I traveled to Orlando for a work conference and Jenn and the boys joined me there for some fun at Disney. The resort we stayed in was not near anyplace, expensive, and not terribly rich in healthy and satisfying gf food offerings. Disney parks are probably better than most, and I did speak to Chef Juan at Sunshine Somethingorother speedy food place in Epcot and got plain white rice, steamed broccoli and tofu for dinner one night. With a little hot sauce for the rice and some mustard to dip the broccoli into, it was pretty good. Not so much luck at Magic Kingdom the next day, so I ate my pb&j on gf bread that I had packed with me from home, plus an apple and a gf granola bar. In line at Small World yesterday I noted to Jenn that I was feeling a bit sorry for myself, being on vacation and mostly eating fruit or food I made and packed in myself. Still, the main point of the trip was to have a fun and memorable experience with the family. Now that I'm home, I can get back to making myself interesting and healthy gf food.
I'm happy to report that Thanksgiving Dinner was a great success. jenn and I were like a well-oiled machine in getting our low-key meal for four on the table. Jenn and the boys LOVED the tofurkey and are obviously glad that I'm not part of the competition for their special food. My stuffed squash was really good, though next time I could probably skip the squash and just eat the stuffing. I used Near East Rice Lentil Pilaf and added collards, walnuts and tofu to it. Very tasty! My collection of raosted veggies (segregated because the vegetables for the rest of the family were basting in the juices of the gluteny tofurkey) were good too, though next time I will refrigerate the parsip (I've learned to treat it like a pale carrot, not like a potato) and to cut the beet pieces smaller or pre-cook them somehow. they were rather hard and tough. Still, a good time was had by all.
Like everybody in America, we are preparing for Thanksgiving. It will be my first gluten-free Tofurkey Day. Which means no Tofurkey for me. Of course, we didn't eat tofurkey for most of our Thanksgivings together, because we heard it was awful. In the intervening years, we ate stuffed squash, which was ymmy. It was acorn squash with a wild and brown rice stuffing that had tofu, dates, nuts and cheese. Then we heard tofurkey was good, so we tried it a few years ago. It was great! Turkey was my favorite food as a kid, so it was nice to have this very turkey-like food in my life. Squash took a back seat and we recreated our tradition around it and one of the best parts of that is that the boys like it. The squash is a tough sell. For me, the squash will make a reappearance, and I expect it won't be too angry that it lost its place of importance for awhile in our traditions.
The good news is I have an easy answer for people who ask what I will be eating for Thanksgiving. I will not to be a whiner or feel sorry for myself. I will not. In New Orleans I started smelling food I can't eat. It began with biegnets. Yesterday it was the pizza Jenn made for the boys. Today at a work meeting (with colleagues I know well, so they didn't think I was too weird) I sniffed a tray of cookies not once but four times. I liked it. I wasn't tempted to eat any. It let me feel like I could enjoy them without causing myself personal injury. I'll compare it to sitting in the driver's seat of a car I'll never drive.
My partner was telling me on Sunday how bad she feels for me that I won't ever again be able to just stop somewhere and pick up a bagel. I feel bad about that too. I'm realizing that it will be hard to find restaurants that are gluten-aware enough that I won't worry about cross contamination. But, as incurable diseases go, celiac is definitely WAY better than some others. I expect that I will become quite savvy at planning and packing 99% of my meals away from home, and that it will just be my new normal. Right now, I'm having a hard time being enthusiastic about that.
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January 2024
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