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This is my first holiday season of living gluten-free, egg-free, soy-free, casein-free, et al. It’s an adjustment, of course; I’m new enough to this life that it still surprises me to walk into a grocery store and think that, with the exception of the produce department, I cannot eat the vast majority of what is sold there without getting sick.

Where would I be without gluten-free/allergen-free bloggers? I would feel lost. I am pretty certain that if I did not have the blogging community to provide me support during this adjustment period, I would have slid into a long-term depression after my diagnoses.

But if there’s anything you learn from many of the bloggers out there it’s that there is joy to be had in life even when we are dealing with particular (possibly extensive) restrictions. With that joy in mind, Kate at Gluten-Free Gobsmacked has created the Gluten-Free Holiday Blogging Event. During the Gluten-Free Holiday Blogging Event, there are three periods for gathering gluten-free recipes to be a resource for those of us who live without gluten. The first collection was for Thanksgiving, and Kate hosted that round-up. The next one–for Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa–I will be hosting here. The last one–for New Year’s (and the end of Kwanzaa, actually)–will be hosted by Ellen at I Am Gluten-Free.

For my round-up, as you are preparing dishes you think would work well for a Hanukkah, Christmas, or Kwanzaa celebration, please either leave me a link in the comments or email me a link at sally dot parrott at gmail dot com. For those of you who see this post but do not have a blog, feel free to email me a gluten-free recipe to include. Please note that the power of blogged recipes tends to be that they are tried and true, so what I am going for are recipes that you have prepared successfully yourself. And if you are not normally a gluten-free blogger but think you are making a recipe that’s entirely free of wheat, rye, barley, and other gluten sources (recipes from raw vegans, for example!), feel free to shoot me an email so that I can check your recipe for the dirty g; if it doesn’t have any, I’ll gladly include your recipe! Those of you celebrating the festival of light should be ready to send in your round-ups now, with Hanukkah just having ended a few days ago. . . . And don’t forget to yank that little photo off my page to put up on your own when you post your recipe.

I’ll be doing a first round-up on December 23rd for those of you who are hunting for last-minute recipes for Christmas. Then I’ll do a post-holiday round-up on December 30th. Next year, there will be a nice little batch of links to your sites for the gluten-free among us who are hungrily seeking what to eat for the holidays.

Let’s celebrate the season with some awesome gf food!

And for those of you who are, like me, still rather new to this whole gluten-free, allergen-free thing, and who maybe are feeling a bit overwhelmed (or for those of you who are just busy!), here’s my guide to a few of my favorite gluten-free, allergen-free mixes that I have discovered since this summer. If you order now, you can still get some by Christmas:

Sweetie Cakes Co. The Sweetie Cakes Co. makes unbelievable gluten-free, vegan (so egg-free and dairy-free, as well), organic, fair-trade cake mixes that bake up to be extremely delicious. Last summer, I made a double-chocolate cake with raspberry filling using the mixes from The Sweetie Cakes Co. for my birthday party. People who can eat gluten were asking me for seconds, which is always a good sign for gluten-free foods. Last week, I used the chocolate cake mix to make cupcakes, which I topped with the white icing mix whipped with with crushed (organic, corn-free) peppermints and peppermint extract. They were a hit at my office. Are the mixes pricey? Yes. But they are my go-to cake mixes when I want to be certain that the gluten-free cake is going to come out unquestionably delicious. (Note: I do use ghee, which is casein-free but not dairy-free, instead of shortening when I make all of these mixes.)

The Cravings Place I love The Cravings Place’s chocolate-chip and double-chocolate cookies; they are easy to make, and they are naturally egg-free so that I don’t have to figure out egg substitutes. The cookies bake up to have a slightly cake-like consistency, though you can leave them doughier in the middle if you want since there’s no egg involved! (I also just enjoy eating the dough these days.) I like to add a bit of extra vanilla extract and toasted, salted pecans to the chocolate-chip cookies; with the double chocolate ones, I like to throw in orange zest, dried cherries, coconut, or other random goodies. I make The Cravings Place cookies when I want a quick dessert to serve guests or when I am feeling down about my food restrictions and need a pick-me-up. (Oh, and as a bonus, they freeze well after they’re baked. So I’ll make a batch, freeze 10 or 12 of them, and pull out two cookies to thaw in the microwave when I want a little something for dessert.)

Cherrybrook Kitchen I seem to recall having a hit-and-miss experience with Cherrybrook when I first tried them randomly a couple of years ago. However, the sugar cookie mix I used two nights ago created the right textures (just a bit chewy, just a bit crispy) and flavor for a great sugar cookie. (Just don’t try to replace the melted margarine/ghee/butter in the recipe with naturally liquid fat, like canola oil; it won’t work, as one of my friends found!) The box calls for baking the cookies as 2″ balls, but I rolled mine out on a bed of sugar to use with cookie cutters, and they baked up great. Handily, Cherrybrook mixes tend to be more readily available at grocery stores than the other two mixes I’ve mentioned. And, again, the mix does not call for eggs or dairy, and it doesn’t contain soy, so it’s easy to be gluten-free and avoid my allergens with it!

One note about mixes: do not judget a gluten-free baking project by its dough. The dough can taste gritty and strange to you (though you, if you’re like me, will adjust to that as well over time), and the mix will still bake up great. So don’t taste the dough and get dejected; bake it up to see the transformation.

Have at these mixes, if you need their support, but also please let me know what recipe successes (mix-based or from scratch) you are having so I can include them in the Gluten-Free Holiday Blogging Event!