A Grand, Gluten Free, Christmas Dinner

I have neglected my duties as a gluten free blogger recently, so what appropriate way to end my 2015 of blogging with my guide to Christmas dinner.

This year has seen an expansion in gluten free products available in the supermarkets and that gluten free advert from Tesco has brought into the shining light of Christmas.

My Christmas dinner consisted of the following…

Gordon Rhodes “A Jolly Fine Stuffing” Sage & Onion Stuffing and “Drop Bread Gorgeous” Bread Sauce. I raved about these last year, I’ve raved about them on Twitter over the last year. These are a must. I never ate bread sauce when I was non-gluten free person, but now, I adore this.

Tesco Finest Cocktail Sausages and Cocktail Sausages wrapped in Smoked Bacon. I wasn’t very organised this year and failed to organise these necessities with our local, brass bander, Butcher. Tesco came to the rescue with these. I wasn’t keen on the sausages wrapped in bacon as I hate smoked bacon, but the plain ones were very nice.

Aunt Bessie’s Roast Potatoes Basted in Duck Fat. Roast potatoes make Christmas dinner for me, I can’t get enough of them and I was really pleased to finally find some pre-prepared roasties that were now suitable for gluten free peeps. Well done Aunt Bessie’s!

So with all of the above, and a few added extras, this amazing meal is created…

And to finish any Christmas meal off…

Tesco Free From Profiteroles!! Absolutely divine!

Have a lovely Christmas and hopefully I’ll have some more blog posts for 2016!

Absolutely Stuffed!

Having gone back to brass banding recently has meant I’ve been reunited with old friends and made some new ones too. One of these old friends just happens to be a very generous butcher from Dalbeattie who has supplied me with a few gluten free treats to try.

Scott’s grandfather established T.H. Carson back in 1933 and they pride themselves on being a family run business with good, old fashioned customer service. All their meats are locally sourced with full traceability, which in this day and age is a major selling point for a lot of consumers. If you’re ever in Dalbeattie it’s well worth a stop to try his award winning produce and I do hear that there will be an online shop coming soon…

So, on a normal Wednesday night band rehearsal, Scott appeared with a carrier bag with some goodies! There was much excitement… well, for me!

One of these items was a packet of Gordon Rhodes sage and onion stuffing mix. I love sage and onion stuffing mix, it completes a Sunday roast for me, but giving up gluten meant I couldn’t have that well known brand stuffing mix.

All you need to do is add hot water to the mix and stick it in the oven for 20 minutes and hey presto, stuffing! I find the well known brand to be sometimes over powering with the sage, but this gluten free mix was perfect. The texture wasn’t any different – I was expecting it to be a bit powdery like some other gluten free products and the flavours weren’t too strong, but still had plenty of taste! Therefore, one happy gluten free camper at Sunday tea time.

Thank you very much, Scott! This gluten free product has the ‘Rachael’ stamp of approval!

http://www.thcarsononline.co.uk/index.html Check out their website (Scott is the one at the top of the page with the trophy, not the lassie with long dark hair – just in case there is any confusion!)