Delishytown

Thanksgiving Sides: Cider Sausage Stuffing with Fennel, Leeks, & Dried Cranberries

I made two kinds of stuffing for our Thanksgiving party today and froze them until Thanksgiving. If you're cooking for a lot of people, it's easier to do as much as possible ahead of time and put it in the freezer until the day of the party. That way you can just pop it in the oven for the last hour that the turkey cooks. Bread freezes well, so this is a good thing to make ahead. Make sure to thaw this in the fridge before baking.

This version of stuffing includes seared and caramelized Italian sausage, which was cooked and drained and added back at the end. I also added fresh chopped fennel from our front yard garden, apple cider (along with the stock or veggie broth), chopped leeks, dried cranberries and toasted almonds.

You prepare this the same way as the stuffing I posted earlier, adding chopped leeks and fennel to the vegetable saute at the beginning, and 1 cup of apple cider in the broth stage.  This also has dried cranberries added at the mixing stage with toasted sliced almonds. It's delicious! 

Thanksgiving Sides: My Dad's Stuffing

 Every year we have a big party on Thanksgiving and it's a fun, massive, & delicious feast. 

Why can't it be Thanksgiving right now? Answer: it can.  I got up early this morning and made this stuffing and baked this small dish for breakfast. It was so delicious! I put the rest in the freezer, in a large butter coated foil pan, dotted with butter, covered with foil. Weds night I'll take it out of the freezer to thaw in the fridge, then pop it in the oven about an hour before serving. 

This is the dressing my Dad taught me how to make when I was a little kid.  This recipe is for both the carnivore version and the vegetarian version. My Dad's recipe starts with browning Italian Sausage. If you eat meat, I would definitely use the sausage. If you're vegetarian, you will love this side dish. 

In a cast iron skillet, brown about 1 lb of Italian sausage, (ignore this step for the vegetarian version) Add 1 chopped onion, 2 chopped carrots and 3 or 4 chopped celery stalks, 1 peeled and chopped apple, and about 3 tblsp butter and 1 tblsp olive oil. Season with kosher salt and pepper, a sprinkle of onion powder, garlic powder, paprika and a pinch of dried tarragon. Add a small handful of fresh chopped parsley. Add  1 tsp poultry seasoning or dried sage, 3 or 4 minced garlic cloves and continue cooking 5-8 minutes.  Add 3-4 cups chicken stock, vegetable stock, or broth and bring to a simmer. Add 1/2 cup chopped dried Apricots. Turn off the heat.

You can use stale bread for this, or bake a couple of cornbreads, or whatever you like. The easiest way is to use the boxes of bread cubes from the grocery store. I usually use any day old bread and combine it with the box bread cubes. Place two boxes of stuffing cubes in a large bowl. Pour the broth and vegetables over the dry bread cubes, a little bit at a time, tossing gently. Be careful not to overmix or it will turn into mush. Once the cubes are moistened, place in a butter coated baking dish, cover and bake at 350 until piping hot and delicious. Take the foil off the top for the last 10 minutes of baking. Yum! Happy Thanksgiving!