How to Make Thanksgiving Dressing

Happy Thanksgiving! Today I wanted to share how to make my mom's Thanksgiving dressing. You'll probably think I'm biased (okay, I am....), but she truly has such a special talent in the kitchen! She can cook and bake with the best of them. I'd put her up against The Pioneer Woman or Paula Deen any day!

The recipe for the blueberry cake she makes is a family secret, but I can share her secrets for her dressing. My mom gave my husband the blueberry cake recipe a few years ago, and anytime the cake is mentioned, my sister threatens us to keep it in the family. 

Since I'm safe sharing this how-to, let's get to it. I wish the pictures were better, but I tried to capture it all (photos and notes) with my iPad so that I will have visual help when I try to do it on my own. 

Let's get started.... 

She's making a double recipe of her dressing (which is not from a recipe), and she starts by making a pan of cornbread then crumbling it in a large bowl. (The cornbread recipe is a modified version of Southern Living's "Old-Fashioned Cornbread" recipe.)

She also uses biscuits in her dressing, about 6 in this double recipe. She crumbles them like she does the cornbread, and mixes them in.

While she is preparing the cornbread and biscuits, she cooks onions and celery on the stove. She puts a little oil in the skillet, and cooks about 2 cups of each for the double recipe. 

She also uses chopped, hard-boiled eggs in her dressing. She uses 2 in a single recipe and 5 in a double recipe. Here she uses her hand-chopper to chop the eggs.

On the left, she has a container of chicken broth from boiling a whole chicken the day before. She adds enough broth to make the mixture "not soupy" but enough to keep the dressing from drying out. (HUH? I guess this part will come from experience, but I have NONE right now!) 

Mix in the cooked onion and celery.

And the chopped eggs.

Add a little more broth...

And mix by hand. Notice my mom wears gloves for this part. Those are completely optional. :)

She then spreads the dressing in a large, oversized pan. She stuck her finger in the dressing to check the depth... about to her knuckle. 

Notice these small pans? They're for guess who!!  

Top with THIN pats of butter. This will help the dressing to brown and taste yummy!

Cook in a 350 degree oven til brown, about an hour.

Here's the secret to her recipe:

This cornmeal is purchased in the town where my dad is from called Hartford, Alabama. It a little town in south Alabama near Dothan, where my mom is from. My mom swears that this cornmeal is what makes the difference in her dressing. She says that the cornmeal that is purchased in the grocery store is not like this meal. The company website can be found HERE.

I can't wait to enjoy her cooking today! Baked ham, greens, peas, dressing, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole... the sofa is already calling me. 

Afterwards, we're all going to watch Duck Dynasty. My parents haven't seen it yet but have been hearing me talk about it for a while. My dad has his southern sayings and mannerisms that remind me so much of Si and Phil! I think he'll get a real kick out of the show. 

If you're not familiar with Duck Dynasty, here's a short video clip for ya.

I'm so thankful for my family and friends, good food, and family times together. I hope each of you has a wonderful day!

Crockpot Shredded Beef Tacos and a Fall Mantel

I'm always on the prowl for new recipes, especially ones that are easy, tasty, and healthy (Like my Chicken Tortelloni Soup or My Famous Chicken Chili.) Crockpot recipes are usually very easy, since I can throw the ingredients in the crockpot and let it cook all day. I found a great-sounding recipe for slow-cooker shredded beef by Ali over at the "gimme some oven" blog, so I decided to try it. (She adapted her recipe from Jen's over at My Kitchen Addiction.)

photo courtesy of Gimme Some Oven

It wasn't too complicated, but it was more than a "dump" recipe, where you put all the ingredients in the crockpot and turn it on. There was some prep work involved, from dicing onion and garlic and chopping chipotle peppers to searing the roast. Yesterday after church, I did the prep work and put everything in the crockpot so that it could cook all day. Last night, youngest daughter had club volleyball tryouts, and when Hubs got home he tried to eat it and loved the taste! (Oldest daughter has a basketball game tomorrow night, so we'll have shredded beef tacos Tuesday night. Yum!) 

While Hubs and youngest daughter were gone, I was able to pull together a fall mantel. 

Sorry for the terrible iPhone picture. Taken at night, no less. Sorry!

I'd really like to add a cute burlap pennant...

Source: centsationalgirl.com via Marian on Pinterest

My mercury glass candlesticks get used year-round with different colored candles. 

I like the mix of shiny and rustic.

I do love the "Family" frame and the picture of the girls. The picture is one of my favorites... it's one of a group that I took for Christmas cards. 

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with the mantel. Seeing the pictures really really really makes me want to paint the walls a light gray!

What do you think?

Mantel Purgatory

It was a fun and busy October, and at the quick rate everything is happening, I wonder what the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas will be like!

It even seems weird that Halloween was just a few days ago. Oldest daughter's principal's wife (follow that?) is one of her Sunday School teachers at church, and they had a get-together at their house... so we took her over there to visit for a few hours. Hubs and I, along with youngest daughter and her friend, went over to friends' house to grill out while the kids went trick-or-treating.  

This is oldest daughter and Hubs as we are getting ready to leave. {I *partially* kid that he should wear that outfit when the boys come to take her out on a date.}

The tall one in the volleyball t-shirt is mine in case you can't tell. 

We had a great time, but it was c-c-c-c-old! Our friend, Jamie, is a master at the grill, and he fixed a burgers and a iron skillet of beans that were out of this world. (If I can ever duplicate the beans recipe, I will share! He kind of just threw stuff together!)

**Did you notice Thing 1 in the background?

Now that Halloween has come and gone, I'm working on changing out my Halloween decor for fall/Thanksgiving decor. I don't decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving (and I take Christmas decorations down the day after Christmas!)

I took down my Dollar Tree Halloween wreath and replaced it with this one. It's simply a $5.00 wreath I found at Wal-Mart to which I added 2 fall sprays. Originally, the wreath only had those yellow flowers on it, so I took them off the bottom part of the wreath and attached 2 fall sprays at the bottom. Then, I put the yellow leaves back on in places to fill out the leaves. I like the way it turned out, and since it's on my door only for about 3 weeks, I like that it was pretty inexpensive.

However, I can't figure out what to do with my mantel! Remember my Halloween mantel? 

Here's what my mantel looks like right now... 

And even though I've been searching all over Pinterest for inspiration, I can't decide what to do...I feel like I'm in mantel purgatory! 

And as busy as the days have been, I know I need to get something up there today because I will run out of time otherwise.

Tomorrow I'll be sharing a recipe review with you, and hopefully I'll have pictures of a new fall mantel to share with you!

Until then...