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Whenever I host Thanksgiving, I usually make two different kinds of stuffing, one of which is my Cornbread, Sausage and Apple Stuffing. My recipe for this has evolved over the years and is basically a mish-mash of several different recipes I have collected. It's a really rich and flavorful dish, especially when I have the time to make a homemade turkey stock from the neck bones and giblets. Everyone who has ever tried it, loves it!
When I was growing up, my mother always, and I do mean always, made a basic white bread stuffing with Italian sausage and diced pepperoni in it. Now, it wasn’t a bad stuffing, mind you. I would actually say that it was pretty good. But, after thirty-something years of that same dish, wouldn’t it be nice to try something else? Isn’t variety the spice of life? I think so. However, not everybody agrees with me, if you know what (or who) I mean.
Each year that we gather at my house, come hell or high water, Mom lugs over a big old baking dish filled with – you guessed it – her trademark sausage and pepperoni stuffing. Never mind that there are already at least two different and perfectly wonderful stuffings already on the table. We shift everything around to make room for it. And so, the Great Stuffing War begins.
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During the meal, anytime anyone asks for some stuffing, before I can even reach for the bowl, Mom has already piled their plate high with her interloper dish. The poor recipient, looking a bit dazed, obediently begins to eat what’s on the plate, all the while glancing longingly at the other stuffing choices he or she didn’t get to make. Pretty soon, people are resorting to hand signals and subtle eyebrow raising to get my attention. Plates are being surreptitiously passed to me under the table to be filled with some tender morsels of cornbread or perhaps oyster stuffing.
Of course, no one would ever say anything and risk hurting my mom’s feelings. She means well, and eating her stuffing is certainly no hardship. But I wonder, does she secretly hate my stuffing? Is she trying to spare me the humiliation because she thinks the others hate my stuffing? Or, is she not quite ready to pass the Thanksgiving torch over to me? I imagine it must be difficult to go from years of wielding her spatula as the “Hostess with the Mostess” to being a mere guest at someone else’s Thanksgiving table - especially someone whose diapers you once changed!
In any event, this year I'm giving it another go and making my Cornbread, Sausage and Apple Stuffing for Thanksgiving. I'm sure Mom will try to sneak in her stuffing too. Sigh..... I'll let you know how it goes.....
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Cornbread, Sausage and Apple Stuffing
Ingredients:
4 cups crumbled day old corn bread (homemade or store bought)
2 cups day old white bread, cubed
2 cups day old wheat bread, cubed
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 pound bulk breakfast sausage
1 large or 2 medium sweet onions, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 apples, peeled, cored and diced (I use Golden Delicious, but any cooking apple will do.)
1 tbsp. fresh thyme leaves
1 tbsp. fresh sage leaves, chopped
1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
2 tsp. poultry seasoning
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 can condensed cream of oinion soup
4 cups turkey or chicken stock (homemade is best, but canned will work just fine)
Salt and ground black pepper, to taste
Directions:
The day before:
Prepare cornbread according to the package directions, if making homemade. Leave homemade or store bought cornbread exposed for several hours or overnight to dry out.
The day of:
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly grease or spray a large casserole or baking dish. Set aside. Put cornbread and bread cubes into a large mixing bowl.
2. Melt 4 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage, crumble and cook until lightly browned. Pour sausage, along with drippings into the bowl over the bread mixture.
3. Melt the rest of the butter in the skillet and saute the onions, celery and apples over medium heat until soft and tender, about 10-12 minutes. Transfer to the bowl with the sausage and bread mixture. Add thyme, sage, parsley, poultry seasoning, eggs, onion soup, stock, salt and pepper to the rest of the ingredients in the bowl and mix well.
4. Bake for about 45-50 minutes, until golden brown and crusty on top. For a little extra flavor, you can drizzle some pan drippings from your turkey on top of the stuffing for the last 15 minutes or so of baking.
Serves 8.
Enjoy!
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