Thanksgiving Recipes & Tips for Gluten-Free & More

Need a gluten-free and dairy-free pumpkin pie? No problem.

The Big T. Thanksgiving. Nothing sends shivers of trepidation up a gluten-free or dairy-free girl's spine like the mental image of Grandma's sage pungent white bread dressing or shimmying slabs of Aunt Ida's pumpkin pie. It's a butter and wheat flour gorge fest with danger at every turn. The gruesome gut-twisting threat of thirty-six hours chugging Pepto Bismol is poised to strike on every holiday decorated plate- jovial forkfuls of tradition and conviviality aside.

It's a nightmare.

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Maple Roasted Acorn Squash and Cornbread Stuffing with Curried Apple & Cranberries

Maple roasted acorn squash and a gluten-free cornbread stuffing.

We are moved in. Books are unpacked, paintings hung, bamboo platform bed assembled. I am dog tired and sore and deeply, deliriously happy to be here. It is a soft, foggy morning in Santa Monica, a Glenn Gould Goldberg Variations
kind of morning. Five floors below our apartment window the traffic lights glow in haloed reds and greens. The Big Blue Bus sighs its long slow hiss to a stop and swallows up students bound for UCLA.

In between playing catch up with unspeakable heaps of laundry and to-do lists I have missed you, Dear Reader. New recipes are coming soon (we test drove the never-been-used gas oven yesterday and baked a perfect batch of Quinoa Breakfast Brownies). There will be serious baking goin' on.

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Pumpkin Pie Bread

A new moist and tender tea bread that tastes like pumpkin pie.

This is a big week. Huge. Never mind The Canyon premiere. Forget the post screening parties at Cafe Was and the Palihouse (where the valet parked the only Honda Fit of the night- I'm guessing). Forget hanging out in Hollywood with Yvonne Strahovski. Mark Williams. We're talking major excitement. Glamor. Dreams come true. That's right.

We're unpacking our relocation cube.

But wait. There is more to the story, truth be told. There is a subplot with a third act twist. There is, um. Titillation. Desire. Longing. By your intrepid Goddess. No, Babycakes. Not longing for fame. Or glitz. Or girly-girl anything. I'm not that kind of Goddess (Botox and bling isn't on my radar). Nope. So what is this obscure object of desire?

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Gluten-Free Apple & Pear Crisp

Easier than pie, a crisp makes a lovely gluten-free dessert.

Tart crisp apples and tender pears are sprinkled with a cinnamon and brown sugar crumble and baked to melt-in-your mouth perfection. This simple gluten-free dessert- worthy of excavation from Karina's Kitchen archives- evokes old fashioned autumnal comfort at its coziest.

Using a gluten-free pancake and baking mix- such as Pamela's Baking & Pancake Mix- makes this treat easy as pie easier than pie to toss together. Celebrate fall and winter with this classic homey dessert.

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