Monday, December 14, 2009

My Grandma's Super Yummy Dressing

Dressing, stuffing...my family always called it dressing because we didn't stuff the turkey with it, but I always wonder if people will think I mean salad dressing if I say dressing instead of stuffing. I know, random things that go through my head. My grandma's dressing is one of my all-time absolute most favorite foods. I could eat an entire pan of it. Although it does make me a little sad now because my grandpa felt the same way about it as I do, so now eating it (and when I was making it) made me miss him a lot. Every year my grandpa would be in charge of toasting the bread for the dressing and he'd always want to do way more loaves of bread than my grandma thought was necessary. I always sided with my grandpa because more dressing is never a bad thing.

I had made this once before, I think for Thanksgiving at my parents' house one year when my grandparents weren't there for Thanksgiving. It was only okay--I think I forgot to add the salt because something was just off. I hadn't attempted to make it since then, just enjoyed it when I could get it. It used to be when we'd go to TX for Thanksgiving, my grandma would make up a plate for me from my family's Thanksgiving dinner and save it for me when we got back because they'd always keep our dog while we were gone. When I could I'd take leftovers home and eat it cold for breakfast the next day. This dish is probably the #1 thing I miss about not having Thanksgiving with my family.

Now that I've waxed poetic and gone on and on about the dressing I guess I should just get down to posting the recipe. I was really pretty surprised with how easy this was to do. Let me tell you--the next time I'm on my own for dinner (although I have no idea when or why that would ever happen) I may just make up a 9x13 pan of this to eat...and I won't even use a plate!

My Grandma's Super Yummy Dressing

1 loaf white sandwich bread, toasted and broken in small pieces (my grandpa usually did 1-1/2 loaves, so that's what I went with)
2 cups chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped onion

Saute celery and onion in 1/4 stick butter until it looks tender.

Add celery and onion to bread. Add about 1-1/2 Tbsp sage and a little salt. Mix with broth until it looks damp. You may need to use a can of chicken broth if there isn't enough turkey broth, but don't add it all at once--wait and see how much you need. Bake about 35 minutes at 350.

*****

Let me tell you...I was tempted to eat this straight out of the bowl once I had everything mixed together. Then I was tempted to eat it straight out of the pan before I put it in the oven. Then I was tempted to dump the entire pan out on my plate at dinner--but I thought that might be a little rude since my mom and brother love grandma's dressing, too. But it would have only been a little rude because Jen had made dressing too.

Anyway, this is super easy, super tasty, and I'm sad I finished off the leftovers for breakfast this morning. Let me tell you--I savored that last bite for a ridiculously long time!

Bread and veggies, just waiting on the broth...


Mmmm...pre-baked dressing...


The finished product (after dinner, we were all too hungry for me to take pictures before we ate)...

1 comment:

Sydney said...

This is EXACTLY like my moms, except hers has carrots in it too. :) Yum! It's my fave!