Stuffing

Stuffing is probably my favorite part of thanksgiving, besides the pie.  I'll be honest, I love the stuff.  But I will admit, much to my mother's disappointment, her recipe is not my favorite.  So when I got married, I decided I was going to make this recipe my own and put stuff I loved into it.  Here is what I came up with.  I hope you love it as much as I do!

Stuffing

1 pkg herb seasoned stuffing
1 pkg cornbread stuffing
1 c finely chopped celery
1 c finely chopped onion
1 stick of butter
8 oz sliced button mushrooms
1 1/2 c cashews
1 lb lean pork sausage
3 c (1 1/2 cans) chicken broth or stock (stock is better)
salt and pepper
cooking spray

In a large mixing bowl, combine stuffing and cashews.  Melt butter in a large saute pan, and then add celery and onion.  Cook vegetables til tender, and then add your sliced mushrooms.  Cook til the mushrooms shrink to half their volume, and they are fully cooked.  Season with salt and pepper, and then pour the whole thing into your mixing bowl with the stuffing.  Brown and crumble your sausage, and then add to the stuffing mixture.  Stir well to coat with the butter and veggies and moisten everything.  Add your broth or stock about half a cup at a time, stirring between each addition, to coat everything with the broth and make it moist (but not soggy).  Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray and then pour the stuffing into the pan and spread evenly.  Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.  Serve with roasted turkey (or chicken if not for Thanksgiving) or just by  itself!

As if this recipe isn't a great enough reason to check out this page, let us offer you a little bit more information about the Thanksgiving stuffing tradition...and if you don't want this part then skip to the end and enjoy your stuffing adventure!

 As far as I can find, the earliest documented evidence for stuffing is a Roman cookbook (Apicius' De Re Coquinaria) which contains recipes for stuffed chicken, hare, pig, and dormouse.  The stuffings described therein mostly consist of ingredients like vegetables, herbs and spices, nuts, and spelt (an old cereal).  In the Middle Ages, stuffing was known as "farce" from the French "farcir"; the root of the word 'forcemeat'.  The term farce was originally a short, humorous play stuffed in at intermissions between long dramatic productions...to keep the crows from simply wandering away.  The term 'stuffing' is first attested in 1538.  After about 1880, the term stuffing was replaced by 'dressing' in Victorian English.  The primary difference between stuffing and dressing is that stuffing is traditionally cooked within the meat, and dressing is cooked separately.  Though in truth, over the last few years the two have become intermingled.

The real irony here is that while stuffing an animal that is then roasted is a method that some have claimed to be as old as the history of cooking, it was not something that was seen during the first years the Puritan pilgrims were struggling through in Massachusetts.  If there was bread, they would have simply eaten it rather than waste it by stuffing into a bird as they simply did not have the necessary ingredients.  Yet, thanks to traditions that some say come from saving a turkey dinner from a poorly roasted bird, stuffing is a 'must have' on any Thanksgiving table.  And one thing is for sure: this is a stuffing that is sure to surprise you with how much a fun twist can lie on a traditional dish!