will talk about holiday pies — the final event in most Thanksgiving or Christmas feasts. Before the big day arrives, you may wish to view (or review) all these episodes in this series. To do so, scroll down to the end of this article (past all the ads) and click on the red tag that says “holiday dinner”. You will be taken to a page that will show the first paragraph of each episode and link you to the complete article.

Published 11/12/10

On Saturday, I posted an article about preparing a Thanksgiving (or any holiday) roast turkey. I was writing for inexperienced cooks using some of America’s best demonstrators — the people over at YouTube. Today we’ll talk about turkey gravy and will continue this series until we have covered all the essentials.

The second demonstration from the last session talked briefly about preparing gluten free gravy. She pointed out that the only thing different about “gluten free gravy” is that it is thickened by something other than wheat flour.

Today’s first demonstration expresses the same point-of-view and gives specifics about what to use as a thickener.

Our second demonstrator prefers a more “flavorful” gravy.

Our next session will deal with preparing holiday turkey dressing.

Publish 11/01/10

You Tube has given us the tools to prepare a Halloween party for gluten children and all their wheat-eating friends. I recommend showing these four short videos and challenge your children to prepare a party that everyone will enjoy. The celiac party planners will both build their creativity, hone their gluten free skills by recognizing where “safe” substitution are needed, and have ball doing all the above. The four videos are:

♦ Floating Hand Pizza — I’m not sure why this called a pizza, but…

♦ Graveyard Brownies — The brownies are cooked ahead of time, so children will need to select a gluten free brownie mix, gluten free cookies for the topping, and celiac-friendly frosting for the toppings.

♦ Creepy Crawler Cupcakes — everything can be made from gluten free ingredients, but the video does not mention this fact. The young holiday planner will have to make decisions.

♦ Bloody Finger Cookies — here again, choices will be necessary. Since pre-made gluten free dough is very hard to find, they will need to improvise.

I’ll publish three more video/recipes tomorrow so that you will have an even greater selection. These will be made from naturally gluten free ingredient making them easier on the wallet and the stomach.

PLEASE NOTE: As of today there are seven articles related to “gluten free Halloween” at this website. I have summarized everything I know on my Power Page “Gluten Free Halloween“.

Why would a person want to make their own gluten free food mixes? The answer involves four key words:

♦ MONEY. You save money by buying your ingredients in quantity. Also, if you package your mixes attractively, they make wonderful gifts for family and friends.

♦ TIME: You can make up your mixes at a time that is convenient for you. You don’t have to do everything during your busy meal-preparation time.

♦ APPEAL: You can customize your mix to suit the needs and tastes of your family. Giving your family some input the composition of the mix might make them more enthusiastic about eating gluten free.

♦ CONVENIENCE: Since your packets will be much smaller than the contains for the individual ingredients. they are much easier to store. (Remember to store your mixes in the refrigerator or freezer). You can place a few packets in a suitcase and be ready to cook when you arrive at your destination.

In short, do-it-yourself mixes have all the advantages of cooking from “scratch” and all the convenience of cooking with mixes. Click here for recipes for gluten free mixes provided by www.budget101.com.

Making your own gluten free mixes says cooking money and money. Click here to read more ideas about “Gluten Free on a Budget“.

Here are recipes for gluten free dumplings.

♦ a recipe from About Gluten Free Cooking: requiring amaranth, all purpose gluten free flour mix, tapioca starch, guar gum

♦ from the blog “Hey, That Tasted Good“: specifying white rice flour, brown rice flour, potato starch, and tapioca starch.

I have written several articles about handling gluten free holiday leftovers. To browse through them, scroll down to the bottom of this page and find the tag that says “gluten free leftovers”. Your computer will create a special page including excepts from each of the articles that have a similar tag. Click on the excerpt to read the entire article.

My wife and I used this wonderful book during a time when she was too ill to cook for several months. The deacons of our chuch were willing and eager to help but had no idea how to do so. We talked to them about cross contamination and related issues, but The Gluten Free Kitchen provided the recipes they needed.

I’d also recommend this book to anyone who is just starting out on the gluten free diet and can’t afford to purchase lots of celiac friendly specialty items. Everything except guar gum, xanthan gum, and potato starch (which is not the same thing as potato flour) can be purchased at any virtually any grocery store.This is one of the first cookbooks we purchased after my diagnosis in 1999. It has served us well.

Click on the picture below to order this cookbook from Amazon:

♦ RecipeZaar includes 2783 recipes indexed as “gluten free” and “Thanksgiving”. The only real problem is TMI (too much information).

♦ If that collection does not satisfy your needs, check out the “Gluten Free Thanksgiving Roundup” posted on the blog “Gluten Free Bay”. All items on this blog are both gluten free and kosher.

♦ Dressing is an issue at every holiday meal, particularly since it traditionally involves bread. Check out this article that will link you to ten gluten free stuffing recipes. For a bonus, try this recipe from The Savvy Celiac.

♦ Try this collection of “Gluten Free Dessert Recipes”

♦ Forgive the sarcastic comment in the first paragraph. Actually the vast amount of gluten free information is something to be thankful for. All that I remember about my first gluten free Thanksgiving in 1999 is that dinner was awful. Now we have a myriad of choices. This article could contain a thousand items. Perhaps the best solution to a wonderful problem like TMI (too much information) is to let someone else do the planning. The links given in my last article should help. You may want to have a look at this article “An Easy Gluten Free Thanksgiving Menu with Recipes” which even includes a shopping list.

Everything I know about a gluten free Thanksgiving is summarized on my power page “Gluten Free Thanksgiving”. Click here or click on the tab at the top of the page.

Try these three recipes for gluten free flour tortillas. This recipe includes a “tutorial” complete with photographs about how to roll out the dought. Working with gluten free dough is never easy!

Here are two more recipes worth trying — one from celiac.com and the other from recipezaar.com.

My apologies to the people who were totally confused by my first article about gluten free flour tortillas. I’m not sure what happened. The material involved was “lost in cyberspace” during the transition from the old blog format to this new site.