Gobble.

[mrv3000]

I'm already in Thanksgiving mode. :D I'm already plotting food, and figuring out what I can make ahead of time. Anyway, I was thinking about stuffing/dressing. Seems like everyone has a slightly different recipe. Sure you'll eat other people's stuffing, but it's not your perfect stuffing. Personally, I like a good sausage stuffing with regular bread.

[Poll #1484547]

Comments

[aj.livejournal.com]

Best stuffing ever:

Make 1 or 2 packages of Jiffy cornbread, let sit out for 2 days, until stale.

Cook 1 package (1lb) pork sausage, reserve meat. Throw in 1-2 (depending on how much cornbread you made) chopped bell peppers (red and yellow give it great color) and a medium to large yellow onion. Sweat until cooked. Add sausage, peppers and onions into crumbled up cornbread. Add chicken stock until pleasingly moist and poultry seasoning for taste.

It is one of the reasons I love and anticipate Thanksgiving EVERY YEAR.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

Mine usually just involves a box of Mrs. Cubbison's, add in sausage and onion and loads of sage.

[aj.livejournal.com]

Oh! And some chopped up pecans are good for texture! *is flaky*

And my family has a weird obsession with adapting recipes from the Food Network. My parents are surprisingly good at deconstructing food they're eating and sussing out how it was made and with what. It was actually a game they played with me whenever we went out to dinner.

Also, no one anywhere EVER has been able to make cranberry sauce as well as The Mother.

*also APPROVES of the no celery option* That stuff's NASTY.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

XD How fun! Actually, I think I might do a variation on Alton Brown's turkey brine this year.

I want cranberries, but not sure if I want cranberry sauce. Hmmm. It's easy to make from fresh cranberries, but not sure I'm in the mood.

I'm convinced that the growing of celery is a vast conspiracy.

[erikau.livejournal.com]

Cranberry Orange Relish.

[brilliantomega.livejournal.com]

I always make a cranberry brandy sauce. mmmmmm

[chloris67.livejournal.com]

Sausage and bread stuffing with pecans and apples. Yum! Also, lots of butter or other appropriate fat! The butter is very important for separately baked stuffing so that it's not dry.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

YES. Loads of butter! :D And I might get wild and throw some pecans in the stuffing this year. We'll see.

[jcd1013.livejournal.com]

... I don't like stuffing? But apples, raisins, nuts and pumpkin sounds like a fantastic bread pudding.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

My brother announced he didn't like stuffing last Thanksgiving. We were all like..."wut?" :D

But that does sound like a yummy bread pudding!

[frenchroast.livejournal.com]

Man, now I want to make dressing. I realize you don't like celery, so you probably won't want my version. We use bread and cornbread, lots of butter, a good amount of sage, celery (which I chop into tiiiiiiiny pieces because I don't like the texture), and chicken. And chicken broth. It is OMNOMNOMinous. Particularly because you also get delicious leftover cornbread to eat while the dressing bakes.

I can give you my cornbread recipe if you like. It's super easy, and even won in a tasting contest.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

Ooooh! I'd love to have it! I love cornbread, but not as part of dressing for some reason.

The Dixon/Dye Family Cornbread Recipe

[frenchroast.livejournal.com]

The secret tricks of it have been passed down from my great-grandmother. It takes a max of 10 minutes to prep, and then another 20 or so to bake.

Ingredients:
1 stick of unsalted butter
2 cups White Lily cornmeal
About 1 3/4 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup oil (or melted lard if you're feeling adventurous--if you are, blend it in last to keep from scrambling the eggs)
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk

Turn the oven to 425 F. Place the entire stick of butter into your cast iron skillet, and put the skillet in the oven while it preheats. It is very, very important that the skillet and oven be hot before you put the cornbread batter in later. This is the most important secret of real cornbread making.

Lightly beat the egg and egg yolk together in your mixing bowl. Add the cornmeal, oil, and buttermilk to the egg mixture and whisk together until blended. The batter should be like a thick pancake batter; add a little buttermilk if it is too thick.

Take your skillet out of the oven--it should be hot and the butter should be melted. Pour the batter in and use a spoon or spatula to level it. I like to make sure the butter is sort of evenly spilling over the top, but it's not crucial that you do that. Bake until the top is golden brown (about 20-25 minutes). You should be able to flip it out of the skillet immediately without it sticking to the bottom.

Enjoy!

Re: The Dixon/Dye Family Cornbread Recipe

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

Ooooh! Thank you!!

Re: The Dixon/Dye Family Cornbread Recipe

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about making this tomorrow, but we don't seem to have White Lily around here. Looking online I saw it mentioned that at least flour is mixed with it. Do you know if it's a cornbread mix? Like, does it also have leavening and/or sugar in it?

