Menu Plan, Thanksgiving Edition

Last week's menu plan went pretty well. The only substitution was that instead of spaghetti with Italian sausage, I decided to make sausage and peppers instead. YUM!

Yesterday, we met some friends for dinner at Van's Vietnamese Restaurant on Central Ave, Albany. It was absolutely amazing. I completely loved the experience and will be back again soon. Afterwards, we went to a small birthday celebration at a friend's house, where they made an absolutely divine flourless chocolate cake from the America's Test Kitchen cookbook. YUM!

Now, given the fact that it's that time of year again, and we're hosting a combined Thanksgiving with our families for the second year in a row, I'm not bothering with a weekly menu plan this week. Mostly because, after cleaning the house to pass the white-glove test and taking Wednesday off to spend the day cooking, I foresee takout in our future; and hopefully leftovers after the big day!

Let's do something more fun and talk about what we'll be serving for Thanksgiving dinner.

Right now, we're expecting eight people: hubby and myself, our parents, my sister-in-law and hubby's uncle. I wanted to get my favorite low-cost pinot grigio, Ecco Domani, but unfortunately Empire Wine was out of it when I went there this weekend so I picked up Cavit pinot grigio to sip throughout the day. Most people usually stick with that for the turkey, but we have Blackstone pinot noir on hand as well for red-wine drinkers.

Appetizers:

• A hot crab dip, consisting of canned claw meat crab, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, and scallions. Mixed together and baked at 350 until bubbly, topped with extra cheddar cheese and baked for another 10 minutes, and served with freshly baked and toasted whole-grain gluten free bread for toasting. (Sorghum and brown rice flour are perfect for this!)
  
• To go along with the whole grain toast, I'll have a bowl of Trader Joe's olive tapenade to spread on slices. YUM!
• Shrimp cocktail, a holiday staple.
  
• An assorted cheese and cracker spread.
  

Dinner

• We've purchased a 25-lb. turkey, which we'll be roasting, and of course, making gravy from scratch.
  
• Both "regular" and gluten free stuffing, to be prepared by my mother and mother-in-law, respectively.
  
• Mashed potatoes
• My mother's famous sweet potatoes, with liberal amounts of marshmallow and brown sugar
• Creamed white onions (using sweet rice flour to thicken the sauce)
  
• My mother-in-law's famous applesauce
  
• Southern corn-bread, using the recipe from America's Test Kitchen (it only calls for corn meal, so it's naturally gluten free!)
  
• Homemade cranberry sauce
• Italian-style whole green beans, tossed in garlic and olive oil
• Kernel corn tossed in butter
• Peas

Dessert

• Non-gluten free pumpkin and pecan pies, purchased from FoCastle Farms
• Gluten free apple pie, with a pie crust from Gluten Free Girl's wonderful site
  
• Gluten free pumpkin pie, with a pie crust made up of crushed gluten free graham crackers
• Pecan cloud cookies
• And, of course, vanilla ice cream and Starbucks (decaf) coffee. Irish coffee optional. ;-)
  

Fortunately, the last piece of cardio equipment for our home gym will be delivered and set up for Black Friday post-food-comatose workouts. :)

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! What are your plans??

Monster cookies!

Some girlfriends and I started a monthly book club a little over a year ago. For December we selected The Christmas Cookie Club by Ann Pearlman, and we decided that, to go with the theme of the book, it would be nice to bring cookies and wine and do a holiday cookie swap. (Okay, so full disclosure, we decided to do that before selecting the book, but it fits in very nicely).

As you can imagine, most holiday treats aren't gluten free. However, one of my girlfriends brought monster cookies which can very easily be made gluten free -- no recipe substitutions, just using gluten free oats! The recipe for monster cookies can be found on the Food Network website, and here it is:

Ingredients

* 3 eggs
* 1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
* 1 cup granulated sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 12-ounce jar creamy peanut butter
* 1 stick butter, softened
* 1/2 cup multi-colored chocolate candies
* 1/2 cup chocolate chips
* 1/4 cup raisins, optional
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 4 1/2 cups quick-cooking oatmeal (not instant)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats.

In a very large mixing bowl, combine the eggs and sugars. Mix well. Add the salt, vanilla, peanut butter, and butter. Mix well. Stir in the chocolate candies, chocolate chips, raisins, if using, baking soda, and oatmeal. Drop by tablespoons 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Do not overbake. Let stand for about 3 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool. When cool, store in large resealable plastic bags.

To make this recipe gluten free, make sure to use gluten free oats (and gluten free vanilla extract, non-contaminated peanut butter, etc. etc. etc.) and that's pretty much all that you need to do! It's nice to have another recipe that doesn't need a lot of modification. The cookies are absolutely delicious and I'm adding them to the list of cookies we're planning to make.

The one modification that I'm planning to make is omitting the chocolate candies and chocolate chips from the cookies -- since my husband doesn't eat chocolate and I want to be able to share these gluten free goodies! We may just make plain cookies, but I'm going to try them this weekend with some shredded coconut. Yum!!!