I’m not a huge fan of egg in my dressing, so when I doubled the recipe (to serve 20) I used only 3 eggs instead of four and it worked well. There was enough cohesion without any eggy bits.

Cornbread and Andouille Sausage Dressing

Ingredients:

• 1 recipe sweet cornbread, made the day before
• butter to grease the baking pan
• 1 lb Andouille Sausage
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced (about 1 cup)
• 3 ribs celery, including leaves, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded & diced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 cup green onions, chopped
• 1/2  tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper (estimate this)
• a pinch of cayenne (go very light, as the sausage already has some kick)
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1 – 1.5 cups turkey stock

Preheat the oven to 350F and butter a 13 x 9 baking dish.

Heat a large skillet over medium low heat. While it heats, peel the casing from the sausage and crumble it as evenly as possible into the pan. (This parts kind of a pain).

Brown the sausage. Then transfer to a paper towel. Leave the drippings in the pan. Chop the sausage so the pieces are uniform in size and not too large.  The size is somewhat of a personal preference.  If you and your family like big chunks, that’s fine.

Add the chopped celery and onions. Cook for about two minutes, just until the onions begin to soften. Add the bell pepper

and garlic.

Return the sausage to the pan and add the green onions, salt, ground black pepper, and cayenne. Stirring to mix after each addition.

Remove from heat and set aside.

Grab a large bowl and the cornbread. Tear the cornbread into chunks, it’s going to crumble easily, don’t stress, the egg will bind it back together.

To the cornbread, add the sausage mixture and the beaten egg. Add 1/2 the turkey stock. Mix gently.

Feel the mixture, it should be moist, not soggy. If it is still dry, continue adding the stock a little at a time until there are no dry areas. Remember, we’re NOT making soup.

Spread the mixture into the buttered dish, cover with foil, and bake for 20 – 30 minutes at 350F. Remove the foil the last few minutes to brown the top.

If you make this ahead of time, refrigerate it overnight. It will take longer to heat through, more like 45 minutes, but check after 30 to ensure it doesn’t burn or dry out.

Enjoy!

Sorry, my two year old has been saying that all week and it’s stuck in my head. It’s already Friday again, how does that happen? It’s a good thing I was ahead of the game by being fearless on Sunday when I played hostess to a large group. Everyone knew when I sent out the invite that chaos would reign supreme and the point of the gathering was to keep me from drowning in leftovers. There were kids zooming around hopped up in a post-Halloween sugar frenzy and at one point, every inch of counter space was in use.

I need to publicly thank Heidi, Eugene & Yaenette, and Don D. Lewis for all their help. From scut work to picture taking without your help it wouldn’t have turned out half so well.  For me, the biggest part of this Fearless Friday was delegating. I’m sort of a perfectionist -Seriously!- and I have this weird idea that if I don’t do it, it’s not going to turn out. This is patently false and something I’m working on. If you browse this gallery you’ll see many of the upcoming pictures for this month’s Countdown to Turkey Day, as well as what I mean when I say it looks like my kitchen exploded. Also, somewhere in those pictures and I’ll give you a hint, it’s not the staged (albeit gorgeous) magazine style ones, you’ll see that Don captured exactly how envision Thanksgiving.

Fearless Friday is about pushing our boundaries in the kitchen. Whether it’s trying out a new recipe, technique, or trying a new food. I invite you to share what you’ve tried, whether it was a success or not. Share your link if you have a blog or tell us about it in the comments below.

Inside the bird it’s called stuffing, outside it’s dressing. Sometimes families or regions will call one the other. It doesn’t matter here. This recipe is for a savory dressing that contains sweet apple, tangy dried cranberry, and crunchy almonds. The original recipe called for sausage, but I use sausage in the cornbread dressing I serve. If you’d like to use sausage, use 1/2 pound of pork or turkey sausage. Brown it and use the drippings instead of the first 2 TBSPs of butter to saute the onions and celery.

This recipe yields 10 servings and can easily be doubled.

