A Wonderful Holiday Meal

As I’ve stated numerous times throughout my postings, the Holiday Season is my most favorite time of the year. Not just because I enjoy giving and getting gifts, but because of the wonderful food.

This past Thanksgiving, I made Chicken & Dressing for the first time in my life… and it turned out GREAT! I am so proud of myself. I’m not one to keep secrets so I will share some of my recipes with you.

Chicken and Cornbread Dressing:
The recipe I have is just for corn bread dressing, my grandmother would always have chicken and boiled eggs in hers so I added these to my recipe.

First, get a whole chicken and a big dutch (a really big pan) oven. Wash, salt and pepper your chicken and place it (whole or cut up) into the dutch oven. Cover it with water. Place on stove top on high heat and “boil the meat off the bones.” When the meat falls off the bone when you try to pick it up with a fork, you know it’s done. Remove the chicken meat from the pot.
Carefully pick your meat clean, remove any gristle, bone, or other “yuky” looking stuff. You want only the best part of the chicken in your dressing and you don’t want "Uncle Tim" breaking a tooth on bone in your dressing. Set this all aside for later.

Now the ingredients needed for your cornbread dressing:

JUST FYI: This mixture will look really soupy; which is okay for a moist dressing. If you like your dressing dryer, just cut back on your chicken broth.

1 cup butter or margarine; divided
3 cups white cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
7 large eggs (and 4 or 5 more hard boiled)
3 cups buttermilk
3 cups soft breadcrumbs
2 medium onions, diced (2 cups)
1 large bunch celery, diced (3 cups)
½ cup finely chopped fresh sage (or one tablespoon dried rubbed sage)
6 (10 ½-ounce) cans condensed chicken broth, undiluted
1 tablespoon pepper
First you make a pan of cornbread:
Place ½ cup butter in a 13 x 9 inch pan; heat in oven at 425 for 4 minutes.
Combine cornmeal and next 5 ingredients; whisk in 3 eggs and buttermilk.
Pour hot butter into batter, stirring until blended. Pour batter into pan.
Bake at 425 for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool.
After cornbread has cooled. Get a really extra large bowl. Crumble cornbread into bowl; stir in breadcrumbs, and set aside.

Melt remaining ½ cup of butter in a large skillet over medium heat; add onions and celery, and sauté until tender. Stir in sage and sauté one more minute.

Stir sauteed vegetables, 4 eggs, chicken broth, and pepper into the cornbread mixture.
This is where I add my cut up cleaned chicken pieces and 4 or 5 diced up hard boiled eggs. Mix everything up really well.

After everything is all mixed up:
Pour it evenly into two lightly greased 13 X 9 inch baking dishes. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 8 hours.

When ready to cook, bake at 375 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes or until golden brown. Both dishes will serve 16 - 18 servings.

I made my dressing on Sunday before Thanksgiving. I put it into the freezer until Tuesday night, then put it into the fridge and let it thaw until Thursday morning when I cooked it.

Everyone just loved my dressing, but that’s not the only thing that makes a Thanksgiving Dinner. Below you’ll find a couple more recipes I love to make for my family.

Dressing is always great to have, but everyone knows Giblet Gravy is a must for the table. Again, I sort of made this my own. Grandma always had boiled eggs in her gravy, but my recipe didn’t call for it so I just boiled about 3 or 4 eggs, chopped them up and added them at the end. My husband loved it.

Giblet Gravy
You’ll need:
Giblets and neck from 1 turkey
4 cups of water
½ cup butter or margarine
1 small onion, chopped
1 celery rib, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
¼ cup all-purpose flour
2 egg yolks
½ cup half and half
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon poultry seasoning
Bring giblets, neck and 4 cups of water to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 45 minutes or until tender. Drain, reserving broth. Chop giblets and neck meat, set aside.

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat; add chopped vegetables, and sauté 5 minutes. Add flour, stirring until smooth. Add the reserved broth; cook, stirring constantly, 10 minutes or until thickened. Reduce heat to low. Remove most of the vegetables using a handheld, wire mesh strainer, and discard, leaving gravy in the skillet.

Whisk together egg yolks and half-and-half. Gradually stir about one-fourth of hot gravy into yolk mixture; when mixed well, add this into your pan of hot gravy. Add chopped giblets and meat; cook, stirring constantly, 4 to 5 minutes or until a thermometer registers 160 degrees. Stir in salt, pepper, seasoning and chopped hard-boiled eggs. Serve immediately. Makes about 4 cups of gravy.

Another family favorite I have made - Green Bean Wraps. It’s a great dish anytime of the year but my brother-in-law thinks we have to have it at every holiday meal.

Green Bean Wraps

You will need:
Toothpicks
4 - 5 cans whole cut green beans
1 package thin - sliced bacon
1 cup butter or margarine
1 cup brown sugar
1 ½ tablespoons garlic
Salt
Pepper
First open and drain all cans of green beans. Take package of bacon and cut strips in half. Gather up a handful of beans and align them all the same in your palm, take the ½ bacon strip and wrap it around your beans; fasten it with a toothpick. Wrap up all your beans. You will have many “stacks” of green beans.

In a saucepan, melt butter. Add brown sugar, garlic, salt and pepper. When mixture is fluid remove from heat - do not boil.

Spoon mixture over each stack. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30 -35 minutes. Then uncover and bake another 15 minutes.

I hope you enjoy the Holiday Season. I know I will…my tummy’s rumbling right now.