Other Than Turkey...

[DFen911]

What is your most favorite dish for Thanksgiving that you refuse to do without?

For me it's good stuffing. I cannot live without it. I cook as much as I can inside the bird and mix it up with the stuffing that didn't fit inside, but I bake in a separate dish and then mix the two. There is no doubt that I eat my weight in stuffing over the week of Thanksgiving.

[Harborwitch]

Uhmmmmm??? A good bottle of zin with the turkey???

It used to be little lovely canned onions baked in a wine and cheese sauce. They don't make the canned onions any more. I'm to lazy to do pearl onions.

GRAVY!!! That's it, GRAVY!!! . . . . and mashed potatoes! Or mashed turnips. . . or mashed potatoes and celery root!!! That's it - my new favorite for the last few years!

We do love roasted root veggies - sweet potatoes, beets ( have you cooked and eaten them yet???), potatoes, onions, parsnips, etc. Geeze all veggies??? I guess that's my favorite part.

[cjs]

As much as I love pumpkin pie, I can and do make it other times of the year (infrequently, tho) - I guess I'd have to go with you, Denise. I love dressing and I, too, make lots more than any sane person would make so I have leftovers to play with.

I even eat it as I'm mixing it up - well, I have to know if it's moist enough, after all.


What's your dressing, Denise?

Here's mine, or Grandma Denham's I should say -

* Exported from MasterCook *

GRANDMA DENHAM'S TURKEY DRESSING OR STUFFING

1 lb. pork sausage
1 large onion -- chopped
1 1 lb. loaf bread -- toasted
1/2 cup raisins
2 eggs
poultry seasoning to taste
3 stalks celery -- chopped
1 apple -- cored and chopped

Fry sausage with onion and celery until sausage is browned. Set aside.

Tear bread in approximately 1" square pieces in a large bowl; with fingers sprinkle with water and mix with hands until the bread is moist, but not sloppy wet.
Add the rest of the ingredients and mix together well.

Stuff the turkey or put in a baking dish. In the bowl, bake in 350° for 45-60 min. basting with turkey juice if you have it - or a homemade chicken/turkey stock - just to keep moist.

Description:
"I never ate dressing until I married Grandma Denham's grandson and tasted hers - now, I have trouble staying out of it. I prefer using what my children called 'hippy' bread - the kind with seeds and nuts, for this dressing."
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Sharon, a long time ago I put together a little cookbook, "College Connection" for young adults/students out on their own for the first time and the hardest recipe in the whole book was writing down how to make gravy. It's is so much by feel, sight, and taste...

Oh, one other thing I only have at Thanksgiving/Christmas is mashed potatoes topped with cranberries (on my plate, I don't mix them for anyone else! )

Hey you all who are like Denise and me, what's some of the things you like to do with leftover dressing/stuffing????

Here's a couple of mine -
1. mix dressing with either ground turkey or minced l/o turkey, add some mustard and make turkey balls and serve with a sauce of cranberries, brown sugar & worcestershire sauce.

2. there is a casserole called 'shipwreck' that is so good also, can't remember all the ingredients.

3. Cook up ground beef, onions, celery; mix with l/o dressing and smooth out in a 8X8 (approx.) baking dish. Mix eggs, milk, cream of mushroom soup, and a little dry mustard together and pour over the beef/dressing mixture. Top with cheddar cheese and bake.

4. A take off of a Hot Brown – turkey covered with dressing and a cheese sauce (or gravy) and topped with bacon and tomato - sprinkle with Parm and broil.

I guess I'd better stop...so many things to do with l/o stuffing.

[labradors]

Quote:

---

GRANDMA DENHAM'S TURKEY DRESSING OR STUFFING

---

Rather than posting a full recipe of what my dad makes, I'll just post the differences, since the rest is very similar.

• No raisins.
  
• 8 Oz. Mushrooms, sliced and sautéed in butter with the onion, celery and sausage.
  
• Instead of the toasted loaf bread, a package of the Pepperidge Farm seasoned stuffing bread.
  
• Instead of water to moisten the stuffing, he uses sliced onions, sliced celery, chicken broth and the turkey giblets to make a rich broth.

The same mixture, without the bread, is what I use for:

Leftover-Thanksgiving-Turkey-Dinner Pizza

• Pizza crust.
  
• The wet part of homemade stuffing, without the bread/croutons added.
  
• Slices of leftover turkey.
  
• A little bit of leftover gravy (not much - it expands and runs when you reheat it).
  
• A moderate coating of freshly grated smoked Gouda cheese (no Mozzarella in this pizza).
  
• After baking the pizza, serve each slice topped with a slice of canned cranberry sauce.

[cjs]

Oh yeah, we need another cookbook project!! "Holiday Leftovers" - the pizza sounds so good, Labs.

[Gourmet_Mom]

I'll have to say my mom's dressing and giblet gravy. We don't put meat in ours, just stuffing mix (Pepperidge Farm), bread, crackers, chopped boiled eggs, onion, and chicken broth. "Plop" out patties of it onto a sheet pan, dollop with a little butter and bake until set....YUM!

[DFen911]

Jean! Stop doing that and read this....

Thanksgiving Pizza - GO!

[Harborwitch]

That brings up a memory - my ex and I were on our way to a commercial fishing expo in Reno, but stopped in at his ex-wife's (Pinky) house (half way there) to drop off the girls and spend the night before heading on.

She made a lovely casserole with left over stuffing for dinner. Yum! Stuffing, cauliflower, gravy, and heaven knows what else. It was really good. Somehow she forgot that he hated cauliflower! Poor picky got very little dinner - Pinky, the girls, and I had a good dinner.

I got more compliments than usual on my cooking after that - I had never put cauliflower on his plate.

That bourbon turkey gravy had to be the best ever.

[luvnit]

There is nothing better that mashed potatoes and gravy.

Although I will have to say one of my favs is green bean casserole. I never ever had it until I was probably 25 or so. So the first Thanksgiving in my first house (I bought alone) included this dish. It was a wonderful day.

[chef_Tab]

It's the stuffing, veges, gravy, and homemade cranberry sauce and the way they all collide on my plate. I could actually live without the turkey and desserts.