Cornbread Stuffing

Thanksgiving is one of my family's favorite holidays because it is-ALL ABOUT THE FOOD! But as I have written before, what we really enjoy is spending the time together preparing, eating, and even cleaning up together. Really just an excuse to have a party.

Last Thanksgiving we were all together for the first time in many years and with most of the kids as adults. My son and his wife generously hosted us in their large kitchen so that there were, throughout the day, most or many of us in the kitchen at the same time preparing the food together and discussing the the changes that we have made in the traditional recipes, the events of the past year, our dreams for the future, and comfortable silence (ok, maybe not so much silence with our growing numbers that are up to 19 + friends and family members who joined us).

Like many of you, stuffing is a traditional part of our Thanksgiving dinner. While it is called stuffing, because we eat so much of it at dinner and for yummy leftovers, I rarely stuff the bird any more. I usually make a restaurant size pan (roughly equivalent to 4- 9x13 pans) of stuffing to insure that we have enough leftovers. However, this year we have a little smaller group so I am still trying to decide just how much to make-to insure we have enough leftovers. We have a fairly longstanding joke in our family about why people don't like stuffing. My kids say that it is because they use bread instead of cornbread.

I grew up with my mom and my grandma making cornbread stuffing so to me that is just what you do. Unfortunately, my kids grew up the same way so on the occasions that we have had Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners with others who prepared bread stuffing, the kids would solicit cornbread stuffing to be made when we got home. Now, we just volunteer to make the stuffing! However, there are those who prefer bread stuffing-probably because that is what they grew up eating.

If you have never liked stuffing but have never eaten cornbread stuffing, I suggest you give it a try. You might be surprised at the difference just a change of bread can make.

Just so you know, my son and I have had a little discussion about the exact proportions, but if you notice the note at the end of the recipe, the most important thing to use cornbread and some of the rest of the ingredients. My son and I are both recording the EXACT amounts (I don't know if that is possible) of the ingredients that we use this year to see if we, in fact, do agree on the proportions.

Cornbread Stuffing

Grandma Palilla

2 ½ cups chopped celery

1 ¼ cups chopped onion

7 ½ cups coarsely crumbled corn bread

4 teaspoons sage

3 + cups chicken broth

salt and pepper to taste

Mix celery, onion, and cornbread together in a bowl. Add the sage and enough broth to make very moist, almost soupy. Pour into 9 x 13 baking pan and bake at 350º for 45 minutes or until set up and a knife comes out clean.

What I Do: Sometimes I use reconstituted chicken bouillon cubes in place of or for part of the broth. Use a 9x13 pan (usually a double batch of your favorite cornbread recipe) to make this quantity. You can see my cornbread recipe below.

These amounts can vary quite a bit; the important thing is to use cornbread and some of each of the other ingredients.

Cornbread

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

¾ cup yellow corn meal

¼ cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt (optional)

1 cup milk

¼ cup vegetable oil

2 egg whites or 1 egg, beaten

Heat oven to 400º F. Grease 8”- 9” square pan. Combine dry ingredients. Stir in milk, oil and egg, mixing just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 20-25 minutes or until light golden brown and wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Serve warm. 9 servings.

What I Do: I always use yellow corn meal, I add the salt, and I add ½-3/4 cup sugar for a single recipe. I also use shortening instead of oil. Mix the dry ingredients then use a pastry blender to blend in the shortening just until the size of small peas. Add a whole egg and milk stirring just enough to moisten. Do NOT use the mixer for cornbread, it beats it too much and makes it tough. I usually double this recipe and make it in a 9x13” pan. This recipe can be doubled, but does not turn out as well when tripled or quadrupled.

Fresh Tomato Soup

Photo by: Taste of Home

I had a few tomatoes that I needed to use. I already made BLT sandwiches on Sunday and we even had sliced tomatoes with oil, vinegar, and oregano as a side dish one night; but I needed to use the rest of the tomatoes. I had been thinking that fresh tomato soup sounded good, but since I had never made it, I was a little reluctant. I looked in my Taste of Home Big Book of Soups and they had a recipe that sounded yummy. I made it and it was yummy!

