Of Fall Weekends and Thanksgiving Stuffing

Oh, people, I don’t know about you but right now I’m feeling like weekend might just be the best word in the English language. Especially fall weekend, and in particular, fall weekend before a major holiday.

That’s why the market was bustling with people, buzzing with energy. There were piles of potatoes and mountains of squash, and carrots that are going to end up glazed and on somebody’s holiday table.

Holidays, yes, holidays. Right around the corner.

(Well, at least here in the U.S.; my Canadian cousins got to it first.)

Right about now I’m feeling rather pleased with myself that I took pictures of the Thanksgiving stuffing last year, so I could tell you about it before the day rather than after. Because, let me tell you, it’s good stuffing.

I should probably tell you that the reason I love this stuffing is that I invented it one year—the year I decided to put all the things I like into a stuffing and leave everything else out. You get to do this when you grow up in a family without many traditions. We don’t have an annual family stuffing that gets made year after year. I was always sad about this growing up, I wanted family traditions that reappeared each year on the dining table.

The good thing about not having traditions, however, is that you get to make them up for yourself—and you get to pick ones that suit. This means that my stuffing has no sausage, no apple, and definitely no raisins.

I generally take a dim view on dried fruit in stuffings.

What I do like is cornbread, and sourdough bread. And loads of sautéed mushrooms and onions and celery and toasted pecans. And I like the surprise of chopped water chestnuts that add a crunch to the stuffing, a fresh and light touch that you wouldn’t expect.

And sometimes I even like dried cranberries, a little (though see above regarding general no fruit policy). I do one pan with cranberries, one without, and a smaller dish with no mushrooms for my sister-in-law who doesn't like them (and I always feel sorry for her as I do).

The first time I made this stuffing was about eight years ago. At the end of the meal, as we were cleaning up, my mother looked at me and said, “That stuffing was so good, can you make it again next year?”

So now we have a family stuffing recipe.



What about you? What kind of stuffing do you like?

And why do some people call it stuffing and other people call it dressing? Are these generational terms? Regional slang? Please discuss.

Because right now all I can think about is stuffing.

This weekend I spent a good long time raking leaves—a perfect thing to do on a fall weekend before a major holiday for which family will be arriving soon. I think of it as the best way to start working up an appetite for stuffing.



THANKSGIVING STUFFING

2 cups pecans, toasted and coarsely chopped
3 medium onions, chopped (6 cups)
2 tbs olive oil
5 stalks celery, chopped (2 cups)
2 1/2 lbs mushrooms—button or crimini—chopped
6 cups sourdough bread, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 loaf cornbread (see recipe below), cubed and crumbled a bit
2 5-oz cans water chestnuts, coarsely chopped
2 tsp salt
pepper to taste
2 eggs, beaten
optional: dried cranberries, chestnuts

Toast the pecans in a dry pan on medium high temperature until warm and toasty, but make sure not to burn (about 10 minutes). Set aside.

In a large pan or Dutch oven, sauté the onions in olive oil over medium high heat. When soft but not brown, add the celery and the mushrooms. Cook until the mushrooms have softened, stirring to make sure the mixture cooks evenly.

In a large bowl (really large bowl), mix the sourdough bread and the cornbread. Add the nuts, and the onion/celery/mushroom mixture. Add the chopped water chestnuts, salt, and pepper.

Mix stuffing throughly, then add egg (and cranberries, if using). Bake in a greased baking dish at 350° for 30 minutes or until the edges have begun to brown just the slightest bit.



While it is possible to use a different cornbread recipe—or even store-bought cornbread, as I did one year—this is the best recipe to use. The store-bought version I used once was far too sweet and had pieces of real corn, which was all wrong for this recipe. I usually make the cornbread the day before.

CORNBREAD
(from Moosewood Cookbook, by Mollie Katzen)
1/4 honey
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup unbleached white flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbs melted butter

Preheat the oven to 425°

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Whisk together the egg, add the buttermilk and honey. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and add melted butter. Mix well. Bake in an 8-inch buttered dish until the edges begin to brown and a knife or toothpick inserted in the middle comes clean (about 20 minutes).

This makes a goodly amount of stuffing—at least enough for six people, probably with leftovers. I love to make it in my mother's old bread baking bowl, often the only time each year that it gets used. It's a huge bowl, a lot of stuffing, but it's all of our favorite dish at Thanksgiving.