Dressing

[Crane]

So... whose momma has the best cornbread dressing around... and a recipe to go along with it? Crane

[GN YAKN]

I'll post Nana Gail's recipe later tonight. You could feed my family nothing but Nana's dressing and giblet gravy and they would be happy!

edit: Actually it is Nana Della's recipe. Not sure if she got the recipe from her Nana or not but I do know it's in its third generation of mama's preparing it for me!

[Roger]

Dressing for Bird Day! So many different ways!

[Jim Krueger]

Larry,

My folks also had a pretty nice recipe for cornbread and cornbread dressing. My Mom usually would prepare two pans of the same recipe, but cooked differently to satisfy all of us. The major pan of it was cooked golden brown on top but soft, and the other pan, for my Dad, was cooked dry and well-browned so he could crumble it up in a pile and drench it with giblet gravy I like both ways.
There are probably many recipes that are great but all of them have fresh cornbread, eggs, celery, sage, chicken broth, salt&pepper, and onions, all lovingly combined and baked. In addition, no sugar was ever used in our recipe for cornbread or dressing , parish the thought... 'Bon Appetite'

Best Regards
Jim Moose

[RandyJ]

Moose,

Agree - no sugar. Cornbread w/ sugar is called "cake."

[GN YAKN]

Nana's Celery Stuffing:

Cornbread (baked day before)
1 C Cornmeal
1 C Flour
1 Egg (aig in okrahoma)
1 C Milk
1/2 tea sp salt
4 tea sp baking powder
1/4 C Shortening (Shawtnin, Shawtnin, Momma's little baby loves Shawtnin....)
Mix and Bake at 425 for 20- 25 mins.

Chop 1/2 or more stalks celery 1 1/2 - 2 Cups
Chop 1 medium white onion
Cook over medium heat with a lid until tender in 1/2 cube of "oleo"

3 - 4 cups of broth, either cooked down from giblets or canned variety.

Crumble the cornbread and add one package of Pepperidge Farms Herb seasoned stuffing mix, the cooked veggies and enough broth to moisten. Mix with a fork to keep it from packing together. The amount of broth you add determines how moist the final product is so add to your own taste.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes!!! Enjoy and thank God for mamas!!!

[Clif]

I will be wearing something commfy, but kinda old. Frying turkey has the potential to get a tad messy. Dont wanna splatter on my cool duds.

[Shark Attack]

My mother's dressing used to make me cry. My grandmother's on the other hand was great....

[okieboater]

unfortunately for me, my Mom passed and I did not get or write down her dressing recipe. I suspect it was very close to Gn Yakn's version. Except, I remember pecans being in dressing.

We lived close to a lot of pecan groves and in North Georgia, pecans were in everything from pies to dressing.

Which brings to mind another recipe I did not get. Mom's pecan pie which along with a glass of cold milk was about as good as it gets for dessert on Thanksgiving Day.

[GN YAKN]

Okie,

Cindy and I married in October '82. We hosted her family and mine that first Thanksgiving in our home.

I called my Mom and asked her how to make Thanksgiving Dinner. She sat down and wrote me a four page letter with her recipes for turkey, dressing and giblet gravy. Specific directions even I could follow. Turned out great.

Last year Mom put together a family cookbook with everyone's favorite recipes. Each of us had our own section that we contributed recipes for. Among the ones I chose to submit was that four-page letter that I had kept.

It was pretty cool to get to share it with my siblings and it made Mom feel pretty good that I had kept the letter for almost 30 years. It has quite a few stains on it and it is crumpled and yellowed, but it was fun to get to share a copy with everyone. Pulled it out last night for this post.

Dave

[Crane]

Neat! Thanks! Crane

[robkanraft]

When I left home, (could it really be 30 years ago?) My Mom asked me what I wanted for a graduation present. I asked for a metal recipe box with my favorite meals written down. Hard to do for a woman who cooked great food from scratch, including shelling pecans and walnuts because why would you pay for that from a store? I know she spent a lot of time writing it all down. Yellow paper, stains and all, when I look in that box, my Mom’s still with me. Gotta go check the cupboard.