As I mentioned last year at this time, the stuffing (or dressing, as some people call it) is my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner. This year, Mom and I decided not to cook the whole entire Thanksgiving dinner ourselves (she invited a bunch of people and I just didn’t want to spend all day on my feet in the kitchen). So our turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy are coming from Safeway, but I’m still making my favorite stuffing, which contains:
Celery
Onions
Bread cubes
Country sausage
Granny Smith apples
Thyme
Sage
Dried cherries
Toasted hazelnuts
Chicken broth
Tawny port
I saw a cooking show where the host was making a stuffing with pancetta, chestnuts and ciabatta bread. That sounds lovely, but I’m so afraid to change my stuffing. Could I love another stuffing as much as I love this one? Better not risk it.
So tell me, what’s in your stuffing?
And a Happy Thanksgiving to all!
November 23, 2007 at 9:36 am
Do you cook your stuffing in the bird? If it is not cooked in the bird, can it still be called stuffing?
November 23, 2007 at 10:37 am
Good point, Gecko. I don’t cook it in the bird (food poisoning is not one of my favorite things) but I still like to call it stuffing for historical reasons, I guess.
November 23, 2007 at 10:57 am
I call it dressing. I cook half of it in the bird. Half out. Then I mix it all together. Mine is: Long grain wild rice, long grain brown rice, half mushroom stock, half veggie stock, two tablespoons of butter used to saute a chopped garlic and fresh sage, then when it’s all cooked up, I mix in 1/2 cup of chopped dried apricots, 1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries, 1/2 cup of chopped pecans and 1/2 cup of chopped almonds. Done! AND YUM! I serve cornbread on the side for the bread lovers.
November 23, 2007 at 12:13 pm
That sounds yummy — to ME, I should qualify, as opposed to my children. Heh.
November 23, 2007 at 3:10 pm
Lauren — that sounds fabulous! I love dried apricots and cranberries!
Slouching Mom — My kids don’t eat it either
November 23, 2007 at 3:34 pm
I had a pile of fresh basil that I was using for another dish, so I chopped it up and threw it in. I thought it might be confusing with the sage but go figure, it added a nice, light, sweet flavor.
November 23, 2007 at 11:37 pm
My stuffing is even more boring (yours really doesn’t sound boring at all!).
Bread crumbs
rolled oats
onions and celery sauteed in butter
nonfat powdered milk
an egg or two
salt, pepper, various herbs
I think that’s about it.
I’d love to include nuts, wild rice, fruits, sausage, or other ingredients I hear about people using. But my husband is a big stick-in-the-mud when it comes to trying new things, and when it comes to Thanksgiving dinner tradition is the rule. I let the family have their traditional boring stuffing (it still tastes fine)–but the rest of the year I’m pushing lentils, whole grains, and a wide variety of healthy foods as much as I can.