Thanksgiving 2012 - Part III (Grandma's Stuffing)

In Thanksgiving 2012 - Part II, a simple, tasty recipe for making stuffing in a crock pot appeared. Now I'm going to share my Grandma's stuffing. I warn you up front that this recipe makes a LOT of stuffing and takes some time. But then again, there is no such thing as having "too much stuffing," especially when it is this good.

Ingredients

• 2 loaves of bread
• 1 lbs ground sweet Italian sausage
• 1 lbs ground beef, pork, or even turkey
• 2 medium onions (chopped)
• 8 stalks celery (chopped)
• 3-4 cups vegetable broth
• 2 sticks margarine or butter
• Dash of thyme
• Dash of sage
• Dash of celery salt
• Dash of black pepper
• Dash of marjoram
• Dash of oregano
• Dash of rosemary
• Dash of basil

Directions

1. On Tuesday evening, lay out all of the slices of bread on the counter to dry overnight.
2. On Wednesday, cut the bread slices into cubes, and continue with the next steps.
3. Brown the ground meat and onions in a large skillet.
4. In a medium stock pot, bring vegetable broth to a slight boil and melt the butter in it.
5. Turn the broth to low, add the celery, and simmer for about 5-8 minutes.
6. Drain the celery but retain the broth (scoop out celery with a slotted spoon).
7. In an extremely large bowl or stock pot, put in all of the meat, celery, and bread.
8. Mix well, and occasionally add a dash of each of the herbs.
9. Add a little of the broth to make it moist but not wet. Refrigerate.
10. Thursday morning, mix stuffing again and add any more herbs/spices you want.
11. Stuff the bird and place extra stuffing in a casserole dish.
12. Put casserole dish of stuffing in the oven during the last hour of roasting the bird.

Suggestions
✓ Because the stuffing is done Wednesday, don't eat all of it before you need it for the bird.
✓ The above recipe makes enough for a 20 pound turkey and some on the side.
✓ Keep in mind that stuffing should be moist, but not wet.
✓ Make sure that the stuffing reaches 165 F when the stuffed bird is roasted.

A key thing I would be remiss to not share, remember what Grandma always said, "recipes are a guideline, change them as you see fit... you are the one eating it..."