I thought this week, I would concentrate on stuffing.

I know, I know stuffing is what goes inside the bird and dressing is cooked in a pan separately.  I just like the word stuffing better.  When I think of dressing, I think of a turkey all dressed up in it’s Sunday best {just a little insight in to my crazed mind}.

As I have mentioned before, I grew up in a very traditional Italian home and even though we celebrated Thanksgiving, the emphasis of the meal was not on the Turkey and stuffing. It was on the Lasagna.  We did have a turkey, we just didn’t have stuffing.  I’d never tasted stuffing until I met Handsome.

 I remember our first thanksgiving as a married couple, I wanted to make my new handsome Thanksgiving dinner, even though we were invited over to my family and his family homes for Thanksgiving dinner.  I got up really early {around 4:00am}, prepared a whole Thanksgiving dinner for just us two.  Carefully put everything in containers in the fridge then we went to both families homes and ate dinner.  At 11:00pm, on Thanksgiving Handsome lit a fire and we sat down to our first holiday meal together.  I remember looking for recipes in Gourmet magazine for turkey and stuffing.  This recipe is loosely based on those original recipes.

Ingredients

1 Loaf Potato Bread, cut in to cubes

1 Pound Sweet Italian Sausage, casings removed

1 Medium Onion, chopped

4 Celery Stalks, chopped

1/2 Cup Dried Cranberries

1 Teaspoon Dried Parsley

1/2 Teaspoon Black Pepper

1/2 Teaspoon Italian Seasoning

1/2 Teaspoon Garlic Powder

1/4 Teaspoon Dried Thyme

Chicken Stock

2 eggs

Butter

Salt to Taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Place bread cubes on a cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes until golden brown.  transfer bread to a large bowl.
3. Turn oven down to 350 degrees.
4. Cook sausage in a large frying pan, crumbling as it cooks.
5. Add thyme, italian seasoning, and garlic powder
6. Add cooked sausage to bread crumbs.
7. Cook onions and celery in same pan as the sausage until vegetables are soft about 12 minutes.
8. Add cooked vegetables to bread and sausage mixture.
9. Mix in cranberries to the bread mixture.
10. Beat eggs in a 2 cup measuring cup.
11. Add enough stock to the eggs to make 2 cups.
12. Pour stock and egg mixture to bread mixture, stir to coat completely.
13. Place stuffing in a buttered baking dish.
14. Place foil over baking dish.
15. Bake for 30 minutes, take off foil turn oven up to 400 degrees and bake for an addition 15 minutes.

Enjoy!