• 2 3/4 cups cubed whole wheat bread (A total of 5.5 cups of bread cubes the exact ratio of white to wheat isn’t that important)
• 2 3/4  cups cubed white bread
• 1 onion, diced (approximately one cup if you diced everything ahead of time)
• 2 – 3 celery ribs, chopped (including the leaves)
• 4 – 6 fresh sage leaves, chopped (dried works well, too)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried rosemary (fresh works better, use slightly more)
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 Granny Smith or other tart apple, cored, peeled, and chopped
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds – toasted
• 1 cup turkey stock  (if using homemade, you’ll need 1 tsp salt)
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter (divided) + extra to grease the baking dish / roasting pan

Spread the cubed bread on a large baking sheet and toast at 350. This takes in the neighborhood of 5 – 7 minutes. Watch it carefully the last few minutes. Dump the toasted cubes into a large bowl and set aside.

Butter a 9 /13 baking dish. (This a holiday feast, try not to reach for the baking spray, think of the children)

If you haven’t already, toast the almond slivers, either on a baking sheet in the 350F oven for just a few minutes 3 – 5 or in a dry skillet. Watch them carefully, its very easy to cross from toasted to burnt, err on the side of caution.

In a large skillet heat 2 TBSPs of butter over medium heat. Just when it starts to foam, add the onions and celery, turn the heat to low. Stir frequently, cook just until the onions are soft, then add the apple, sage, rosemary, and thyme (I’m about to break into song here, are you going to Scarborough Fair?) Cook just until it smells divine, maybe another minute, stirring frequently.

Turn off the heat, add the cranberries, almonds, and butter. Stir until everything is coated. Pour the contents of the skillet into large bowl with the toasted bread cubes. (If you’re using the sausage add it now, too). Mix everything thoroughly. The butter has picked up a lot of flavor from the herbs and it’s important that this is well mixed.

If you are using homemade stock to which no salt has been added, stir a tsp of salt into the stock).

Pour 2/3 of the stock over the bowl and mix again. Spread the mixture into the baking dish, drizzle with the remaining turkey stock, and cover with foil.

If you are making this ahead of time, place this in the refrigerator (you can make this up to 24 hours ahead). Allow it to come close to room temperature before baking.

If it’s going directly into the oven bake for 40 minutes, then remove the foil and broil or continue baking until lightly browned.

Yay! Another pen and paper exercise or maybe if you’re wired weird and serving a bunch of people it’ll be a Google spreadsheet. I’m still being teased for that, if you must know.

Today’s exercise is not the final menu. This one has three versions, your ideal Thanksgiving dinner, the one that would make everyone happy (you know with Granny’s Waldorf Salad, Aunt Teppy’s Green Bean Casserole, etc), and then the compromise that is the reality of the holiday. On the compromise menu make sure you include at least one item that will bring you joy. Know full well as you add that item to your list that everyone else may hate it, but that does not matter; add it to the list anyway.

When planning a menu for a large meal, look for flavor ties between dishes to create a flow. Take a peek at the spreadsheet and I’ll explain some of them. The Cajun seasoning of the turkey is part of the sausage of the cornbread dressing and sausage is also in the collards. I swapped out the pecans for almonds in the apple, sage, cranberry dressing to tie it with both the broccoli salad and the green beans.  Cranberries are in the sauce -duh- the apple, sage, cranberry dressing, and in the broccoli salad.  This works best if there are very different textures with the involved dishes. Crisp turkey skin, contrasted with soft dressing, or the crispness of stir-fried green beans next to the soft baked feel of the apples in the other dressing. It’s not the easiest technique for me to explain, so feel free to ask questions in the comments. Not every dish in your menu has to fit the flow, but it’s best if they don’t come from too far afield. If it seems out of place, see if there is a way to alter it slightly so it carries some component of the other dishes. In my example the mashed potatoes receive turkey gravy and the macaroni and cheese was topped with  bacon (also in the broccoli salad) and green onions (onion flavor was in many of the dishes).

Have fun! Of course, maybe I’m the weirdo here who enjoys thinking about food almost as much as eating it.

