When it's coming up to Christmas us gluten frees, wonder what on earth we're going to have. Well, let me dispel all of your concerns and fears when it comes to Christmas lunch. It's not too different to anything else out there. You can still have your stuffing, you can still have your pigs in blankets. You just have to look on the labels. There's lots and lots and lots out there. Please chill. Take a sit back and relax. The only thing that you may need is a cupboard with a padlock, and I'll tell you why. So this is Angela and I suddenly realized I'm, I'm shuffling around in my chair, getting all comfy tummy cup of tea while I, while I chat with you on this week's podcast. Mm. Now I went out and about the other day and I. looking in the shelves and, and there's certain things that I look at and I think I just don't like them. I just don't like them. A lot of them pies are just, the mince meat is just too sweet. So there is some gluten-free mince meat out there. Look on the shelves. I dunno which ones will have it left. But here's my tip. If you have by a jar of mince meat, that is a gluten-free one stick some alcohol in it, whatever you like, and it just helps to cut through some of that sugar that's in there. So whether it's port you like, whether it's whiskey, whether it's Grand Marnier, it's entirely up to you. Put a couple of big spoonful, Sherry Sherry's lovely in there as well, and stir, stir around if you look love amaretto. And how many times do we look in our cupboards and we've got a bottle with, with really just enough for one drink, but we're not throwing it away and we, we didn't really want to drink anymore. These are just great examples of where you can use it up. So buy some readymade pastry. You know, the one I like, it's Amy's that you get in whites. I use Morrison's packet one that you have to mix with some with an egg and with some margarine. You mix the margarine first before you put the egg in. Put it in the oven, sorry, oven in the fridge for half an hour to an hour and then you start to use it. That's really good. The other. I'm not an advocate of, I'm sorry. They're okay. But they're not as short and buttery and as crispy as some of the others. So you can have your mince pies, you can try them. And you know what, if, if you get mince pies and they're a bit sweet. Just stick 'em in the oven, warm up a little bit and put some custom on top cuz you know what, that's lovely and it doesn't matter even if you're having normal mints. Pies. Mints pies when I was little, used to be really, really, really expensive. Whereas now you can get six mints pies you know that are non glutenin free for abound. and even the gluten-free stuff. The first time I bought foreman's pies, I think they were 5 95. And it was a beautiful Irish company. They, they used to be lovely. I haven't tried them in the last couple of years. But good stuff. Costs money, doesn't it? And I have tried some of our more economical supermarket brands and, and that's really good too. Just stick some cream on, just stick some, anything on the top, like custard and it'll be fine. It's the time of year when you know, people say, oh, do you want some Bailey's cream or bla Bailey's custard? Just buy your favorite custard. I love the, the fresh ones that are in the, the fridge. Stick a few gloves of Baileys in. All you do is heat it up, first of all, in the pan, and then add your Baileys. This after. That's what I do. So it's got just make sure that no one's driving after. All right, you know, if you, that's the way how I make it. and it's a little bit thinner than normal, but it, it's lovely. Or you can buy this stuff, but I, I just think, well, it's nice to control your own Baileys and sometimes I'm never quite sure whether it's actual Baileys in it or whether it's a Bailey's taste, because sometimes I can just taste those chemicals in there. So, so you decide. So anyway, that's what I do and if you are really going for it, just put some Baileys over the top of it. Nice. Warm Mince Pies and Baileys. So. Christmas day. So there's this whole thing about turkeys or stuff that I'm just not a Turkey lover. I, I, I'm just not, I, I'd rather have chicken. So that's what I do in my house now. You know, in the past when I've had copious numbers of people around like 8, 9, 10 people, yeah. I used to get a big Turkey and you'd go and you'd think a hundred and forty quid for a Turkey. How many chickens could I have bought with that So now I buy, I buy chickens and I cook chickens. And if I had lots of people, I'd get four chickens and stick them all in the oven at the same time, because you can get two chickens in a roasting tin. I've got two trays, so that's fine. I could do four chickens and that would mean you had eight legs. And I always think that the leg is the best part anyway, so. chickens, you don't have to stuff them. They're easy to, to cook. They're really, really moist. If it's already cut up when it goes out, other than the legs, would anyone know that it was chicken or Turkey? They'll probably turn around and say, your Turkey is beautiful and moist. So carrots. What else do you have? Sprouts? All of those things. There's no issue with those whatsoever. Then when it comes to stuffing, I know that before I had to give up gluten, we always use packet stuffing. So this is my mom's recipe. I do this. So you take an onion, you, you cut the on, you peel the onion, you chop it up into little bits, and you put it in some water and you boil it Until the onion is soft and you need enough water to put in the, in the in the stuffing. And then I put a