Learning How to do Thanksgiving, Part 3: The Dressing

I’m staying home for Thanksgiving this year.  My husband and I decided to do some projects around the house and to simultaneously try our hands at cooking a Thanksgiving meal this year.  We aren’t spending the holiday with extended family, but we are spending it with family (because two people who are married, even if they don’t have children, still count as a family).

Thanksgiving is more fun with lots of wine.

Item #3 on the list: the dressing.  Anyone who makes bad dressing (read: runny, dry, crumbly, tasteless) is talked about on the way home from grandma’s house.  In the South, there really is no excuse for bad dressing.  We’ve got cornbread down pat, so dressing should be a piece of cake, right?  We all know this isn’t the case because we’ve all had that bad dressing.  Someone’s Aunt Ida brings the runny kind.  Someone else’s Aunt May brings the tasteless kind.  For all you cooks out there, next year should be your year to bring the dressing.  I guarantee you success.

I don’t have a family heirloom recipe, so I consulted the next best thing—Paula Deen.  She knows her stuff when it comes to traditional Southern food, and she did not disappoint this time either.  I altered her recipe in a few places, sometimes on purpose and sometimes not, but it turned out delicious.

Dressing Recipe:

Cornbread (use the recipe on the back of the cornmeal package)

7 slices oven-dried bread

1 sleeve saltines

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 cu chopped celery

1 onion, chopped

7 cu chicken stock

2 large sprigs rosemary, chopped

5 sprigs thyme, chopped

2 tbsp dried sage

2 hardboiled eggs, chopped

5 eggs, beaten

salt and pepper to taste

Crumble cornbread, white bread, and saltines in a large bowl and set aside.

Add oil, celery, onion, and herbs to a sauté pan.  Cook until veggies are transparent.  Pour veggies over cornbread mixture.  Add stock and boiled eggs and stir to combine.  Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.  Add beaten eggs and mix to combine.  Reserve two large spoonfuls of dressing mixture for giblet gravy.  Pour remaining mixture into baking dish and bake at 350° until done in center.  (Paula’s recipe says 45 min.  It took more like 1.5 hrs. for mine.  All depends on the baking dish, I’m sure.)

Uncooked dressing still looks yummy.

While you’re at it, you ought to go ahead and do the giblet gravy too.  They do go together after all, and you don’t want that aunt who makes the bad dressing to bring the bad gravy.

Giblet Gravy Recipe:

giblets from turkey, chopped

½ onion, thinly sliced

4 cu turkey drippings (add chicken stock as needed)

2 large spoonfuls of dressing mixture

2 hardboiled eggs, chopped

2 sprigs rosemary, whole

3 sprigs thyme, whole

1 tsp dried sage

3 tbsp cornstarch

1/3 cu cold water

1 tangerine, sliced

Sauté giblets and onion in a skillet until slightly brown.  Add turkey drippings and dressing mixture and bring to a boil.  Add herbs and tangerine slices.  In a separate bowl mix cornstarch and water.  Add this mixture to the boiling stock, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and cook for 2-3 min.  Add salt and pepper to taste, and add the chopped eggs.

Homemade gravy is the best.