Thanksgiving: We Love Stuffing

Stuffing was never high on my list of Thanksgiving loves. I never loved the flavor, and was put off by the number of ingredients involved.

That all changed about three years ago when I started making my own, with lots of bacon and sausage.

Anything that can act as a vehicle for as much meat and savory goodness as you can stuff into a pan is good by me. Thanksgiving dishes give me an opportunity to go a little bit crazy and not worry so much about the healthier way that I usually eat. Portion control in the stuffing and mash potatoes department are completely gone. I figure once a year, I can really let loose and pack in the good stuff.

If you can line up all your ingredients and cook the elements you need in advance, this stuffing will come together quickly and easily. There will be lots of dicing, browning and dishes, but all for the good cause of making the best stuffing ever.

This year, I used port to rehydrate the dried porcini mushrooms and added dried California figs, instead of dried apricots.

You can amend this recipe however you'd like: use wine instead of port; morels instead of porcini; pecans instead of chestnuts. Whatever you do, keep the earthy flavors balancing out the sweet and nutty flavors and you'll have yourself a wonderful stuffing.

Below is the recipe, but here are links to some of the main ingredients, which I've posted before:

Roast Chestnuts

Corn Muffins

Oven-baked Bacon

Thanksgiving Porcini, Bacon, Sausage, Cornbread and Chestnut Stuffing

serves 6

Ingredients

• 5 corn muffins, crumbled (click here for the recipe)
• 10 to 15 roasted chestnuts, chopped into bits (click here for the recipe)
• 2 to 4 slices oven-baked bacon, chopped into small bits (click here for the recipe)
• 4 dried figs, sliced into small pieces
• 8 ounces dried porcini mushrooms
• 1 cup port (or red wine or brandy)
• 2 hot italian sausages, casing removed
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 sweet onions, diced
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup walnuts, smashed
• 6 sage leaves, minced
• 1 cup chicken stock

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat.
3. Add the sausage, breaking it up into small pieces with a fork.
4. Sauté for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until he meat has browned.
5. Meanwhile, put the porcini mushrooms and port in a small saucepan over medium-low heat.
6. Cook the porcini until they have absorbed 2/3 of the liquid.
7. Once the sausages have browned, add the onions and garlic and cook until they soften, about 10 minutes.
8. Take a rimmed baking dish and place the corn muffins, chestnuts, walnuts, sage and bacon bits into it.
9. Add the porcini and the port to the sausage pan, stirring for about five minutes.
10. While everything cooks, grab a pair of kitchen scissors and cut the porcini into small pieces. You may also need to chop up the sausages a bit, too.
11. Remove the sauté pan from the heat and add the ingredients to the rimmed baking dish, mixing everything up.
12. Pour the chicken stock over the stuffing and mix it in to help the cornbread to absorb it.
13. Place in the oven for 30 minutes, stirring once. It may take a bit longer, it's done when you find the sausage nice a crispy.

Super Bowl, Smuper Bowl...I Love Me Some Wings.

I'm a fan of sports, usually enjoy a good baseball game, and really did enjoy the World Cup while we were in Paris two years ago.

What I realize I love the the most about sporting events (and everything else) are the snacks and foods that go along with these events. My very favorite sports snack is the almighty chicken wing.

I embarked on my research about a week ago. In the past, I had thought you either fried the wings or boiled and then baked the wings. Many recipes online required flouring the wings, which I wasn't going to do due to the gluten-freeness of my diet. I decided to do what cooks used to do in the olden-times: I asked the butcher his advice.

There happens to be a very nice butcher shop in my neighborhood. I saw the wings in the butcher case but they didn't look like the kind I've gotten in restaurants.

So I asked the butcher two things:

1. Are the wings/drumsticks usually split in two before cooking?
2. Don't I need to boil the wings before I bake them?

And the butcher responded:

1. Yes, he said, and I can cut them into two for you.
2. No, don't even think of that! Just bake them in a hot oven and then roll them in the sauce.

After a bit more instruction from my butcher-best-friend, I was ready to tackle the sauce.

I wanted to make something the kids could eat, too, but after some consideration, decided that just this once I'd go for it and make a sauce the adults could love, and the kids could eat theirs plain. I remembered Gran-Fran making some awesome BBQ sauce back in the day, and based on this recollection, I knew I needed ketchup as my base. And something spicy, then something sweet. I added butter, too, which I can't recall if Gran-Fran would be thrilled by this or mortified that I used butter in something involving meat. (I'm sure we'll be getting a comment sometime soon from her weighing in on the matter.)

Then, I started thinking about a recipe I had seen on the craftzine website that served chicken wings on top of cupcakes. At first I thought it sounded not so good. But then, it got in my head, and I figured that maybe if I were to make a savory cornbread to put under the wings, it would offset the spicy sauce nicely. I used a gluten-free mix, with almond milk and added some chipotle powder, too.

And so, here it is, plain and simple, my first try at at making my very own chicken wings. They are really, really good, and worth the effort.

Chicken Wings with Hot Sauce

Ingredients

For the Chicken Wings

• 2 lbs Chicken Wings, cut into wings and drumsticks
• Olive Oil for roasting

For the Sauce:

• 1/2 cup Hot sauce of your choice
• 1 cup of Ketchup
• 1/2 of a Lemon, jucied
• 3 Tbsps Butter, softened
• 4 cloves Garlic, chopped coarsely
• 1/2 Tsp Sesame Oil
• 1 Tbsp Honey
• Salt and Pepper to Taste

For the Cornbread:

• 1 box Gluten Free Pantry Yankee Cornbread mix (or any kind of cornbread mix you prefer)
• 1/4 cup Sugar
• 1-1/3 cups Almond Milk
• 1 Egg lightly beaten
• 6 Tbsps melted butter

And: 2 stalks of Green Onion, sliced thinly

Roast The Chicken

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
• Place the chicken in a roasting pan in one layer.
• Sprinkle with salt and a olive oil.
• Roast for 40 minutes or until the skin is browned.

Make The Sauce

• While the chicken is roasting, put all of the sauce ingredients in a pan and heat over low on the stove.
• You'll know when it's done when it sticks to the back of a wooden spoon and it has thickened.
• Remove the chicken from the oven and take it out of the pan.

Make The Cornbread

• Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl.
• Add in the eggs, almond milk and butter.
• Mix until all the dry ingredients are fully incorporated.
• Spread the mixture evenly in a baking pan.
• Bake for 20 minutes. (It cooks in a 425 degree oven, just like the chicken.)
• Remove, cool and cut up into serving sized pieces each large enough to hold a wing.

Time To Serve It Up

• Working in small batches, put a wing or two in the sauce, rolling them around to coat them thoroughly.
• Place a wing on top of a piece of the cornbread.
• Spoon a bit of sauce over the top of each wing and add some green onions.

Enjoy!