You need to not think of it as Campbell's Tomato Soup, but it is tasty, nevertheless. Today when I started the blog, I didn't have the cookbook with me so I went to the Taste of Home website and typed fresh tomato soup in the search and found the very same recipe from my cookbook.

My sons voted that this is a keeper, but one of them said, "... and cheese sandwiches?" I guess some things just go together like peanut butter and jelly or tomato soup and cheese sandwiches.

Fresh Tomato Soup
Taste of Home

1 cup chopped onion

¼ cup butter, cubed

3 pounds fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped

2 Tablespoons tomato paste

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon dried basil

½ teaspoon dried thyme

¼ teaspoon pepper

¼ cup all-purpose flour

4 cups chicken broth, divided

1 cup heavy whipping cream

In a large saucepan over medium heat, saute onion in butter until tender. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, salt, basil, thyme and pepper; simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Combine flour and 3/4 cup broth; form a smooth paste; gradually stir into tomato mixture with remaining broth.

Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes, or until thickened. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until tomatoes are tender. Remove from the heat. Stir in cream; serve immediately. Yield: 4-6 servings.

Prep: 10 min. Cook: 45 min.

What I Do: I did not add the tomato paste. I added a little more flour and blended it well in the blender with some broth before adding it to the tomatoes. I am not a fan of chunks of tomatoes in my soup, so I cut the tomatoes into fourths (but I did not peel or seed them) and pulsed them in the blender for a few seconds before adding them to the soup. The soup had texture, but not chunks. I did not add the sugar and I wish I had added more basil. You remember that my son says, "Basil makes everything better!"

Nutrition Facts: 1 serving (1 cup) equals 305 calories, 23 g fat (14 g saturated fat), 75 mg cholesterol, 1,131 mg sodium, 22 g carbohydrate, 4 g fiber, 5 g protein.

Hawaiian Haystacks

I had a very busy weekend organizing a dinner for 100 16-18 year old young men and women on Saturday. Once the stressful planning is over, it is always fun to serve the food. I always think, "I could do this for a living!"

I did not choose the menu, but I have served this meal to a similar number of youth before. However, do you think I kept my notes? This time I took copious notes on how much of everything it takes to serve this meal to 100 people, and I put them in a place that will be forever safe as well as accessible. Sometimes when I put things in a safe spot, I cannot retrieve them later, but not so with these notes. They are in my personal journal.

The people that were helping me cut the vegetables were amazing! We cut 12 bell peppers, 3 stalks of celery, and 25 tomatoes in ONE HOUR and there were only 2 of us for part of the time and 3 for the rest of the hour!

One of the people who helped me last time I made this meal for an equally large group had a nifty recipe for the chicken gravy. Even if you use homemade gravy or fresh chicken at home, this recipe is really the way to go for a large group. The proportions are 2-3 cans cream of chicken soup to 1 equal size can of chicken broth, then add canned chicken (or turkey). For 100 people I used 7 cans cream of chicken, 3 cans chicken broth and 8-12 ounce cans chicken.

The only glitch... I had no idea that all rice cookers did not work the same. The last time I did this, there were enough people on the committee that we all were in charge of bringing 12 cups of cooked rice. This time, we ended up with some rice that was mushy; it's a good thing that the rice was on the bottom so as soon as the gravy and toppings were on it, no one knew the difference! The whole problem with cooking 25-30 pounds of rice is that you really can't cook more than 12-15 cups of cooked rice at one time. Therefore, we had 6 rice cookers plus my BIG pot (x2) cooking rice. I'm still working on a solution to the "cooking large quantities of rice" issue. For this meal, 1 cup of cooked rice per person is too much but 1/2 cup is really not enough unless it is a small group and you know the people will not eat more. For the large group, I settled on 3/4 (+ or -) cup of rice per person.

