To dress or to stuff.

In my ward we have an ongoing joke about dressing and stuffing.  Us Westerners call it stuffing.  Here in the South they call it dressing.  They even taste different.  Dressing is more like a mashed potato consistency.  Some has chicken in it and it is usually made of corn bread.  Stuffing is a little more dry, but… not to dry.  My Southern friend teases me that my recipe has nuts and twigs in it.  Well… I like my nut and twig STUFFING.  I thought you might enjoy trying the recipe for your Thanksgiving meal.

Cornbread and Wild Rice Stuffing

Ingredients:

1 cup of wild rice(I use uncle bens microwave kind)

8 slices of stale Italian bread cut into cubes

1 tube pork sausage(Jimmy Dean)

4 T. butter

1 large onion, chopped

3 medium celery ribs, chopped

3 cups packaged corn bread stuffing like Stove top

1 Cup dried cranberries

1/2 C. chopped parsley

3 t. thyme

3/4 t. ground pepper

2 to 2 1/2 C. chicken broth

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Microwave your rice for 90 seconds or cook your rice in water until moist.

2.  Meanwhile spread cubed bread on a jelly roll pan and bake until lightly toasted.  Stir once.  Takes about 15 minutes.

3.  In a large skillet cook sausage until browned.  Rinse the fat with hot water in a colander.  Add it to a large dish.

4.  Add butter, onion, and celery to a skillet.  Increase heat to medium-high and cook until the vegetables are softened.  Pour into dish with sausage.

5.  Add rice, bread, bread stuffing, cranberries, parsley, thyme and pepper.  Toss to mix.  Drizzle with 2 cups chicken broth, tossing until evenly moistened.  Add remaining broth if needed.

I like to put this in a dish that I can put in the oven to keep warm until I serve it.

My other favorite Thanksgiving recipe can be found here.  Scroll down to the bottom of the post.  It is called Sweet Potato Soufflé.  You will see the recipe written on top of a picture.

…and since I am having company, I thought it would be nice to  whip up a batch of these.

I stumbled on this recipe when I cleaned out my hubby’s wallet about a year back.  He had been carrying it around since his mission.  You should see how tattered and worn the paper is.  They are the best cookies.  I spruced them up for the season by adding peppermint chips and white chocolate chips; but they taste just as good with the regular chocolate.

Mission Cookies

2 1/4 C. Flour

1 t. baking soda

1 t. salt

1 C. butter

3/4 C. brown sugar

1 t. vanilla

2 eggs

2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.  Beat butter, sugars, and vanilla.  Add eggs one at a time.  Gradually mix in the dry ingredients, and then the chocolate or peppermint chips.

Bake 9-11 minutes.  I like them a little under done.