Re: The Dixon/Dye Family Cornbread Recipe

[frenchroast.livejournal.com]

I think you can get it as either; I've made it with just cornmeal, and just cornmeal mix, and the recipe works for both. You can use any brand of white cornmeal or cornmeal mix, but I'd avoid any that have sugar mixed in. Sugar is anathema to real cornbread. I specified white lily because sometimes people want a brand to look for and it's what I usually buy, but the brand isn't really that important.

Re: The Dixon/Dye Family Cornbread Recipe

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I have regular cornmeal, but I might try another store to see if they have any non-sugar cornmeal mix.

[katesutton.livejournal.com]

Celery is a DEVIL VEGETABLE. It spoils all it touches. I've never tried stuffing with cranberries, but I love cranberries on...well, everything? So I must try this.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

Celery = EVIL. It makes me sad because I like both chicken and tuna salad, but every last place has to put celery in it. Blech.

[beck-liz.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty basic with my stuffing; I don't want too many "interesting" ingredients. That said, I chose both celery and not celery, because while I like the flavor, I don't much like having crunchy things in my stuffing. So it depends on how fine the celery is cut and how well-cooked it is.

I also chose "other", because my family in Georgia likes to include pecans in stuffing. (Different kind of crunchy than the celery kind of crunchy.) Yummy.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

I really am leaning towards pecans in my stuffing. I've got a bag of pecans in my freezer, so I don't have to buy more, and I'm doing pumpkin pie instead of pecan. Hmmm.

[fiona-conn.livejournal.com]

Sage and onion sausagemeat stuffing~, ftw <3

With cranberry sauce.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

MMMMMMM. YES.

[fiona-conn.livejournal.com]

With lashings of gravy.

And steamed carrots and peas -- steamed, because the veggies keep their "bite" that way, they don't go all soggy, and thus keep their flavour. <3

Mmmmm-mmm~ ^____^

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

I'm a fan of non-mushy veggies too.

[fiona-conn.livejournal.com]

<3

My Aunt makes really good non-mushy veg. She's so awesome.

[ladyyueh.livejournal.com]

You're making me want to weep with envy.

I'm not in the States and I will be missing out on turkey, stuffing, etc. FOR THE FIRST TIME EVAR!

If that wasn't bad enough, I can't even try to cobble together something on my own because: 1. We have kitchenettes, no oven. 2. We have a paper due that day because we have class because it's not a holiday in ENGLAND.

Have an extra ladle on gravy in my name, would ya?

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

*attempts to shove stuffing through the internet*

[selenityshiroi.livejournal.com]

I'm British and therefore my choice of stuffing is Sage and Onion.

FROM A PACKET!!!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

(Us Brits fail at the culinary arts...)

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

XD

Sage and onion doesn't sound that bad though. Add a little pork sausage and you're set!

[selenityshiroi.livejournal.com]

http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/food/paxo-sage-and-onion-stuffing/1135667/

A staple of British Food.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

Looks kind of like Stove Top Stuffing.

[tripocket.livejournal.com]

NO FRUIT. That's all I ask. No fruit.. or meat as I'm a vegetarian. But most of all NO FRUIT.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

XD I don't really care for fruit in my stuffing either.

[janetmaca.livejournal.com]

My mom just takes bread, breaks it up, drenches it in butter, oregano, salt and pepper. So awesome. I can't wait for Christmas now, I really want stuffing.

[janetmaca.livejournal.com]

Oh, not oregano, sage. Bwah! And onion. :D Can't forget the onion/

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

MMMMMMMMMM.

[janetmaca.livejournal.com]

I know, right? If you cook it outside of the turkey it's all crunchy and yummy. :D

[icepixie]

I'm pretty much a fan of the Stovetop cornbread stuffing box. I add onions and celery for meals including gravy; those plus sausage if I'm heaping the mixture into an acorn squash.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

Oooh, that sounds yummy! (Minus the celery. :D)

[elirrina.livejournal.com]

I've never heard of cornbread in stuffing, but having heard of it now, it sounds delicious. I think it would fall apart, though. The cornbread I make is really crumbly, albeit tasty.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

The kind I've had before was a bit more mushy than regular bread stuffing.

[stephdub.livejournal.com]

BACON! Add bacon. It is awesome.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

HUH. I'd never have thought to add bacon!

[elly427.livejournal.com]

Potatoes! Where are the potatoes?!?!?! And the summer savory (which is apparently an herb you can only buy on the east coast, but what ev!)

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

So do you do bread and potatoes? Or just potatoes?

[skybound2]

I object to raisins and cranberries sharing a line! They are NOT the same. I LOVE cranberries in my stuffing, but the presence of raisins will make me NOT eat it AT ALL!

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

XD

I ran out of the number of lines LJ would let me have!

[skybound2]

Oh, well, in that case, I'll give you a pass. Just this once ;-P