We have honed it to include our family preferences: crisp Chinese noodles, rice, chicken gravy, celery, pineapple, coconut, and a cherry on top (although we don't often include the cherries any more since I am the only REAL Maraschino cherry fan in the family). I have discovered that a lot of people like the cheese and tomatoes; bell peppers and green onions make most anything taste better and the other things... well, I don't use them at home, but they are always eaten when served to a large group.

Also, for a larger group, I like to serve the pineapple tidbits-they are not as messy as as the crushed pineapple and actually go further... and the chunks, well, I find them to be a little too big for my pleasure. I have bought #10 cans of pineapple tidbits for years at my favorite club stores, but this weekend there were no #10 cans of pineapple to be found at the grocery store, Costco, BJ's, or Sysco. Fortunately, I found tidbits on sale so there we were Saturday afternoon opening LOTS of 20 ounce cans (15 to be exact) of pineapple!

Hawaiian Haystacks
Betty

I realize that this is a mainstay among many, but the first time I heard of it I thought it sounded gross! To my surprise it was yummy and my family enjoys it every time!

2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 cup chicken stock
2 cups chicken, cubed
4 cups cooked rice
1 can/bag crisp Chow Mein noodles
3 medium tomatoes, chopped (or cherry or grape tomatoes)
1 cup celery
½ cup green pepper, chopped
½ cup chopped green onion (or other onion)
1 cup grated cheese
½ cup coconut
1 can (20 oz.) pineapple chunks, drained
½ cup slivered or sliced almonds
Maraschino cherries
Other possibilities that I have seen: sliced or chopped black olives, raisins, and sliced bananas

Combine soup and chicken broth in saucepan to make gravy. Stir to blend. Add chicken. Simmer 10 minutes until heated through. Serve on 8 individual plates layered according to choice.

Option: First layer rice, Chow Mein noodles, chicken and gravy. Add tomatoes, celery, green pepper and onion. Top with pineapple, cheese and more chicken and gravy, if desired.

Option: Place each item in a bowl to be served from. Each person builds their own haystack.

What I Do: We pared the toppings down to celery, crushed pineapple, and coconut on top of the noodles, rice and gravy with shredded chicken in it. When cherries were in season, I would sometimes buy fresh cherries to use on top. Often I make the gravy using a white sauce recipe and replacing the milk with either chicken broth or bouillon or use 2 cans of cream of chicken soup with 1 cup chicken broth or bouillon and 1 cup of chopped chicken or turkey. Serves 6-8.

Jeri's Chicken Pot Pie

Yesterday was such a terrible day that I came home and did what my family has come to affectionately call Kitchen Therapy. Kitchen Therapy works well as a stress reliever for me. It usually includes cooking and cleaning the kitchen. I find it therapeutic to create food, maybe because my family enjoys eating it so much. When I am having Kitchen Therapy I don't even mind cleaning up the mess from the cooking.

It has been cold--that kind of cold that chills you to the bone so Chicken Pot Pies sounded so appealing. I have always liked chicken pot pies, but until about two years ago they seemed like too much work. A couple of years ago, my friend made them for our freezer meal group. They were easy and so yummy! My family loved them, so they have now joined the ranks of other favorite family recipes.

Budget Tip: After Thanksgiving, I had leftover gravy from the turkey and some leftover gravy from biscuits and gravy. I combined the two and added the vegetables and a little salt and pepper and the filling was great–better than with the cream of chicken soup. If you are a pie maker, obviously home made crusts are best; but if you aren't inclined to make pie crusts (which I am not), stock up on the frozen crusts when they are on sale and you will have them ready to make this a quick meal.

The basic recipe can be adapted by adding or deleting some of the vegetables or changing the kinds of vegetables you use. The filling can also be mixed together and frozen to use at another time when you need a quick meal.

