Preparing for the Holiday

When managing a gluten-free lifestyle, on holidays, for travel and particularly for both at the same time, advance planning goes a long way toward ensuring a good time is had by all. For the Thanksgiving holiday, B. and I will be heading south to spend the week with his family. We leave Saturday morning, which means that this week, I'm busy preparing.

Beside obviously getting clothing ready for the much warmer weather than we have here in the Midwest right now, I'm also compiling the various food items I'll need for the duration. Like most trips, I'll have my stash of bars and treats available for snacks and in case breakfast proves difficult. But because it is a holiday, and because we can't be certain of the availability of essential gluten-free items, we're taking quite a bit with us, too.

A partial list of those pantry items we're packing:

• Ener-G breadcrumbs
• Breads From Anna pumpkin bread mix
• Tinkyada pasta shells
• MimiCreme cream substitute
• Namaste pizza crust

And so on ...

I'm looking forward to discovering new gluten-free resources there and along the way, but again, as I can't be certain of what we'll find, I'm going prepared.

We also have called ahead to the area Fresh Market and ordered fresh turkey, as well as made sure that the store will be carrying products we need, like Pacific Foods' chicken broth and perishable items that can't be brought with us like Andrew & Everett shredded cheese (it's casein-free!).

When we get down there, I'm going to be doing a lot of the cooking. Gluten-free is somewhat of an unchartered territory for B.'s family, so we'll be demonstrating what's involved. (I did have some initial reservations about taking over someone else's kitchen for a week, but I have been assured that it's more than OK with everyone. I like to cook; they don't. I have dietary restrictions; it's just easier for everybody this way.) In order to plan ahead, B. and I have had several conversations about the various menus, including Thanksgiving brunch and dinner, and Iron Bowl nosh, to suit all palates and dietary needs.

Actually, my preparations are not all that different than they would be if we were staying home; the only real difference is having it all organized before we leave -- just a little bit sooner than I might have otherwise.

Expectations are high during major holidays like Thanksgiving, particularly when it comes to the meal. It's almost as if gorging oneself is actually sanctioned. Yet, add certain allergen-free requirements to the mix, and it's a potential recipe for disaster. Holidays can be a challenge when living gluten-free -- more so at the beginning when you're still adjusting to the lifestyle change, although even after several years, the possibility for disappointment can remain high.

Making sure everyone can partake in the special meal is important. Because I'm the one with the restrictions, I tend to cook to ensure I'm happy with the outcome. But for families hosting gf(cf) members, here are some suggestions:

• Processed frozen turkeys often have additives that render them not gluten-free, so fresh turkey is the best option for the gf menu.
• Have a gluten-free bread available -- savory and/or sweet. I'm making pumpkin bread this year. I may also make an herb bread too, if inspiration strikes.
  
• Stuffing is a traditional Thanksgiving menu item. You could say it doesn't seem like Thanksgiving without it. That said, in the past, I never really cared for stuffing -- I didn't like the texture, and it never sat well; now I know why. Instead of a bread-based side, now I typically make a gf wild rice version.
• A word on dairy- or casein-free mashed potatoes: they're easy to do without any special products. Boil and mash the potatoes per usual, except when you would normally add milk and butter, conserve some of the cooking water and use that instead, along with some chicken broth, and salt and pepper. The result: flavorful, moist potatoes.
• A gf dessert of some sort is a must. Only watching while everyone else indulges is not fun. It doesn't have to be pumpkin pie. Baked apples would be a good seasonal alternative that everyone could enjoy.
  

In short, if there's a tradition in your family when it comes to the meal, try to make it gluten-free if at all possible. Otherwise, the person who can't partake will feel excluded -- not a sentiment you want to evoke on what's supposed to be an inclusive celebration.

So, whether it's at home or 1,000 miles away, it helps to think ahead as to what you'll need in the kitchen to make it a gluten-free holiday -- and a happy one at that.

Lunch!

While I make risotto regularly and frequently use the leftovers to create arancini , it didn't occur to me to try another format until I watched Barefoot Contessa's Ina Garten create risotto cakes. Inspired, I put my own gluten-free spin on them. They take much less time to make than arancini, and they fry up beautifully, making for a quick, hot, albeit hearty, meal.