Thanksgiving will be here in just over three weeks.

If you have company coming, now is not the time to launch any big home improvement type projects. I’m not talking about necessary repair, if you have a hole in your roof, by all means get it fixed. If you’ve never played host over a holiday, don’t add in the stress of painting a room or gutting a bathroom over the next few weeks.

You see that handy post-it in the upper right?* Those chores will take you through your house or apartment three times before Thanksgiving arrives. Add in 10 – 15 minutes of The Secret to a Clean Home every day and you will be company ready long before Thanksgiving gets here.

If you’re a novice cook and you’ve never cooked for company or roasted a chicken, you have homework.

If your house is a disaster and you don’t know where to begin, check out Getting Started on Your Messy House or start with the sink.

The recipes from Sunday will start appearing this afternoon. I normally try to space things out, but this month I want to be sure everything is up in plenty of time for pre-holiday grocery shopping. If you’re new to Home-Ec101.com, the norm is once per day with a recipe or two a week.

*If you’re reading via RSS or email, it’s only visible on the site itself, I haven’t figured out how to make it show up in the feed, too.

Today there are two things to do. First, if you’re hosting it’s time to decide: who, when, and where. Even if you have family obligations on Thanksgiving itself, many people would enjoy a gathering on the following Saturday or Sunday. Sit down with pen and paper and decide where and what time dinner will be served. Create a tentative guest list that notes any allergies or dietary restrictions. It’s easier to plan around a gluten or nut allergy than it is to rework a menu.

Your second to-do? Find the dining room table. Hey, don’t look guilty, we all do it from time to time. Horizontal surfaces are a magnet for paperwork and odds and ends. Clear it off today. Give it a good polish. If you have placed any leaves or extensions in storage, pull them out and check for spiders or other friends. If it doesn’t cause problems go ahead and install them. Otherwise, place them in a convenient location -write it down-.

Yesterday’s turkey dinner has given us some leftovers to enjoy for the next two days. There was hardly any turkey left (from the two we made), so we’ll just have sandwiches rather than trying to do anything special with the meat. I’ll use one of the skeletons to make stock which I’ll freeze for soup at a later date.

• Monday – C.O.R.N.
• Tuesday – C.O.R.N
• Wednesday – Grilled sirloin steaks over some kind of Southwestern style salad (Obviously I’ve put a ton of thought into this one)
• Thursday – I’m going to try Sue’s No Tomato Chili, cornbread (with corn), again with the salad
• Friday – Shrimp and grits, steamed green beans
• Saturday – Pizza Night
• Sunday –  Is going to be a lazy day, if I have to tie everyone to the couch. We’ll graze for dinner, mooch something (hi mom!), or Mr. Heather can cook. I’m taking that day off.

Clean Out Refrigerator Night

I frequently get ideas from other people’s plans, so I enjoy reading your plans. Share what’s on your menu this week. Feel free to link to your blog in the comments or just share it there.

Thanksgiving is my favorite time of year. I’m a firm believer that all have two families, those we are born to and those we create and this is a time to celebrate with both. This year, I’ll be posting: recipes, shopping lists, a break down of how to get things done in a timely manner (with reminders to do so), cleaning checklists, and a few *gasp* decorating ideas.

To build my street cred -ha!- I served Thanksgiving dinner to about twenty friends and family this evening. Some wonderful friends pitched in during the home stretch to pull it all together and make sure I had pictures of the whole project. I hope you keep checking in as I countdown to Thanksgiving 2009. Even if you’ve never hosted a holiday before, this series should help you tackle the adventure with confidence.

First of all congratulations to commenters #82 Rachel & #11 @StacyHuggins (who knew begging would convince Random.org?)  they are the winners of the Notes on Cooking giveaway.

Next up, I’m working on a project and I need a description of what brings the readers of Home Ec 101 back time and again. So tell me, what is it that brings you back to this site?

If you live in the US and your area observes Daylight Savings, don’t forget to set your clocks back or we’re all going to point and laugh at you. While you’re at it, change the batteries in your smoke detectors.

