I’m here today to talk about dressing. Not stuffing. We have already gone over why you never stuff a bird with dry bread, and things have not changed. Never ever stuff a bird with dried bread. Now my family still expects stuffing on the Thanksgiving table. I’m happy to oblige. Of course because it never sees the cavity of the bird it’s technically dressing. So from here on out I will refer to it as dressing.

I actually like dressing because I find it a lot of fun to make. I love dishes where I have to get my hands dirty. As ComputerNerd and I are not big bread people making dressing is also a way to get rid of slightly stale bread. I said stale… not moldy. NEVER EVER EVER use moldy bread, even if you slice off the moldy part, spores infiltrate deep into the bread and it can make you sick. Stale bread is just a little dry and perfect for dressing. If you do not have stale bread, leave a full loaf of bread out of its bag overnight. If you have four legged creatures that will disturb it put it in a paper bag.

I’m going to give you two recipes for dressing: A traditional herbed dressing and a less traditional but just as delicious cornbread dressing.

Herbed Dressing:

• 1 loaf (about 1 pound) stale bread, torn into 1 inch pieces
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 6 stalks of celery, cleaned of all leaves and diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 6 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 stick butter
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 cup chicken stock, divided
• 1 bunch parsley, chopped
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon sage (Do not over do it with sage, it will overpower all the other flavors in the dish)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper, ground

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium low heat. Sauté your onions until translucent. Add the other vegetables and sweat until tender, about 5 minutes. Pour into large mixing bowl. Mix in the bread with a large wooden spoon. In a separate bowl mix 1 cup chicken stock, egg and herbs.

Mix wet and dry ingredients. USE YOUR HANDS. Make sure all the ingredients are well mixed and pour into a large buttered casserole dish. Pour the additional 1/2 cup of stock over the dressing. Cover and bake until heated through, usually 25-30 minutes. Remove the cover for the last 5 minutes of baking to get a crispy top.

Cornbread Stuffing with Cranberries and Walnuts:

• 2 prepared 9-inch square cornbreads (about 1 1/2 lbs)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 stalks celery, chopped
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
• 1 cup walnuts, chopped
• 1 cup dried cranberries (soaked in warm water for 5 min and drained)
• zest of 1 large orange
• 1/2 pound bacon cut into 1/2 inch strips and fried until crisp
• 1 cup milk
• juice of 1 orange
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup parsley, chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper, ground

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium low heat. Sauté the onion until translucent. Add in the celery and sweat for 5 minutes. In a separate pan, toast walnuts over medium low heat 1-2 minutes. Pour vegetables and walnuts into a large mixing bowl, adding in cornbread. Mix well with large wooden spoon. In a separate bowl, mix wet ingredients. Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients and mix well.

Pour into buttered casserole dish and cover. Bake 45 minutes, then uncover and bake an additional 10 minutes.