On Being a Regular

I love being a regular at restaurants and cafes. It makes your dining experience so much more personal. A good restaurant will make its patrons feel welcome on their first respective visit, but there's something to be said about being greeted very warmly on your 20th or 100th visit, when the staff knows you're a regular customer who appreciates their efforts.

Until the economy caused some strict belt-tightening, I used to go to a Starbucks near my office almost every day. The manager and baristas knew me by name, sight and drink -- sometimes my tall americano, no room, would be waiting for me by the time I parked my car and came inside. Now that's service.

Frequenting an establishment often also can make dining out much easier for those managing allergen concerns.

Finding a suitable place when you have dietary restrictions does involve some trial and error. Initially, you have to go through the process of asking questions about the menu, making sure your server understands your needs, then assuming you enjoy your food and suffer no ill effects after the first visit, you go back and repeat the process. But once you find a place that will accommodate you and your particular concerns -- and do it well -- it's wonderful to know you can rely on eating there safely. The staff gets to know you; you, them. And you build a relationship with a restaurant much like you do with any other -- it grows over time.

There are those places I've tried to which I won't return. If I've gotten sick from a restaurant's meal, it's clearly a no-go in the future. Less obviously off-limits are the places where I've been accommodated, but only very grudgingly. If, at any time during a restaurant visit, it's made apparent that meeting special dietary needs exceeds the kitchen's abilities, believe me, I'll be more than willing to take my business elsewhere next time. It isn't worth the hassle or discomfort, and I'd much rather patronize a place that is only too happy to meet my needs.

Fortunately, my go-to list is growing. Two of my favorites:

Very often for lunch or brunch I can be found at Townhouse Cafe (Out for Lunch), a charming place where I feel very comfortable and welcome.

Every second Wednesday of the month, you can be sure to find my posse and me at Ina's, enjoying the gluten-free fried chicken dinner there. I first wrote about Ina's more than a year ago (Fried Chicken Heaven), and save for twice during my health crisis this summer, we haven't missed one since she began hosting the event in mid-2008.



We have standing reservations at 7 p.m. at the large table in the front -- stop by and say hi! If you haven't had a chance to try the chicken dinner, do; you can look forward to a wonderful meal you can savor without worry. Gluten-free beer is stocked, and there's always a gf bread of some sort to partake before your meal arrives.



The regular gluten-free chicken is accompanied by cold slaw and mashed potatoes; the dairy-free version that I get comes with steamed vegetables and mashed sweet potatoes. The portions are so generous that you're likely to have leftovers, too.



It doesn't get much better than that.

A Partial Cooking History

It's funny to me that I didn't start getting creative with cooking until after I had a number of dietary restrictions.

I was a decent cook before. I could follow a recipe, modify it slightly -- I could tell if the dish required tweaking: less salt, more breadcrumbs, that sort of thing -- and it would turn out well, but that was the extent of my culinary flexibility. I had always been more of a baker, and in baking, recipes many times need to be followed to the letter to come out properly.

It wasn't until my late-20s when someone told me he was surprised I relied on recipes (he didn't) that it occurred to me to attempt to cook without them. He didn't mean it as an insult -- I'm very creative in many ways, and it just seemed to him that I would be inventive in the kitchen. I didn't take offense, but I did take it as a challenge.

Playing in the kitchen without a guided approach was daunting, however. I remember one night in my teens, my mother quickly made a wonderful new chicken dish from scratch, with no recipe, only using what she had on hand. A girlfriend who had stayed for dinner and I both were amazed -- having that kind of knowledge or ability seemed unattainable. Although I was a more experienced cook by the time his offhand comment was made, I still had the notion that I needed a cookbook in front of me to be able to make anything appetizing. Yet the gauntlet had been thrown.

The few times I initially did try to make something of my own creation were disasters. My first attempt at a homemade marina on the fly was inedible; into the trash it went. Bruschetta came out soggy and sad. Pork chops were dry, bland and boring. And so it went. Failures simply reinforced the perceived need for someone else's established recipes.

