About That Stuffing

I guess this may not be the best time of the year for a post about stuffing, but since I made it this week, I needed to get it figured out and typed up while I still remembered what I did.  Plus, Easter is coming up, and maybe someone will be needing this recipe. We made a turkey dinner this past week for Sunday Company Dinner, and as I was prepping the turkey to bake, I really wished that I had thought to get some bread for stuffing.  Well, technically, it would be dressing, since I don’t actually bake it in the turkey.  As I thought about this, I thought about some old rye bread I had in the freezer.  I swear it had been there for about 2 years, and was totally crystallized and covered with ice, but I didn’t want to throw it away.  So I got that bread out, shook of the ice and spread it out on a baking sheet.

Then, as I was in the freezer, I found a package of hot dog buns from last fall.  I grabbed those as well, looked for any more bread pieces, and finding none, headed to the fridge to check that freezer.  In there I found some eggy dinner rolls, some steakhouse style rolls, and a heel of buttermilk oatmeal bread.  A quick trip through the pantry found a knob of whole wheat bread that was past its prime, and in no time I had a huge pile of miscellaneous bread pieces.  I put them all in the oven for about 30 minutes to thaw and dry out a bit, and then began tearing them into a monster sized bowl I had.   A few more steps and before I knew it I had a pan of dressing ready to accompany that bird in the oven.  I have to tell you, this was an example of waste-not, want-not.  I really had no plans for all this frozen bread stuff.  It was all in the freezer because I didn’t want to be wasteful.  It felt like such an accomplishment to actually use it all.

I followed my mom’s example by tossing a bit of this and a bit of that into the stuffing mixture.  See, I don’t ever make the stuffing.  At Thanksgiving time, that’s the one dish Mom has to make, because I have yet to find a stuffing recipe I like.  I was a bit concerned about the end result, but when all of Sunday Company Dinner crew was asking for the recipe, my initial reply was “shoot” because it was a bit of a conglomeration.  But I think I figured out for the most part how I made Celery-Onion Stuffing.  The only one I’m not really sure on is the chicken broth.  Depending on how dry the bread is, you’ll need more or less.  The sausage is completely optional, although I thought it added a fantastic flavor, and of course, veggies can use vegetable broth and I think you’d have yourself a pretty decent stuffing.

Celery-Onion Stuffing 

 

2 cups chopped celery and leaves

2 cups chopped onion

1 stick margarine or butter, divided

1 pound kielbasa, chopped into bite size pieces 

8 cups stale bread torn into bite size pieces

1 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon sage

1 teaspoon seasoning salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 eggs, lightly beaten

2-3 cups chicken broth 

Preheat oven to 325.  Spray a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray.

Cook celery and onion  in 2 tablespoons of the butter over medium heat.  Cook for about 5 minutes, or until softened.  Add the kielbasa to the skillet and give it a brief toss.  Add the rest of the stick of butter to the pan and let the butter melt completely, set it aside.

In a large mixing bowl, add the bread pieces, followed by the seasonings and eggs.  Add the celery and onion mixture and mix all the ingredients together.  Add about half of the chicken broth, and stir gently to combine.  If the stuffing looks too dry, add more broth, 1/4 cup at a time.  The stuffing should look moist, but not soggy.

Scoop the stuffing into the 9 x 13 pan.  Cover with foil and bake at 325ºF for 45 minutes.  Remove the foil and bake an additional 5-10 minutes, or until the top gets nice and golden brown.