Stuffing

The stuffing in in the upper right of the picture.

You'll probably need to zoom in to really see it since I used such dark bread.

I made this for the first time this year, adapting a recipe to make it my own. Instead of stuffing the bird, I put it in a cast iron pan and stove cooked it for a few minutes, then finished it in the oven. It was soo fantastic, seriously. Best stuffing I've ever eaten.

1 C butter

1-3 handful nuts (I used walnuts, but it was my 3rd choice after pecans and cashews)

3 celery stalks chopped (with leaves, feel free to add all of your celery leaves)

3/4 c finely chopped onion

9 cups soft bread cubes (I used 10 slides german black bread and 5 slices whole wheat, partially dried and cubed)

1/2 C dried cranberries or golden raisins

2 T chopped fresh or 1 1/2 t dried sage

1 T chopped fresh or 1 t dried thyme leaves

1 1/2 t salt

1/2 t pepper (or several turns of the pepper mill)

1 C or so broth

Melt some of the butter in a pan and add the nuts to brown.

Remove nuts, leaving butter.

Add remaining butter and cook celergy and onions until tender

Stir in 1/3 of the bread cubes

Add remaining bread cubes, fruit, nuts, herbs, salt and pepper

Stir in broth until its as moist as you like it. (The recipe I adapted this from had not broth, but it called for a stuffed bird, and that's a really moist cooking method.)

Place in oven covered for ~20 minutes, then uncovered to brown. These times are approximate. I probably used a standard 350F oven. Who knows, it was Thanksgiving, and I had a lot going on.

I've heard of people forming their stuffing into balls, or making muffins. Then its already perfectly portioned. Maybe I'll try that next year.