Jump ahead a few years, and eliminate all products containing wheat, barley, oats, rye, casein and soy, as well as salmon and avocado. Relied-upon recipes were no longer viable options, and meals were humdrum. Plain burgers are not exciting, let me tell you, and having rice pasta day after day gets very old. Eating out was no better; if even I could get a meal safe to consume, I generally could make a better one at home that also was cheaper and less stressful to find.

Necessity truly is the mother of invention, I suppose. Unless I wanted to keep eating the same tired things, I had to revisit the way I looked at food and create my own dishes.

I challenged myself to get inventive. Dietary restrictions do not mean a person's palate is undeveloped; I appreciate good food now just as much as before, maybe more so. Even though I have to eat gluten-free, etc., I still want to have nice meals.

An eventual small success in the kitchen encouraged me to continue, and fortunately, I had started having more successes than not. I finally became comfortable with the process of trial and error in creating my own recipes. It has become fun to evaluate what works, what doesn't. Don't get me wrong: I still want every meal to be perfect. It's just that a bad meal now doesn't mean abject failure; it simply means there's room for improvement.

I subsequently have had pizza crust turn out like glue. I've served bland chicken. Risotto has been something approaching tasteless. But for all those kitchen catastrophes, I've also had soaring triumphs completely of my own making, which, I might add, also exponentially outnumber the disasters. Meanwhile, with each of those unsatisfactory meals, I've learned something. The bad pizza crust taught me about the difference in oils and oven temperatures. Boring chicken reminded me about building flavor profiles. The risotto deemed OK instead of Great! indicated just how much the wine and chicken broth used in the dish influence the final outcome. All good lessons learned.

I do find it ironic that I'm a better cook now, under far more limitations, than I was when I had any and all ingredients at my disposal. Perhaps without restrictions, though, I might not have felt the need to get creative.



I'm slowly building a collection of dishes. You could say last night's dinner represents where I am in my culinary journey. Shepherd's pie is a hearty comfort food, perfect for crisp fall evenings, and this one is entirely of my own making.

A Happy Halloween

I didn't get huge numbers of trick-or-treaters this Halloween, but one in particular made it a memorable holiday for me anyway.

I don't have children yet, but I'm aware that when I do, it's possible that they may have celiac disease, too. So that possibility's got me thinking about how to ensure they have happy childhoods, how to create positive experiences when celebrating milestones typical in their younger years -- trick-or-treating, birthday parties, and so on. I also wonder about children with food allergies and how their parents handle those events. I don't think children who already must feel different should feel excluded or end up with bad memories of what should be happy times.

All this was in the back of my mind when I purchased Halloween candy to pass out. I always try to get "good candy" -- you know, the Halloween candy, generally chocolate, that you horded when you were little, not the kind that you were willing to trade or that was left over weeks later, uneaten and forgotten. Remember the disappointment felt if you got more "bad" candy than "good" candy? I do. So I give out "good" candy. Likewise, I wanted to be sure that, just in case, I had something good for those children who might not be able to eat most candy, much less the so-called "good" candy.

So, beside the bowl of regular candy was a smaller bowl with allergen-free treats. I didn't know if I would need it, but there it was, a statement, if only to me, that gluten-free or allergic kids deserve their share of fun, too.



Fast-forward to the witching hour on Halloween, aka trick-or-treating hours, which in my neighborhood run from about 3 p.m. until 7 p.m. The candy was out, the jack-o-lanterns lit, the witch costume donned; I was ready.

Late in the afternoon, a crew of about half a dozen children came to the door. "Trick or treat!" As I began putting handfuls of candy into the outstretched bags, seeing what was being given, one little boy exclaimed, "But I'm allergic to peanuts!"

"Well, I have something special just for you!"

"You do? What is it?"

And he got a handful of Glee Gum, which is, among other things, peanut-free. Was I happy I had it ready to go!

He was, too, I think. As I shut the door, through the window panes, I saw him showing his dad, who was waiting on the sidewalk, his bag of candy. The dad waved.

A happy Halloween, indeed.