Alisa Fleming ~ In recent years, home cooking has taken on a whole new value. Purchasing expensive, pre-made dinners just isn't in the budget, and gifts from the kitchen are back in style.  Of course, if you have been dairy-free for a while, then you already know that from-scratch is really the way to go ... but, how to create a festive dinner that everyone will enjoy, even your cheese-addicted sister (okay, maybe that's just my sister)? 

For starters, I recommend taking a peek at The Biggest Gathering of Dairy-Free Thanksgiving Recipes that I compiled for you last month. How convenient is it that the major holidays share so many traditional dishes? If the big day wouldn't be complete without a festive pie, check out The Huge Dairy-Free Holiday Pie Recipe Round-Up and Mission Impossible Pies (vegan and gluten-free crustless pies!). Also, for those of you scrambling for last minute, quick & easy dairy substitutes (perhaps for that cream of mushroom soup or sweetened condensed milk?), you can get Go Dairy Free: The Guide and Cookbook in an ebook format, delivered instantly.

Now, a few weeks have passed since Thanksgiving, so I have had some time to discover a few more dairy-free recipes (lactose-free, casein-free, milk-free, you name it). That's right, the recipes below are dairy-free as is; no hoping that your substitutes will work ... after all, who has time for experimentation at the 11th hour?! ...

December 2011 - New York State Agriculture Commissioner Darrel J. Aubertine today alerted consumers to undeclared milk in “Pan Dominicano (Dominican Bread)”, packaged and distributed by Gollo Desserts located at 349 Suydam St. in Brooklyn, NY. People who have severe sensitivity to milk may run the risk of serious or life-threatening reactions if they consume this product.

The recalled “Pan Dominicano (Dominican Bread)” is packaged in a 7 ounce clear plastic bag containing 6 pieces of the product. The bag is labeled with a UPC code of 96321-00220. The recall affects all available codes of this product. The product was sold in the NYC metro area, Long Island, NJ and CT.

December 2011 - Ohio Processors, Inc. of London, Ohio announced a voluntarily recall on Instantwhip B/C Topping because the product contains an undeclared milk ingredient (sodium caseinate). People who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to milk run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume this product.

The product in question is:

Instantwhip B/C Topping packaged in ½ gallon containers only, and include codes 060, 080, 124, 143, 145, 167, 179, 188, 193, 244, 256, 300, 313, and expiration codes 12/16/11, 12/21/11, 12/28/11, 12/30/11, 1/7/12, 1/12/12. 

Yes, they are finally here! I am excited to announce the release of our newly updated 2012 No Dairy Product Lists. For the past five years, our popular No Dairy Product Lists have connected free-from dieters with thousands of great food options. To keep things current, I spent several months updating each listing, and I am happy to say that the 2012 versions are complete, and boy have they grown! The following are available in an ebook/pdf format in our Go Dairy Free Ebook Store:

• 2012 Complete No Dairy Product List for Multiple Food Concerns (cross-referenced for soy, wheat, gluten, and egg)
• 2012 No Dairy Product List for Multiple Food Concerns - Just the Subs (cross-referenced for soy, wheat, gluten, and egg)
• 2012 Complete No Dairy Product List
• 2012 No Dairy and No Soy Product List
• 2012 No Dairy and No Gluten Product List