It's the most wonderful time of the year.....

That's right.  I know you sang that line in your head.  Do not deny it!  Well, we are heading into the holiday season and for my family this means a party at my brother's house.  This is my brother.....

Next to him is his lovely wife.  Once, my brother put on a Snow White wig to entertain my niece and I swear it was me with a goatee!

Now my brother loves many of the holiday dishes I make every year.  The first is my stuffing recipe...

I think it's a beauty.

Today I am going to focus on this stuffing recipe (technically this is dressing).  This one is simple and everyone needs a good, basic stuffing recipe for their holiday table.

Begin with a loaf of good french bread.

Cube it, place it on a baking sheet, and then place into a 300 degree oven until completely dried out.  This should take about an hour.

Then we start on the mix-ins  Start by chopping an onion into a small dice....

Then chop two carrots and three ribs of celery into a small dice...

Then chop one Granny Smith apple and one Braeburn apple into a small dice....

As you chop just place it all into a bowl.....

I know some people cook it all separate and one at a time, but who the heck has time for that?!!!!!!  Now preheat a skillet on medium high heat and melt about 3 tablespoons of butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil....

We always use cast iron and the results are beautiful.  This one is even large enough for you to bake the dressing (aka stuffing) right in it.  However, we are heading to a dinner party so corningware it is!!

Butter it!!!  You do not want the stuffing to stick!

Now back to this....

Season with salt and pepper.  Cook until the carrots have softened a bit.  They are chopped into a small size so it should only take about 10 minutes total.

As you can see, it reduces in volume....

Then pour it over your bread cubes that should be in a VERY large bowl....

RESIST THE URGE TO STIR IT!!! (Kevin!  STOP TRYING TO STIR IT!!!)

Now onto the sausage...

Remove it from the casing and crumble it slightly.

Place it in a pan and brown it.

Pour the sausage into the same bowl as the vegetable and bread cubes.

Now pour over 1/3 of a 32 ounce box of chicken or vegetable stock or turkey stock...

Add 1/3 of a cup of dried cranberries that have been reconstituted in hot water.

Stir it up and pour another 1/3 cup of stock...

Now place it into your buttered baking dish.....

Spread it into an even layer and add thin pats of butter over the top to brown the top of the stuffing.

Put it in a 350 degree oven for one hour...

Once an hour has passed you will have a delicious stuffing to enjoy!

Now, you can change this stuffing in SO MANY ways.  You can add nuts or dried fruit (make sure you reconstitute is in hot water).  You could add a layer of parmesan cheese on the top.  Happy Cooking!!!

A warming trend....

You need a good vegetable stock recipe.

See that?  Yumminess.  Trust me on this.

This is made in a crock pot and is simple.  There is no micro-dicing.  There are no fancy ingredients and the result is delectable.

I promise it is simple.  

3 - 4 carrots, washed and cut in large chunks
4 - 5 celery stalks, washed  and cut in large chunks.

The number will depend on the size of each of these.  What I had on hand was fairly large. Be sure to chop them. I suppose you could do this with them whole, but unless you have a long strainer the steps ahead may be difficult or cumbersome.

 1- 2 turnips, washed and chopped in large segments
1-2 rutabaga, washed and chopped in large segments
Again, if you have small turnips and rutabagas then get 2.
No turnips or rutabagas in the market?  Grab 4 parsnips and 1 medium sized head of fennel instead.

1 large yellow onion, peeled and chopped in large segments

1 head of garlic, cut in half so that all of the cloves are exposed
1 bunch of parsley, rinsed
Now do not scoff at that picture.  I had neither of these ingredients available to me, but what I did do was use what was on hand. Many home cooks do this. The old adage "Waste no, want not" is common in our home.  What you see here are frozen garlic cloves and frozen parsley oil.
We freeze garlic when it is about to go bad and the parsley oil is made in the food processor.  It changes nothing, but the flavor of the olive oil is infused in the stock.
YUMMY!!

1 Tbsp of kosher salt

8 whole black peppercorns

Place all of this in your crockpot.

Cover the entire thing with purified water.  

Then place the cover of the crock pot, set the cook setting to low, and let it cook overnight.  

The next morning, you will find this and, along with it, your home will smell glorious.  My husband loves stock night because he wakes to what he refers to as, "the smell of fall." Do not be afraid of this photo.  If you do not use parsley cubes you will not have this but a light, amber liquid.