big couple of tablespoons of dried mixed herbs in there. Now, if there's a particular taste that you like, like more sage thyme, you name it, just put those in. It's. So stir that around in the, in the stuffing. And then when your, when your onions are nice, put in, put the onions into the stuffing, and mix that around, and then start to add your water, the amount of water that the packet asks for, plus and egg, and there's just something with that binding that happens and makes it lovely. And I always put in a sprinkle of salt as well. You have to put a bit of salt in. If not, it just doesn't taste right. So you've got all your vegetables that are normal. When it comes to cauliflower cheese, I do I, I cut my cauliflower into two, so I half boil half a cauliflower until it's, it is getting there. Almost cooked sort of al dente. And then I make a white sauce out of cornflour. Now I am gonna have to find, check the recipe cuz it's in the house and I'm in the office at the moment. But it's cornflower milk nutmeg. And it is so easy. I think it's 40 grams of cornflour, bit of nutmeg, bit of salt. And then I believe it's 500 milliliters of milk. But don't hold me to it. I need to check. I'll stick it on my website. Alright. And then what I do is just greater. all of that cheese that you've got hanging around that sort of, you know, it's too good to throw away, but you're probably not gonna put it on top of crackers cuz it's gone a bit dry. Make sure you use that. If you've got Parmesan, take a slab, a nice chunk of cheese, grater it. I do a big like mugful of cheese, I put it in there. And it makes a beautiful, thick sauce. Then we have to thin it out a little bit. So add a little bit more water, just so you still want a thick lovely sauce, but you, you just need to put a little bit of more milk in it. So, so it's a sort of sauce rather than a thick cheese. So anyway, you can have your cauliflower cheese there. I've just given you a beautiful recipe and that is what I use for bechamel. Any sort of white sauce. And if I was making a bread sauce, I'd probably adapt that as well. Maybe there is a way to make bread sauce, but hey, I'm not really that fussed about bread sauce. We'll see. But any sort of source that you. That is the go-to. So I've told you what the bechamel sauce is now and you don't need to worry about anything else other than that sauce. So that's your cauliflower cheese sorted out. Your, your what are they? S I can't remember that recipe off the top of my head, but you use cornflower as well. You'll, you realize that Cornflower starts to come through with a lot of things, and then we have to think about the gravy, don't we? Now, the gravy, I, even when I was non-g gluten-free, I nev, I always had proper gravy. So if you've got 1, 2, 3, or four chickens cooking for your Christmas, All of the juices that are in the bottom of that panel. Once you've finished cooking them, the skill is you put foil over the top and let them rest for about 20, 30 minutes before you do anything, and they start to draw the moisture from what they're sitting in and also just being under that beautiful file. We'll keep that moisture in and the heat in, and then you're gonna use all of that. So you're gonna try so, Whether you use a spoon or a ladle or a basting thingy, what'd you call 'em? A baster. You get all of those juices and get them ready to put into your gravy. So my gravy, I always start with the carrot juice, the sprout juice, whatever it's been going in. Just don't overs salt your vegetables because you don't want them to be so salty that they can't use the water. and that vegetable water is gonna be the base. I use gravy salt. It's gluten free. It's in a little packet. You get it from Morrison's. Just look, it's, it's under a pound and it will last you a long time. So you heat your water up, whatever those juices, the, the carrot and the sprout, cabbage, water, et cetera. And then what you're gonna do is you're gonna start to add, I will call it a little nugget of the, the gravy salt at a time. And you, it will just go to a, an inci looking brown thing and you just keep testing it, tasting it to see does this taste like gravy, And you will get to a point where it does taste like gravy. Still looks incipid. So now we need to put the juices in from the chicken and remember that there'll be a lot of bits on the bottom of that pan as well. So scrape them off as well and put them in. You may want to transfer the chickens onto a serving plate somewhere and wrap them in foil again. So you've got all these lovely juices, you've got all of these vegetables, you've got the gravis salt on there. And. You add either a little bit of cornflower teaspoon of cornflower mixed with a tiny bit of cold water mixed into your gravy. I tend to put it in a little teacup where it's mixed with a cold water. Take a tablespoon of the water, the, the, the gravy water and put it in, mix it up, and then put it back into the pan keep stirring, because you don't want it to go lumpy. And or you can use some of your Yorkshire pudding mix because your Yorkshire pudding mix has got the flour in as well. But make sure that you put the hot water into the cold mix first so it doesn't go lumpy as you add it Then. it still won't look the right color. So to make it the C right color, you add a little bit of milk and then it suddenly changes and it looks like proper gravy. And all you do is just add this combination. You never know because somebody could be making the equivalent of a, of a, a mug of gravy and somebody could be making the equivalent of a litter of