Thanksgiving Culinary Workshop

Both of my girls were home for Thanksgiving and it was wonderful.  Lauren came in a day early and her help was welcome.  She is such a joy.  And this turned out to be a great time for her to offer help.  The plan was for my family to come for Thanksgiving lunch.  We had our menu planned and delegated.  I would cook the turkey, dressing and gravy.  They would bring the other dishes.

The day before Thanksgiving, Lauren arrived.  John and I were thrilled to have her home for the holidays.  Once she dropped her bags, we started our preparation for dinner the next day.  The turkey was fresh so we didn't have to worry about thawing.  Gravy would be easy to make once the turkey was cooked, so all we had to do was get the dressing ingredients together.

My mother makes the best dressing in the world, at least I think so.  And obviously, others do too cause we are always asked to bring dressing.

I make my dressing like hers and we never have any left over, so that is a good thing.  Lauren asked if she could help, so I directed her to chop up the onions and celery so we would have that part done and ready for the next day.

Thursday morning, we boiled the eggs.  Now these are not just any eggs, they are free range organic eggs produced by my sweet little chicken, Henny Penny.  Her eggs have really bright orange yolks from the diverse diet she has here on the farm.  We were making two large pans of dressing so we boiled a dozen eggs.  Lauren added the celery and onions she had chopped the night before.

To that we add the Pepperidge Farm Herb dressing.  I use two large bags for Thanksgiving cause we will eat a lot of dressing.

I like to add extra sage and that is usually to taste.

To the mix we add a stick of melted butter, a can of Campbell's Cream of Chicken soup (undiluted), juice from the turkey that has been cooked and if additional is needed, Swanson's chicken broth.  (I use part of the turkey juice to make the gravy, so that's what prompts the need for extra broth, it takes more broth than you might think.)  The consistency of the dressing should be a little stiff.  We always taste it just to make sure it is right.  With my taste still compromised from chemo and radiation, I was hesitant to be the official taster, so once the dressing was mixed, we let John check it too.  Yum, perfect!

Here Lauren places the mixture into a large pan that has been sprayed with Pam, to be cooked.  It takes about 45 minutes at 400 degrees to cook but that depends on how thick the dressing is and also how much broth was put into the mix.  Sometimes I add a little too much and I have to cook it a little longer.  We like moist dressing and I take it out when it looks like it may need to be cooked a bit longer, but once it is out of the oven, I let it sit for at least 30 minutes and a lot of moisture evaporates during that time and it is just right.

Lauren's first batch of dressing was wonderful, she did a great job. Nothing but praise from the family.  You know your dressing is good when you see someone eating a piece like it is pie!

And there's nothing any more fun for this mother than sharing good times with her beautiful daughter, especially when it allows me to pass on a recipe that she will hopefully someday pass on to her children.

Life and is good.  And so was the dressing.

PCQ