Friday, November 20, 2009

Apple Cranberry Stuffing

At Eddie's office, they are having a Thanksgiving meal today. Oh, how I miss those great potluck meals at a big office...

He saw this Paula Deen recipe last Saturday on one of her shows and decided he would try it out. It was really good, and we will make it again one day, but I really do prefer a traditional Southern cornbread dressing with my turkey at Thanksgiving. This would be great with ham at Christmas, though.

By the way, I think it's weird that Paula calls this 'stuffing'. She's a Southern woman and we usually call this 'dressing'. It's not stuffed into anything, after all.




APPLE CRANBERRY STUFFING

2 cups chicken broth
1 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup butter
1 onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 cup chopped celery
2 Granny Smith apples, cored and chopped
3 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 (10 ounce) can cream of celery soup
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
8 cups Hawaiian sweet bread, cubed and toasted (that's a 16 ounce round loaf)

Lightly grease or spray a 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking dish. Set aside.

In a small bowl, combine chicken broth and cranberries; let soak for 30 minutes.

In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion, pepper and celery; cook for 6 to 10 minutes stirring frequently or until tender. Add apples and cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and place in a large bowl.

Beat 3 eggs in a separate bowl. Add salt and pepper. Set aside.

In the large bowl with vegetables, stir in chicken broth/cranberry mixture, celery soup and cinnamon. Add toasted bread, stirring gently to combine. Add eggs. Spoon mixture into prepared dish.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes or until center is set.

Yield: 8 to 10 servings


Note: Paula didn't tell me how to toast the bread cubes. We baked them at 400 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. You want them to really dry out, because this bread is super soft when it's fresh. In fact, it would be a good idea to buy the bread a few days ahead and let it get a bit stale, then toast.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wow... this looks great. I must give it a try. Also I love the duck you made out of yellow squash. Maybe you should think about going into food industry.