Last of the odds and ends, tomorrow starts the Countdown to Turkey Day series. I’m hosting a preview Thanksgiving at my place, tomorrow, to get pics of all the menu items I’ll be including in the series. I’m excited and I hope the light is favorable for some good food pics.

Happy Halloween and be careful out there.

Does anyone ever notice how Thursday just seems to sneak up on a person? I mind my own business, but it seems to happen every seven days or so. This week I managed to squeeze in a quick Fearless Friday. I decided to try out making a homemade version of PopTarts™. Guess what? They are fabulous, absolutely butt ugly, but fabulous. I think with practice and tweaking the technique I’ll figure out how to make them pretty, but I don’t really care if they ever get there.

Fearless Fridays are a chance for cooks of any skill level to push their boundaries in the kitchen. We all have boundaries, whether it’s a food we don’t care for or a skill we’ve never attempted. Anyone is welcome to join in this carnival by sharing a link to their latest attempt at fearlessness (it doesn’t have to be from today, the carnival just runs on Fridays). This series isn’t about perfection, it’s about trying something new and knowing that sometimes we fail. So don’t worry, we want to hear about the flops just as much as the successful attempts. If you don’t have a blog, please share your adventure in the comments.

-Ugly- Toaster Pastries

There's room to grow here

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour + extra for dusting
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 6 TBSP room temperature coconut oil -I avoid shortening whenever possible, but you can use an equal amount here-
• 3/4 cup milk
• Egg wash = 1 egg + a few tsp cold water + beaten
• Filling = your favorite jam

Tools:

• Necessary
  bowl, fork, spoon or spatula, rolling pin, baking sheet
• Nice, but not necessary
  pastry blender, pastry brush, parchment paper

Directions:

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and kosher salt.

Use two forks, your clean hands, or a pastry blender to work the 6 TBSPs of coconut oil into the flour mixture. Keep working it in until thoroughly blended. Add the milk and use a spoon or spatula to mix thoroughly.  The dough will be very soft and a little sticky. That’s normal.

Generously sprinkle your work area with flour and turn the dough out of the bowl.

Have you ever tried taking pictures one handed while kneading? That's an adventure.

Knead the dough 10 – 15 times. To do so:

1. push the ball of dough with the heel of your hand
2. grasp the edge of the dough with your fingers
3. fold the dough over
4. turn 90 degrees
5. repeat

Divide the dough in half. Next time I make this, I’m going to wrap it and let it chill in the refrigerator while the oven preheats to 350F and I hunt down my rolling pin. -One would think it would be in the drawer where it’s supposed to be, but no, not ever.-

Roll 1/2 the dough into a narrow strip about 1/8th inch thick. Try to keep the rectangle somewhere between 3 – 4″ on the short side.

I managed to do that with the second half of the dough.

Once you have a rectangle, use a butter knife to cut it into smaller rectangles of approximately the same size. Shoot for an even number.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or just grease a baking sheet.

Transfer half the rectangles to the sheet.

Grab your favorite jam, use a clean fork to give it a good stir, this makes it easier to spread. Add a generous dollop of jam to the center of each rectangle already on the baking sheet. (The blackberry was great, the peach was lovely, but the pastry where I mixed the two was divine.) Spread the jam as evenly as possible, but leave about 1/2 inch from the sides to prevent leaking during baking.

Beat the egg with the 2 – 3 tsps of water in a small bowl to create your egg wash. Use a pastry brush or your fingers to line the edges of the jam laden pastries. Carefully transfer the other rectangles from your work area and use a fork to crimp the edges.  Poke each pastry a few times with the fork to create vents.

Bake for 20 minutes at 350F. They will be very pale, but done. Transfer the pastries to a wire rack to cool and store in an airtight container.

Toast just as you would any other toaster pastry. Enjoy the fact that you know every ingredient that created these ugly little marvesl.

In the future, I will be experimenting with the jam to pastry ratio and I will lightly sprinkle the tops with a coarse sugar before baking.