This year's Thanksgiving is looking to be both exciting and bittersweet. My previously planned 4 person dinner has turned into a wonderfully blessed 20 some odd people. I'm so excited to have family here. You see, our family's matriarc is ill, so family members are coming in from MI, NJ, TN, and GA to fellowship and visit with her. We have a lot to be thankful for and on many occasions we forget to say the words. So here you go, I thank God for my family and friends. I decided to share with you my menu for the day. Wow, I can't wait.
Appetizers:
Hot artichoke spinach dip and veggie tray with dip
Dinner:
Turkey and dressing with gravy
Ham
Pot Roast with carrots
Candied yams
Potatoe Salad
Stringbeans
Greens
Mac and cheese
Squash casserole
Home made cranberry sauce
Rolls and cornbread
Dessert:
Sweet potatoe pie
7-up pound cake
Apple pie
Now the interesting thing, I had surgery on my wrist two weeks ago and has limited use of it at present time. LOL. Again, thank God for family. Every family is bringing something. Yeah! Now take a minute and give thanks for we never know when we won't be able to. And if you like, stop on by. After all, you are family!
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Rocking Turkey Dressing
Denise’s Rocking Turkey Dressing
INGREDIENTS
½ Bag Pepperidge Farm seasoned corn bread dressing
½ bag Pepperidge Farm seasoned bread dressing
1 tube Jimmy Dean Sage sausage
1 stick margarine
3-4 stalks of celery, washed and chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1&1/2 apples, cored and chopped (red delicious or other)
1 c walnuts, chopped
1 cup water (approximate)
Salt
Pepper
Poultry seasoning
Garlic powder
1. Crumble and cook sausage until done, set aside. (Make sure you break the sausage up into tiny pieces)
2. Melt margarine over low heat in large sauce pan, add onions and celery and sauté until tender or as us cooks say, translucent. Add apples, walnuts and sausage. Turn off heat.
3. In separate bowl toss together the two dressing mixes. Add sausage/margarine mixture. Toss until combined. Add a couple shakes of pepper, poultry seasoning, garlic powder and salt. (Not too much. The bread is already seasoned and less is more)
4. Drizzle water 1/3 cup at a time and mix. You only need a little water to bind. If you add too much it will be too wet once it combines with the juice from the turkey. (and yes, we are stuffing the turkey, no self respecting cook wouldn't)
5. Spoon into turkey (don’t forget that strange hole at the butt) but don’t over stuff or pack too tightly. There will be enough left over for an extra pan. You are going to need it. It’s just that good.
Now enjoy the best dang dressing in the whole wide world.
How it all began:
I married my husband 13 years ago. The first Thanksgiving after we tied the knot, my husband keep telling me how good his mother's dressing was. She made corn bread dressing. I didn't know anything about corn bread dressing because my mother was famous for her bread dressing. I remember sitting at the kitchen counter breaking up the loafs of bread into the large bowl. I fought the urge to tell my hubby to stuff it because I wasn't his mother and actually called her for the recipe. Well, just like my mother she didn't use recipes. No self respecting cook from the old school did. At least that's what my mother told me. I tried to make her dressing the best I could, really I did. It was okay but 'not his momma's'. The next year we traveled to Chattanooga, TN for the holidays and I got a chance to taste that famous dressing. Oh my God! It was beyond good and I knew immediately, I would never be able to emulate it, so why even try. The next holiday, I decided to experiment and I combined what I thought was the best of two worlds, my mother's bread dressing with my mother in law's corn bread. I then tossed in my own flavor because neither of them used the sausage and apples and walnuts. Well, damn, I had a hit. People were scrapping the poor turkey's carcus for the last bit of dressing and fussing when it was all gone. So there you have it. Denise's Rocking Turkey Dressing! Enjoy!
INGREDIENTS
½ Bag Pepperidge Farm seasoned corn bread dressing
½ bag Pepperidge Farm seasoned bread dressing
1 tube Jimmy Dean Sage sausage
1 stick margarine
3-4 stalks of celery, washed and chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1&1/2 apples, cored and chopped (red delicious or other)
1 c walnuts, chopped
1 cup water (approximate)
Salt
Pepper
Poultry seasoning
Garlic powder
1. Crumble and cook sausage until done, set aside. (Make sure you break the sausage up into tiny pieces)
2. Melt margarine over low heat in large sauce pan, add onions and celery and sauté until tender or as us cooks say, translucent. Add apples, walnuts and sausage. Turn off heat.
3. In separate bowl toss together the two dressing mixes. Add sausage/margarine mixture. Toss until combined. Add a couple shakes of pepper, poultry seasoning, garlic powder and salt. (Not too much. The bread is already seasoned and less is more)
4. Drizzle water 1/3 cup at a time and mix. You only need a little water to bind. If you add too much it will be too wet once it combines with the juice from the turkey. (and yes, we are stuffing the turkey, no self respecting cook wouldn't)
5. Spoon into turkey (don’t forget that strange hole at the butt) but don’t over stuff or pack too tightly. There will be enough left over for an extra pan. You are going to need it. It’s just that good.
Now enjoy the best dang dressing in the whole wide world.
How it all began:
I married my husband 13 years ago. The first Thanksgiving after we tied the knot, my husband keep telling me how good his mother's dressing was. She made corn bread dressing. I didn't know anything about corn bread dressing because my mother was famous for her bread dressing. I remember sitting at the kitchen counter breaking up the loafs of bread into the large bowl. I fought the urge to tell my hubby to stuff it because I wasn't his mother and actually called her for the recipe. Well, just like my mother she didn't use recipes. No self respecting cook from the old school did. At least that's what my mother told me. I tried to make her dressing the best I could, really I did. It was okay but 'not his momma's'. The next year we traveled to Chattanooga, TN for the holidays and I got a chance to taste that famous dressing. Oh my God! It was beyond good and I knew immediately, I would never be able to emulate it, so why even try. The next holiday, I decided to experiment and I combined what I thought was the best of two worlds, my mother's bread dressing with my mother in law's corn bread. I then tossed in my own flavor because neither of them used the sausage and apples and walnuts. Well, damn, I had a hit. People were scrapping the poor turkey's carcus for the last bit of dressing and fussing when it was all gone. So there you have it. Denise's Rocking Turkey Dressing! Enjoy!
Monday, November 14, 2011
Crown and Glory
My book, Crown and Glory is now available as an e-book from Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. This book was inspired by my best girl friend, Pindi who died from breast cancer in 2008. She was 39. The story tells of a breast cancer survivor trying to get her life back after a double mastectomy. Also, all proceeds from this book go towards the fight against breast cancer. Will you help and buy a book? Tell your friends and tell your friends to tell their friends. Forward this email to eveyone you know. Women and men alike are stricken by breast cancer every day. 1 in 8 women are diagnosed with breast cancer. We need to stomp it out. Just think, one book, one step closer to finding the cure.
Blurb:
There are three things Charlice Darrett wants... life, hair and to be left alone. The last thing she needs is interference from a man she doesn't know, however, he's stirring emotions in her she thought were no longer within her reach. Tyree Crawford wants only one thing... Charlice. Will he be able to convince her there is more to life than hair? As emotions collide, and doubts escalate, who will win?
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