Ma's Stuffing

Ingredients:

1 loaf of white bread (stuffing bread, if available)

1 bag Seasoned Stuffing Mix (with sage, if available)

2 sticks of butter

1 lb [Bob Evans] sage sausage

1 1/2 cup onion

1 1/2 cup celery, including leaves

2 lb chestnuts (only need 1 lb but buy extra because when you peel them, you will find that many aren't good)

dried sage spice

poultry seasoning

salt 

pepper

taragon (if you have it)

1 can chicken broth

1. Rip up loaf of white bread and put into big mixing bowl with stuffing mix

2. In frying pan, melt 1/2 stick butter.  Add sausage, onion, and celery.  Cook until meat is cooked and vegetables are tender.

3. Melt the remaining 1 1/2 cups of butter in frying pan with meat mixture.

4. Add ingredients from frying pan into bowl with bread.

5. Add the chestnuts. (these must be cooked first).  If you don't have enough chestnuts, add walnuts to make up the difference.

6. Add dried sage, poultry seasoning, salt, pepper, taragon to taste. 

7. At this point the stuffing will be dry, so add some of the chicken broth.  Mix with hands.  Add more chicken as needed.

8. You can make this the night before and put in the fridge overnight.

9. Stuff into turkey, cook, and enjoy.

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

These are the delicious mashed potatoes from Mom's cooking class.

Servings: 12

Ingredients:

3 lbs Idaho potatoes

2 Tbsp Kosher salt

1 bay leaf

½ cup yellow onion, diced ¼”

½ cup milk

1 cup butter

1 cup roasted garlic **

      1 cup fresh, peeled garlic

      1 cup olive oil

1. Peel and cut potatoes into quarters.  Place cleaned quartered potatoes and 2 Tbsp of kosher salt, bay leaf, and diced yellow onion into a 4-qt stock pot.  Cover potatoes by one inch with cold water, place over high heat.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium, continue to cook until potatoes are fork tender.  Approx 22 minutes total cooking time.

2. In a 1-qt. sauce pot, add: milk, butter, and roasted garlic.  Bring to simmer.

3. Drain potatoes as soon as they are done; if you let them over cook or sit in water too long, your potatoes will be soupy or glue-like depending on your choice of potatoes.  When completely drained, return potatoes to large pot.

4. Add a third of the warm liquid mix to potatoes.  Mash potatoes.  Add remaining liquid.  Continue to mix until liquid is completely incorporated.  Taste and check seasoning, adding more kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper if needed.  Serve.

**TO ROAST GARLIC:

1. Place 1-cup of peeled garlic cloves in a 1-qt sauce pot with a 1-cup of olive oil.  Cover pot with a lid and place in a 300F oven for 60-70 minutes or until garlic is soft and golden brown.

Note: This dish can be made ahead of time and re-heated in a microwave oven or conventional oven at 375F for 35-45 minutes (or until hot all the way through; to check for “hot all the way through”- stick a stainless steel knife tip directly into center of the pan.  Immediately remove.  Tough the tip of the knife to your skin just under your lower lip.  If the knife blade is hot to the touch, your product is “hot all the way through”).