I have also adapted this to use no milk by making a gravy like a white sauce using chicken broth instead of milk. I then use that instead of the creamed soup in the filling. It is yummy!

Jeri’s Chicken Pot Pie

½ cup chopped celery
½ cup chopped onion
1-2 Tablespoons butter or margarine
2-3 cups cooked chicken, cubed
1-2 cans cream of chicken soup with herbs
2 cups frozen mixed veggies
1 cup cooked potatoes, cubed
milk to thin
pepper

2 frozen pie crusts

NOTE: Measurements are approximate (believe it or not, this was the note from Jeri when she shared the recipe—my kind of recipe and my kind of cook!)

Sauté celery and onion in butter in large pot. Add soup then remaining ingredients.

Bake the bottom crust for a few minutes to prevent a soggy crust, then pile in the filling.

Turn a frozen crust over the filling, press down edges and cut slits in top to vent.

Bake at 350º for 30-45 minutes or until golden brown.

What I Do: I don’t use quite this much celery or chicken, of course.  I cube the potatoes before I cook them so that I only have to drain, then add them to the mixture. I usually just have cream of chicken soup on hand so I use that. I make two of these for five of us and usually it is all eaten, but everyone is full.


This filling freezes well (even though it has creamed soup). Thaw and add to crust that has been baked, cover with another crust and bake 30-45 minutes until golden brown.

Sour Cream Enchiladas

I have been so busy that dinner time has been rather sparse this week, so last night I decided that I really needed to make something nourishing that my family likes; but since I was so tired, I needed something quick and easy. The kids who are currently residing in my home happen to really like sour cream enchiladas.

I serve these with rice, string beans, and a salad. If I have cooked black beans or pinto beans on hand, I serve either black beans or refried beans instead of the string beans.

Sour cream, cream of chicken soup, tortillas, cheese and salsa are staples at my house because I use them in so many other recipes, so I can always whip up these enchiladas for a quick meal that everyone likes. I adapted this recipe years ago, when I had a lot of little kids at home, to be more consistent and less spicy by using salsa instead of the green chiles, although the the chiles are tasty. If I only have cream of mushroom soup, I use that instead of the cream of chicken soup and the taste is a little different, but still good.

I had a friend who used to put some cooked chicken in each enchilada before rolling it. They were good and added a little more body to the enchiladas, although my family likes them without the chicken just fine.


Budget Tip: Buy the sour cream in larger containers at a club store. If you use it within a couple of weeks, it keeps fine and is much less expensive. Cheese is also less expensive at the club stores. Buy the cream soups on sale NOT at the club store to make the meal less expensive.

Sour Cream Enchiladas

Linda

1 pint sour cream

4 ounce can green chilies (diced)

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 lb. Longhorn cheese (grated)

1 dozen flour or corn tortillas

Combine sour cream, green chilies, soup, and 2/3 of cheese. Warm tortillas in a skillet just to soften. Put 1 tablespoon of mixture in tortilla and roll up. Place in pan. Put remaining mixture on top. Then sprinkle the remainder of cheese. Bake 350º F. for 20 minutes or until cheese melts and filling is heated through.

What I Do: I found the chilies too unpredictable when cooking for small kids so I began using ½ cup salsa instead, I use whatever cheese I have on hand which is usually mild cheddar, and I always use flour tortillas. I don’t normally warm the tortillas first, however, if you do they are more pliable and less likely to crack. I add the salsa to the soups and sour cream, but I leave the cheese separate. I put a heaping soup spoon of mixture and about a tablespoon of grated cheese inside of each tortilla before rolling it. If the mixture doesn’t look like it will lightly cover the top of the rolled tortillas, then I add another can of cream of chicken soup. I don’t think I can do a dozen tortillas without adding the extra can of soup so you will have to experiment and see what works for you.

Note: The first time you make these, they take a little time to put together; however, I can make a restaurant size pan up in about 10 minutes because I have made them so often..