Almond-Apricot Stuffing

The holidays are a difficult time to be Gluten-free! Everywhere I go there seems to be piles of cookies, cakes, pies, candy, and more cookies. A few years ago I would have simply had two or three of everything! Now I glance over to see what I'm missing and see if, by chance someone has left some fruit out! Sounds really lame, I know. The one consolation is that I now weigh 30 lb. less than what I did before I went on the gluten-free diet. 30 lb. of weight that I didn't need, all from to cookies, cakes, pizza and beer!

As someone with is greatly restricted as to what I can put in my mouth during the holidays it is a consolation that there are some things that I can eat and will taste just as they should, thankfully stuffing is one of those things. I made this recipe for thanksgiving this year and no one suspected it was gluten-free. I've always liked fruit in stuffing, in the past I've used apples, pears, or dried cranberries, but there is something special about dried apricots, they are intensely sweet and bursting with flavor. These days we are told not to stuff our turkeys because of the risk of bacteria, but there's nothing like stuffing cooked right in the bird. If you choose to stuff the turkey just make sure to use a thermometer to insure that the temperature in the center of the bird is at least 170 degrees F.

Almond-Apricot Stuffing
Serves 6-8

1 loaf Gluten-free bread
8-10 dried apricots
1 stick of butter
1/2 cup chicken (or Turkey) stock
1/2 cup white wine
2 stalks celery- chopped fine
1 medium onion- chopped fine
3 cloves garlic- minced
1 Tsp salt
1 Tsp white pepper (or black)
2 Tbsp fresh parsley (or 1 Tbsp dried parsley)
1 Tsp dried tarragon
1 Tbsp chopped Fresh Sage (or 1Tsp dried sage)
1/2 cup sliced almonds
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• Separate the slices of bread, place them on a pan uncovered and leave them out overnight, or few a few hours.
• Cut the dried bread into about 1/2 inch cubes, set aside.
• Preheat oven to 350º
• Heat a large pan to medium heat, melt the butter, but don't let it burn.
• Stir in the onion, garlic and celery, saute for about one minute.
• Mix in the apricots, sage, parsley, tarragon, salt and pepper. Mix together well.
• Add the chicken stock and white wine, bring to a slight boil.
• Mix the bread cubes and almonds, stirring and coating them with the liquid and seasoning.
• Transfer all to a roasting pan, cover and bake in the oven at 350º for 45 minutes, serve and enjoy!

Happy Holidays!!!!