Our first Thanksgiving!

Welcome back from the Thanksgiving holiday! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday full of gluten free treats, family and friends. We certainly enjoyed ourselves!

We started the week off with dinner with my friend Samantha and her family. They made an amazing amount of Italian food, and we were touched not only to be included but also with the fact that they were so aware of cross-contamination, etc. They made a gluten free baked ziti dish for my husband, and made sure he had his own dish of gluten free sauce, and pointed out the other dishes on the table that were safe for him to eat. I know how much of a pain we can be to cook for, especially when there is a group of people, and we were very appreciative!

Then, on Thursday -- My husband and I hosted our first Thanksgiving. We're fortunate that both my parents and his are local, so we invited both of our immediate families for the holiday. We ended up with a total of eight people, three dogs, and two ferrets.

While I've roasted chickens before, this was my first turkey. I was also excited to finally have a chance to finally use the pretty china we selected before our wedding!

Our menu:

Appetizers:

• Cheese and crackers (we had "regular" crackers, as well as rice crackers and gluten free crackers).
• Veggies and dip (with extra green peppers for the puggle, she absolutely adores them)
  
• Homemade crab dip with freshly baked brown-rice-and-sorghum toast for spreading

Main course:

• 20-lb roast turkey and gravy
• Mashed potatoes
• Dressing, both traditional and gluten free cornbread (courtesy of both our mothers)
• Sweet potatoes and creamed white onions (two dishes, courtesy of my mother)
• Homemade applesauce (courtesy of my mother-in-law)
• Freshly baked dinner rolls
  
• Corn
• Peas
• Green beans
• Cranberry sauce

Dessert:

• Traditional pecan and pumpkin pies (non-gluten free, purchased from Grandma's)
  
• Gluten free apple pie from Laurie's Gluten Free Goodness, in Scotia
• Homemade gluten free coconut cream pie

Everything came out very well! There were two minor snags with the turkey, but neither of them affected the taste of the bird, which ended up juicy and delicious. However:

• We purchased an electronic thermometer that was supposed to alert us when the bird was "almost done," "done," and "overdone." I don't know if we stuck it in the wrong, er, location of the turkey or the contraption was just a piece of junk, but it beeped that my 20-lb. turkey was done two hours into the roasting cycle. We took the electronic thermometer out at that point and relied on the manual meat thermometer and pop-up timer in the bird itself.
  
• Most of our serving utensils, including our carving fork, are made of plastic. They presented an interested engineering problem when actually faced with removing the bird from the pan, but fortunately we were up to the challenge. :-)
  

Other than that, the meat fell off the bone and somehow, everything was done at the perfect time. So overall I'd consider the meal a success. We have finally reached the point where the leftovers are almost all gone!

The one note about the pie: I was very excited to try the pie from Laurie's gluten free goodness. It wasn't bad, but there was something missing. The apple filling was very tart and there wasn't a lot of sugar in the pie crust either. I would have preferred the filling and/or the crust to be slightly sweeter, though it was interesting to taste her crust!

Overall we had a wonderful time, and it kicked off holiday celebrations just right!