Nearing the Summit - Stuffing (Dressing) - the ties that bind

Kids, don't let anybody fool you - Turkey is merely the excuse to have delicious stuffing. There are those who will make their stuffing with wild rice, oysters, saltines - I am not here to judge. I will merely present to you the stuffing that has been passed along on my mother's side of the family for more that 50 years - so good or bad, it's fed a lot of very hungry people.

Ingredients

* 2-pounds of sweet Italian pork sausage, (about 8 links)
* 1 large onion, finely chopped
* 1 cup finely chopped celery
* 2 cloves of garlic
* 2 tablespoons of olive oil
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* Freshly ground pepper, to taste
* 1 loaf of cornbread, made from two packages of those little cornbread mixes (you know which brand you use.)
* 1 loaf of cheap white bread (the type that you could squeeze into a tight little ball, if you did.)
* 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
* 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
* 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter
* 2 large eggs.
* 1 1/2 teaspoon each of dried oregano, thyme and rosemary
* 16 oz. package of white button mushrooms (if you can find cremini, so much the better.)
* 1 1/2-3 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth or your own(which would be infinitely better.)


Tools

* Sharp utility knife
* Large mixing bowl
* Cutting board
* Large skillet
* Large wooden or metal spoon
* Large slotted metal spoon
* A set aside bowl
* Baking Tray


Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F.

There are a lot of steps to recipe - slow deep breathing. Until you feel that you have mastered this, you may want to forgo any alcohol drinks. If you are preparing this at 5:00 AM, your drinking habits are between you and your god.

The day before you’re preparing your stuffing: place your slices of white bread on the racks of your oven to dry out. (How can you tell if this is the cheap white bread - it tears when you try to spread room temperature peanut butter on it.) They will become lightly toasted (do not toast the bread.) Follow the directions on the back of your corn bread mix to make the loaf (since you are doubling the recipe, add appx 10 minutes to the baking time. Use the old toothpick test to see if the corn bread is done (tooth pick comes out clean when done.) Allow to cool.

In a large bowl, crumble the cornbread and the dried white bread slices; set aside.

Peel your onion, cut in half and chop. Wash your celery ribs, cut off the very bottom root end and chop. Set aside.

Place a large skillet over medium heat. When it feels warm while waving your hand over the skillet, add the 2 tablespoons of olive oil, celery and onion and cook until transparent, approximately 5 to 10 minutes. Pour the vegetable mixture over cornbread mixture. (Do not wash out your pan.) Add the various herbs (including the parsley) to the cornbread mixture

I like pork - I'm a proud member of 'Everything taste better with pork' club but you could use a chicken or turkey sausage (I wouldn't- but you could.) Remove the casings from the sausages (Do not think about what sausage casings used to be made of - just discard them.) Put the skillet back over medium heat. Break up the sausage meat into the hot skillet. Sauté until cooked through. Remove the cooked sausage meat from the skillet with the slotted spoon and add to the cornbread mixture. Gently incorporate but do not over mix. Discard the grease (The National Heart Association has insisted that I add this step - if you were to pour the grease into your stuffing mix while no one was looking - who's to know.) DO not wash out your pan.

Clean your mushrooms. Purist will tell you that you must brush the mushrooms dry. "Mushrooms are sponges," they would scream, "No extra moisture!" It's your kitchen, dammit. Put the mushrooms in a colander and rinse them quickly under cold water to remove the dirt. Dry with a paper towel. If the world has not ended, cut off the very tip of the mushrooms and roughly chop the rest (Yes, mushrooms like it rough.) Set aside.

Once again, put the skillet back over medium heat. When it feels warm while waving your hand over the skillet, add the 2 tablespoons of butter to the skillet. When the butter melts, add the chopped mushrooms. Stir the mushrooms around in the skillet. They will ooze out a lot of liquid - this is your chance to scrape up all of the delicious crusty stuff that has accumulated at the bottom of your skillet (it's called the fond.) Sauté the mushrooms until browned (about 15 minutes.) Add the mushrooms into the stuffing mixture. Once again, don't wash that skillet.

Melt the remaining butter in the skillet and pour over the stuffing. Add 1 1/2 cup of stock to the skillet and bring to a boil. Turn off heat and let cool slightly. Add stock to the stuffing mixture, mix well but don't over mix, taste, and add salt, pepper to taste. You may now call someone else into the kitchen to wash the skillet (well, maybe not just yet.)

Beat eggs in your 'set aside' bowl and add into the stuffing mixture, incorporating well but not into a big mush. Look at your mixture and decide if it looks too 'tight' (lumpy or dry). Heat a bit more stock and add to the stuffing until you get a consistency that you like.

If you like stuffing inside your bird (hence the name stuffing) refrigerate this mixture until you are ready to stuff your bird (this will be more stuffing than you need for any bird.). If you are cooking the stuffing outside of the bird, it has magically become dressing - voila. Pour mixture into a greased pan and bake until dressing is cooked through, about 45 minutes.


Serve with turkey as a side dish.