gravy. So I can't give you the exact amounts. Certainly not. but that's how I make my gravy. It's in a little course as well that I have about making the perfect Sunday dinner. And a Christmas dinner is no different to that, is it? We put all this emphasis on it, and it's so hard when we go gluten free because I think, oh, roast potatoes, they're fine. Just boil your potatoes as normal. Five minutes to par, boil them. Get well. When I say get rid of the water, keep it to one. You might want it to make pasta or something like that if you make gluten-free pasta. Or for bread, for bread making, it's really good as well because it's, it's, you know, got stuff in it. Potato water, it's, it's really quite good. And what you do is just shuffle 'em about in the, in your big pan. and then they'll start to have these tiny little where you're bruising the outside of the potatoes and that's what's gonna make it crispy. Now I tend to put a sprinkling of salt on, and then I do put a little bit of gluten-free flour on whatever you've got to hand. Does it make any difference which one you use? Not. it can use plain or self raising. Just add a little bit. You know, some people won't use flour at all. They might use something else, but that's what we do so we can make roast potatoes. I always think that with Parsnips the best just to have one to two minutes per boiling as well, and they're just, put them in so you can have a whole array of vegetables. You've got your stuff and you've got your gravy. I'll leave the Yorkshire pudding because I can't remember the recipe off the top of my head. Or, or just buy some, there's a, there's a company called the, is it the Yorkshire? Yorkshire, the Best Yorkshire Pudding Company? Can't remember, but they're frozen. They're actually very good. Or you can buy some of the packet mixes. They're, they're okay. I won't say they're b. Or have a look around. There's some recipes that are good. The, the cornflower ones tend to be better. The cornflower based recipes are much better. That's what I've been using for years and years and years. I was given that recipe by somebody. And yeah, so Christmas dinner can be really, really nice. You don't have to stress yourself out over it, you just don't. So just treat it as a normal meal. I've sorted the gravy out for you. And if you don't have your puddings, then not everyone has 'em on Christmas day. So honestly, don't worry about it. The other things desserts. There's loads of desserts out there that you can have. Just look on the packet. Anything Meringue based should be absolutely fine. There's loads and loads and loads of things you can easily make. Profi rolls, you'd need to get a gluten-free recipe. I don't have that on the top of my head. A load of cheesecakes. Just make them y your normal recipe for cheesecake. just crush some of the your favorite gluten-free biscuits on the bottom. I tend to like shortbread based biscuits. The digestives are okay. And remember, you just don't put in as much butter because they don't absorb things like normally. So there's lots and lots of different options for you, but a cheesecake dessert is really, really good. You could ease the mac a Banoffee pie as well, because there's A condensed milk. You can boil that for a few hours, that's absolutely fine. You know, sliced bananas. Bit of chocolate on top. You can get your dairy free one if you want. You know, you can make it dairy free cuz you can convert it to using the tins of coconut milk, condensed milk. But all of these things we can do, and you can just use your own biscuits on the bottom and mix 'em with something. A really nice one that I've used in the past has been a lovely ginger biscuit that I buy from one of the farm shops. But just look in the cupboard, see what you've got. Probably won't work as well with something like a crusted cream Cuz I do know we've got gluten-free ones. And the other thing as well, remember, you could make yourself a, a chocolate. A lovely chocolate cake or you could make yourself a lovely chocolate cheesecake and Schaer do these beautiful chocolate fingers now and they are beautiful chocolate fingers. Honestly. This is why at the beginning of this I was saying you need a cupboard with a lock on it because they're so good. The family love them. They prefer them to them normally normal Cadburys fingers because they've got a much, much better taste to them. You could make a cake, put a beautiful, beautiful ganache on on the outside, and then you could put all of those fingers around the outside and it looks like a normal cake. Or you could just sit there afterwards, get yourself a Baileys and dip Schaer fingers in there. They be rather nice. Now, something else I found was if you like soup as you start it again, soups tend to be gluten-free. Or make your own just random vegetables that you found in the bottom of your fridge. Use 'em all up. Just remember that with soup, you are layering flavors. One on top of the other, on top of the other. So low heat oil or butter, onions leeks, whatever you. you don't have to use both. Just use what you have. Then you put in something like carrots. Then you put in any herbs that you want 'em to use, garlic, et cetera. Just keep everything low and you want everything to cook and cook and cook without browning. If you put in some, you know, broccoli in there, stick that in there, put a lid over the top and just keep on cooking them slow. And then a bit of stock. I use stock cubes. They're from Mag or Maggie and they're tiny little square stock cubes and they're gluten free. They're really good. I use