What a day! And dressing!

As planned, I cooked our "discount" turkey today, and created the stuffing (recipe below). I'm using the drippings from this turkey to make the gravy in advance, and the broth to make the dressing on Thanksgiving day. I'm pretty excited about it!

I don't think we'll be using this recipe for Thanksgiving. I just don't LOVE the sausage in it. I'll keep the basic recipe, and just eliminate the sausage. I love sausage, just not in my dressing!

Looks yum though and tasted really good. Just not what we're looking for. No biggie. That's what these tests are for!

The majority of the day was spent with my Mom, helping me empty some lingering boxes that I had stuffed in my dining room. Mom and I also determined the best set up for the tables and side tables, figured out how we are going to set up the drinks table, and went over my Thanksgiving week plan.

For those of you who are interested, here's the plan:

Monday - Make turkey brine and mincemeat for pies, and bread for dressing.

Tuesday - Make pies and cornucopia for charcuterie board

Wednesday - Make ham, potatoes, gravy and put turkey in brine, set table

Thursday - Make turkey, ambrosia, set up charcuterie board and VOILA!

My family is making the other items for our dinner, so everyone is bringing two things as well.

DRESSING (with sausage)

• 1/2 - 1 pound ground breakfast sausage (spicy)
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 cups celery, chopped
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 1 large loaf of bread, diced and dried out (bake in oven at about 200 degrees until dried well - like croutons)
• 4-6 cups chicken broth
• 1- 2 tbsp poultry seasoning
• salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Sauté the sausage. Remove from pan and set aside. Add butter, onion, celery and carrot to the pan and sauté until the vegetables are soft. Add the bread to a large bowl. Add butter, onion and celery mixture and sausage on top of the bread mixture. Mix all together very well. Add 4-6 cups of broth (add enough to moisten all the bread well). Add poultry seasoning, salt and pepper to taste.

In a greased 9 X 13 pan, add bread mixture, bake in the oven for 30-45 minutes.

Hope you enjoy!

For our Thanksgiving day dressing, I'll make it exactly as above, but remove the sausage, and maybe mix an egg in the bread mixture before I put it in the oven.

Thanks for reading and have an amazing week!!