You will need to strain the stock into a large bowl.  Place all of those veggies into your compost pile.

Transfer the stock into a seal container or cover the bowl with plastic wrap.  You choose!  Let the stock cool for 2 hours on the countertop or in the fridge if you have places to be.  

When you get home place cheese cloth over a fine mesh strainer and strain once more into another, clean container with an air tight lid.

You can skip this step if you did not use parsley oil cubes or do this if you want a more clear color for your stock

I recommend it no matter what.

Now we use all of this in a week, but when we do not we do the following...

Place it in quart freezer bags, lay them flat on a sheet tray, place in the freezer and them it freeze for 4 hours.  Then remove the sheet tray from the freezer and stack your stock!

If you want chicken stock instead, remove the rutabaga and turnip and add a few chicken wings.  or you can add a chicken carcass from the last time you roasted a chicken. Follow the same method.

When it is done you will have a rich and deeply colored stock.  Taste it and make sure to salt it some more if you need to.  I am not big on salt when it comes to stock because we use it in so many ways and salt the other ingredients.  However, you may want it to have a little more salt in this.


Some ideas for using your stock:
1. Use it to make Spanish rice instead of water.  Do this and then send me a thank you note.

2. Use anywhere you would use chicken stock. We are all trying to eat a little more healthy.  Even in chicken noodle soup this stock offers a wonderful flavor.  We like it better this way.

3. Replace part of the cream in your mashed potatoes with this stock.  I do this all the time.  DO NOT tell my husband!

4. When you make beans in the crockpot mix this with the water.  Use a 50-50 ratio and let it simmer away all day.  Add one chopped onion, garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste.

Now go make some of your own and let me know how it goes!

Because a crockpot should not collect dust.....

Please don't tell Buela I do this, but I make pinto beans in a crock pot.

I know!  But look at the end result.....

When I was a child Buela used this to make her beans...

It took ALL DAY and the day before to soak the beans and then cook them.  In the end we had tender, but firm beans that we used for everything.  Did you know I never had refried beans until I ate at an American restaurant that served supposed Mexican food.  Yes....that was a little dig at the industry.  It was also the first time I heard the word "burrito." Buela just called it dinner.

Now onto the recipe...which is not really a recipe.  It's more like a throw in the pot and walk away...NOT a recipe.

Say hell to my friend....Carlotta.

I think I should mention that I name my appliances.  No comment necessary.  I have already gotten the weird looks and commentary from this guy...

Remember him?  This is the husband.  He loves to fish and I told him I wouldn't put another picture of his face on the blog.  So I chose a picture of his backside.

So now you will need homemade vegetable stock, about 8 cups, or you can use one box of stock.  We use vegetable stock, but I have a friend who uses chicken stock.  I say go for it!  But DO NOT use beef stock!!!  It WILL NOT give you the flavor you are looking for.

You also need these....

We love beans around here.  We spent a brief time as vegetarians and really loved using these and other varieties in so many ways.  For this recipe you need two cups.

I pour them into a strainer, look for any beans that need to be removed and then rinse them.  

Then there is the garlic powder, about 1 tablespoon....

NOT GARLIC SALT!!  DO NOT SUBSTITUTE!

Now add two cubes of this....

Just trust me on this one!  You can get them at Trader Joe's or you can simply omit them.  I have a friend whose husband would LOVE to keep these out of the pot because he does not like garlic.  I know!  Crazy!  We will bring him over to the dark side one of these days.

An onion chopped...

2 teaspoons of sea salt....

Fresh cracked black pepper....

All of it goes into Carlotta....

That thin, frozen substance is our homemade vegetable stock.  We freeze it once it is made in 4 ounce Ziploc bags. We have tried other bags and I so want to tell you to use whatever you want, but then I would be lying.  Use Ziploc and avoid catastrophe when freezing foods.

Set it on high for 5 hours or low for 8 hours...

Walk away and come back to perfect beans!

You can make these into the refried beans, but Google a recipe for that.  Buela never did it and we love them just like this!  

My favorite?  I love them in a flour tortilla....

A little bit of cheddar cheese....

Roll it up and eat away!!!

Or go simple and serve it with homemade cornbread and crumble some bacon over the top.

You can also serve it over white rice...we make ours but Trader Joe's sells one you can pop in the microwave.  That would work too.  We also love it over what people refer to as Mexican rice.

Give this a try and then let me know how it turns out!