them for everything. And and then with it all together and then put some cream in it, it's beautiful. Absolutely delicious. And the best rolls that I've found on the market, you do have to order them. Oh my God, what are they called now? While I'm talking, I'm gonna check out on the internet so I can find out where they're from. And I hope you've, you've got some inspiration and some ideas from, from that that I've been talking about. So, so that's really, really good. I think the main thing is over c. really do not stress. Your little pigs and blankets will be out there. Just check on the packets. A lot of them now in the supermarkets, the sausages are gluten-free. You can make your own if you want, get your own little sausages and their skill is get in your streaky bacon and putting a piece of streaky streaky bacon on a. and what you have to do is hold a knife at 45 degrees and pull, drag the, the knife along the streaky bacon. And what you actually do is you make it thinner so it's not actually a full, it's sort of a, a little bit squashed And by squashing it slightly and what you're doing is stretching it by using that knife at 45. And that's with the blade going in the opposite direction to where, where you are moving it, what you do is you make it much thinner, it's much pliable, and it will wrap around your sausage as much easier. So that's the little skill. For making beautiful pigs and blankets and you can make your own. So just get yourself some gluten-free sausages. Even most butchers that you go to, they will make gluten-free sausages on a particular day and they're really good. There's loads out there in the supermarket that are specifically made as the big brands as well who are gluten-free, but also they're regular ones. I know when I go into Marks and Spencers now, most of their sausages are gluten. Which is great, so we can actually buy normal stuff now. So yeah, really chill at Christmas and make sure you've got whatever tipple you wanting, whether that's a cup of tea, just make sure you've got extra tea bags or whether that's Bailey's. Make sure that you are hiding a little bottle somewhere no one else can get. And all of those beautiful biscuits. Honestly, the schaer fingers a speculoos are okay. I love the little sha Costa creams. There's some amazing short breads out there in most of the supermarkets. And I did go to MNS and they had short breads in a tin, which is great. So I can have short breads in a tin. Just get yourself some of these, and I'm telling you, there's so many people now who will not know that they are gluten. They will be pinching your stuff. Loads of the, the snacks like nuts, crisps, you name it, just check on the back. But loads of them are gluten free. Some of the major brands, you're look and think, why have you put wheat in this? And then when it comes to like onion chip oven chip, there's loads of oven chips you can have that do not have wheat flour on them. And I specifically go to some of the more cost conscious supermarkets that, cuz they have a bigger range in there. And there's one that I get that are beef dripping chips. And they're lovely. Everybody loves. last time I checked there was no wheat on the flour. They used different, it'll be cornflower or another type of flour that the rice flour, but years ago they were going that way and, and honestly it's great that you can go to some of those, start looking on the labels rather than just the free from aisles and you will see even frozen chips. and unfortunately, I. There's only one typing marks and Spencer's, and I'm not a great lover of them cuz they don't have much of a salty taste to them. So I don't tend to get them. But ice creams, ards, you name it, just look at the, just look at the ingredients list and I don't think you'll find barley or wheat or the, or the other nasties that we have to keep, keep away. S puddings, hey, you know, you, you're gonna have to leave them unless it's the free from type. Even if you look at things like panco, panco don't traditionally have anything in that should be wheated. Although we don't know how they process what they do put in to try and thicken that beautiful milky mixture. But just have a look at them. and you will be surprised at what you can have. And hey, ho, if all you can have is a sl of cheese, some grapes, and an apple, well there's not. There's not much that you can end a meal with that's better than that is there. So I hope that's given you a little bit of inspiration for Christmas because everyone starts panicking. And if you've got people coming to your house who are gluten free, just do them their own. keep it separate. Make the gravy. As I've said, there used to be a Marks and Spencer's gravy. That was fantastic. It was already made, it was in a packet. It wasn't cheap, but do you know what it was delicious stuff, but they've stopped making that. I dunno why it was delicious. So anyway, we don't have that now, but make your own. Don't put the you can't use things like Oxo because they've got wheat in them. Nor are Roque, but I do tend to find they're quite a, a strong stock flavor. So just use that onion, that, that gravy salt that I've said. It's, it's been going for about a hundred years, this stuff, and it's really, really good. I've no idea. how people used to do Christmas dinner like 20, 30 years ago. It must have been so hard, but now it's so much easier. And this is big shout out for all of our farm shops, for all of our independent bakers, for all of our cultures, even supermarkets, you know, who have given us an. Abundance of choice in comparison