go head honey...it's gluten free! october indigenous foods round-up

Welcome! Please step into my kitchen, well, my virtual kitchen at any rate, and join me for a fantastic feast of indigenous foods from across the country and around the world.

I am thrilled to have hosted October's edition on "Go Ahead Honey...It's Gluten Free!", the theme for which I selected indigenous foods. I hoped to stretch all your imaginations and test your knowledge, and I was properly impressed. Although Canadian Thanksgiving is past, and American Thanksgiving is later this month (and I'm not sure if you folks across the pond have a Thanksgiving), I would like to take a moment now to give thanks for this wonderful gluten free blogging community we are all a part of.

Let us begin with a toast to health and friendship with Naomi's sloe, apple and rose syllabub. A beautifully pink take on an old English favorite made from sloe gin, fresh apple juice, rose water and yogurt. All from the English country side.

Whilst we all chatter and get our bearings, we can snack on Rachel's roasted sunchokes, which, if I'm not mistaken were grown in her very own upstate New York garden. A simple dish that, I understand, is best shared amongst good friends.

Once we've all taken our seats around the table we can start with the soup. Kelly brought us on of the New Worlds favorites whipped up into a warming potato soup. To add a little color to the table Heather has presented us with a vibrant butternut squash soup. Don't be shy, have a bowl of each.

For the main course we have a dish that has traveled far. A quinessential Australian dish, made from the animal that Australia is famous for. Jacqui got creative and made some semi free-form kangaroo meat pies. Lauren mixed foods that are indigenous to the place she lives as well as the state she grew up in. All of the ingredients for her hazelnut apple wild rice salad were locally grown as well. The other New Yorker in the group, myself, made grilled venison and a new England fall fruit egg bake from the fruits that grow on the east coast of the United States.

I hope you all wore your stretchy pants, and if you didn't you ought to know better than to wear those skinny jeans to such a gathering of good foodie friends. The dessert is yet to come. Acorns are abundant in California and were a staples food source for the natives there. Sea whipped up a batch of acorn muffins in tribute to those who roamed California before her.

And for our dessert tour de force, Heather created a mesquite corn cake. Corn was a staple native to Colorado and much of America and mesquite was used by the natives for food, fuel, shelter and more before Europeans introduced wheat and refinded sugars.

Now that we've all eaten our fill, I'll pack you each off with a selection of delicious leftovers to share with your families. Thank you all so much for participating, I am so pleased that you did. I am given to understand the November's "Go Ahead Honey...It's Gluten Free!" is being hosted here, so be sure to check it out for November's theme.

Thank you all again, and especially Naomi, our fearless founder.