Thanksgiving Comes First - Day 1
In order to continue the Thanksgiving Comes First trend, I am going to try and write one entry per day until November 25 on something I am either grateful for or on some cherished Thanksgiving memory or story.
Today, I'll start with a bit of memory.
A few years ago, my dad was doing a bit of research online and ran across the symptoms for Celiac Disease, and he thought that might be the issue that has caused him to get pretty uselessly sick for days at a time ever since he was in his mid-to-late twenties. After a few experiments, he noticed that if he cut breads and other foods containing wheat from his diet, his health started improving. Not long after that, our family home pretty much became a gluten-free zone. Needless to say, that ended up having a bit of an effect on our Thanksgiving Dinner.
Thanksgiving is traditionally at my grandmother's house (mom's side), and she handles the Big Things like the turkey and the mashed potatoes, but everyone else brings their own dish to share. Since my mom has five other siblings, and all of them bar one married and had two to three kids each, and in turn, at least 50% of those kids now have children of their own... well, suffice to say there is never any shortage of food. The down side of that, though, was the fact that there was going to be all this food there, and chances are my dad would only be able to eat a very small percentage of it. No stuffing, no pie, no biscuits, no bars or cakes or most of the other desserts, and that is just what I can remember off the top of my head.
So, we decided to bring a few gluten-free dishes for Dad's benefit, one of which was a gluten-free brownie recipe my mom had found somewhere. I didn't try it, but I saw when my mom was making it, and the batter was far from the traditional gooey brownie mixture I was used to seeing. Instead it looked like a kind of dry, slightly crumbly ball of brownie-colored tar, and my mothers words as she was trying to mix it were "Wow, this is really really dense." Not really a promising start, but I figure it was worth a try if Dad could get his gooey chocolate fix even if he wasn't allowed to have any of the other desserts.
When the brownies came out of the oven, though, they looked much more normal. A little crumbly, maybe, and possibly a little darker than usual, but still not bad. We didn't taste test them, though, and maybe we should have.
Anyway, we arrived at Gramma and Grampa's without incident, and I caught up with my cousins while Mom caught up with her mother and sisters while she helped out in the kitchen, and Dad started trading stories with everyone else in the living room. About an hour and a half later, the food was set out, the tables were spread, and we all sat down to dinner. It was pretty typical for a Meyer Thanksgiving - we traded stories with those who were sharing the table with us, we laughed and joked and had a grand old old time as we all ate way too much. There is always room for dessert, though, right? Especially at Thanksgiving.
Our gluten-free brownies were sitting innocently at the dessert table, neatly arranged and looking no different from all of the brownies that we had shared during Dinners of Holidays Past. First one to give into the temptation was my uncle Steve, and when took a big chomp of one of the brownies, I hear the look on his face was rather priceless. I am sad to say I missed the actual expression, but I did hear the whole table break out into laughter - it would seem that gluten free brownies (at least this brand) taste kind of like energy bars, and not very good ones at that. Not quite the fluffy chocolaty goodness my poor uncle was expecting.
My cousin Talia was next, and I did actually get to see her face when she bit into it, unaware of my uncle's previous experience with the gluten-free dessert. It wasn't quite the laugh Steve had gotten, but she did kind of scrunch up her face like she had bitten into something unpleasant. Warned by their expressions, though, I decided I really didn't need to try them for myself.
And no, we never tried the gluten free brownies again. My mom has come up with an incredibly tasty gluten-free dessert crust, though, so at least we learned from past mistakes. :)
One day down, nineteen more to go.
Today, I'll start with a bit of memory.
A few years ago, my dad was doing a bit of research online and ran across the symptoms for Celiac Disease, and he thought that might be the issue that has caused him to get pretty uselessly sick for days at a time ever since he was in his mid-to-late twenties. After a few experiments, he noticed that if he cut breads and other foods containing wheat from his diet, his health started improving. Not long after that, our family home pretty much became a gluten-free zone. Needless to say, that ended up having a bit of an effect on our Thanksgiving Dinner.
Thanksgiving is traditionally at my grandmother's house (mom's side), and she handles the Big Things like the turkey and the mashed potatoes, but everyone else brings their own dish to share. Since my mom has five other siblings, and all of them bar one married and had two to three kids each, and in turn, at least 50% of those kids now have children of their own... well, suffice to say there is never any shortage of food. The down side of that, though, was the fact that there was going to be all this food there, and chances are my dad would only be able to eat a very small percentage of it. No stuffing, no pie, no biscuits, no bars or cakes or most of the other desserts, and that is just what I can remember off the top of my head.
So, we decided to bring a few gluten-free dishes for Dad's benefit, one of which was a gluten-free brownie recipe my mom had found somewhere. I didn't try it, but I saw when my mom was making it, and the batter was far from the traditional gooey brownie mixture I was used to seeing. Instead it looked like a kind of dry, slightly crumbly ball of brownie-colored tar, and my mothers words as she was trying to mix it were "Wow, this is really really dense." Not really a promising start, but I figure it was worth a try if Dad could get his gooey chocolate fix even if he wasn't allowed to have any of the other desserts.
When the brownies came out of the oven, though, they looked much more normal. A little crumbly, maybe, and possibly a little darker than usual, but still not bad. We didn't taste test them, though, and maybe we should have.
Anyway, we arrived at Gramma and Grampa's without incident, and I caught up with my cousins while Mom caught up with her mother and sisters while she helped out in the kitchen, and Dad started trading stories with everyone else in the living room. About an hour and a half later, the food was set out, the tables were spread, and we all sat down to dinner. It was pretty typical for a Meyer Thanksgiving - we traded stories with those who were sharing the table with us, we laughed and joked and had a grand old old time as we all ate way too much. There is always room for dessert, though, right? Especially at Thanksgiving.
Our gluten-free brownies were sitting innocently at the dessert table, neatly arranged and looking no different from all of the brownies that we had shared during Dinners of Holidays Past. First one to give into the temptation was my uncle Steve, and when took a big chomp of one of the brownies, I hear the look on his face was rather priceless. I am sad to say I missed the actual expression, but I did hear the whole table break out into laughter - it would seem that gluten free brownies (at least this brand) taste kind of like energy bars, and not very good ones at that. Not quite the fluffy chocolaty goodness my poor uncle was expecting.
My cousin Talia was next, and I did actually get to see her face when she bit into it, unaware of my uncle's previous experience with the gluten-free dessert. It wasn't quite the laugh Steve had gotten, but she did kind of scrunch up her face like she had bitten into something unpleasant. Warned by their expressions, though, I decided I really didn't need to try them for myself.
And no, we never tried the gluten free brownies again. My mom has come up with an incredibly tasty gluten-free dessert crust, though, so at least we learned from past mistakes. :)
One day down, nineteen more to go.