to what was out there Being gluten-free in Christmas does not have to be impossible. It can be a little bit more unusual than normal. I'm pleased. You do not have to buy everything from the free from aisle. Just start looking on the ingredients and you will see where wheat is. And do you know what it, even when we are seasoned, people will pick something up and we'll take it. I'm thinking, yeah, this is fine. Look at the bottom. Why earth of you put wheat in this product? Why on earth have you put wheat in custard? Like why you never use wheat in custard? Use either all fresh eggs and cream and things like that. Or you use cornflower when there's a source. Why using wheat flour in a source rather than cornflower? And again, a lot of it can be down to cus but hey ho, this is for you, so take your time and enjoy and. just believe in yourself to make the most beautiful, gluten-free Christmas dinner imaginable. I was really, really impressed with the stuffing that I tried and the stuff, but even when I, we used to use, was it paxo when I was. We would never just use that with water. We always put in extra herbs. We've put in the, the boiled onions and the onion water and extra salt and pepper, et cetera, and the, and the egg to help to bind it and put it in, whether you put it into balls or just put it on a plate, it's incredible. So we can have everyth. Being gluten free for Christmas dinner. So I will, I will be doing a few more of these before Christmas if I come across anything really good. I've seen some of those puddings out there and for me a lot of the ready made puddings are just too blinking. Sweet. For me, a pavlova really works, loads of fresh cream, lots of you don't have to have fresh fruit. You can just buy those frozen bags of cherries and and things like that and stick them on the top of a pavlova. But for me, I know them merani sweet, but the cream isn't, and the fruit isn't. And a lot of these baked puddings that are out there, they're just too sweet for me. I've tried them. They look lovely. They ginger and salted caramel and stuff. But then I just taste and it's just like, oh my God, now I can just taste chemicals But you tried. there's nothing I can really recommend out there at the moment other than a pav over And the ARDS are okay, but even with the ard, I have to stick my own fruit on top of it just to dampen down some of that. But yeah, just make a, just make a, a pav over a nice Moran. That'd be lovely. I'll make one of my cakes. Bake Club is now launched, so in Bake club is it week four, making the lemon drizzle cake, so the lemon drizzle cake. People always say to me, oh my God, how do you make it this lemon? it's more like sherbet than lemon and it, I've just got this way of making the drizzle and people say, how do you get that much drizzle on your cake? Well, I just have a little way. And so we're gonna make, making that in week four, week one is a great cake. How many times do you have blueberries that you think, what do I do with these? They're sort of getting towards the end of their. I put 'em in a cake and I make my blueberry and lime cake. It's fabulous. Week two, we're doing cherry army cake. Week three we're doing on week three. Is it chili chocolate cake. And then we've got a pims, a clock cake, which is amazing. And there's another cake. Oh, my Aggie mo. Ever famous carrot cake which can actually make dairy free as well if you want to. Not vegan because there are eggs in all of them. But yes, bake Club is now live, and that is gluten free angela.com/bake club. and you'll be able to join up. So that's a six week course where I show you how to make beautiful cakes, get all the confidence that you need, and understand that baking a delicious gluten-free cake is actually easy. And people do say to me, oh, I don't like that flour because it's grainy. No, it's because we just need to add a few more little ingredients to make it more, most than normal. And then you'll realize how easy and simple it is to make D. Gluten-free most cakes every single week. So with that, we've talked about Christmas. Actually I will be getting another little course on that, and it's my favorite how to make a Per the Perfect Sunday. And Christmas is no different really. So I will try and pop something up there. So just have a look at on the website, gluten free angela.com/christmas or Sunday dinner, something like that. And it will show you how I make my Yorks puddings in the course as well and the gravy and stuff like that. So yeah. I will see you again soon. What I'm gonna be doing coming up to Christmas is I'm gonna be launching quite a few little podcasts because we don't want any upload issues over Christmas. So I will market them and advertise them and send them like a little email every few days. But you might find this might be four or five, arrive on one day, and that's why, because we don't want any issues. The company that I use, lovely, lovely, lovely company. Well done. Captivate. F. Love this company. They're a UK based company and they are shutting over Christmas and New Year. So they will have technical support for major issues in case there's a major issue. But it's lovely to see a company that give their team the time off and we wish them well and for being great. So well done. Cap to eight fn. I will speak to you soon. I hope you've got some ideas, some inspiration, and some encouragement to go and bake and cook in your gluten-free kitchen. This is gluten-free, Angela, and I will see you again soon. Thank you so, so much for being with me for the last 35 minutes or so. You take care. Bye.