Okay. I’ll admit it. Thanksgiving literally snuck up on me. Wasn’t it just yesterday that we were planning our costumes and my kids were trick or treating. And now today is their last day of school before the Thanksgiving break! Somewhere in between, I think missed a step. I mean seriously…I’m still eating the Halloween candy!
But, I do love Thanksgiving. In my opinion, it is an underrated holiday. Almost like a test run before Christmas, but I think with much less stress. It really is wonderful just to slow down and enjoy some quality time with our friends and family.
Now that my kids will be home all next week, I need to plan some outings. If I don’t,
I swear my 10-year-old would play Fortnite the entire day (any other boy moms out there feel my pain…this could be a whole other blog post, but I digress). As they have grown older, the challenge for me during these weeks off is that it is becoming harder and harder to find outings that all three of my kids will enjoy – ages 10 (boy), 8 (boy), and 6 (girl). On the list so far we have requests for the park, the zoo, a rock wall place, bowling, laser tag, or the movies. Or maybe while the 10 year old plays Fortnite, the littles will attempt a craft of two. LOL. I did find a few cute ideas on Pinterest. I mean, come on…who doesn’t love a paper plate turkey.
You can check them out here: 36 Turkey Crafts for Kids
Then, there is the food. Yes, the glorious, delicious food! This year, we aren’t able to spend our Thanksgiving with the rest of the family because my husband has to work. So, it will just be our happy little party of five. I decided to make things easy on myself and order the major items (turkey, gravy and pumpkin pie) from Whole Foods. They have an incredible selection of holiday meals, sides and desserts. But, my husband does love a green bean casserole so I plan to make that one myself. Usually, I use my mom’s recipe from my hometown’s Junior Auxiliary cookbook printed back in 1988. If you have any great side dish or casserole recipes, I’d love for you to share them.
Every Thanksgiving, I do try to recreate my grandmother’s cornbread dressing recipe. It was always so good. Even back when I was a picky kid and thought most “holiday” food was weird, I would still eat my grandmother’s dressing. It was wonderful. I wish so badly that I would have asked her to write it down, then again, she never used an official recipe to make it. It was more like “a pinch of this” and “a dash of that”. Since she passed away years ago, I’ve been trying to recreate the same dish. This is the closest one I’ve found:
- 6 cups crumbled cornbread (usually I make the cornbread the day before)
- 6 cups toasted breadcrumbs
- About 1 1/2 to 2 cups of shredded chicken (I poach mine in chicken broth then shred or you could use a store-bought rotisserie chicken)
- 1/2 cup butter
- 2 cup diced celery
- 1/2 cup minced onion
- 2 well beaten eggs
- 2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. black pepper
- 1 1/2 tsp. poultry seasoning
- 1 1/2 cup of chicken stock (can use more if desired to make more fluffy)
Cut the butter into tiny pieces and mix with the cornbread and bread crumbs and set aside. Saute the celery and onions for 5-10 minutes until tender. Then mix the shredded chicken, celery and onions to the cornbread/bread crumb mixture. Add salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning. Then add eggs and stir gradually while adding the stock to achieve desired level of moisture. Pour mixture into a baking dish and bake at 375 for about 30 minutes. Top with parsley and serve hot.
Growing up, Mimi always put chicken in her cornbread dressing, but this is optional.
I think with this recipe, it would still be wonderful without it. If you don’t care for cornbread dressing and would prefer more of a “stuffing” option, I did find a great looking recipe from Joanna Gaines for homemade stuffing using french bread. You can access that recipe here: Joanna Gaines Homemade Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipe
I’ll post more recipes and tips throughout the weekend and into next week. Stay tuned. Until next time. Thanks for stopping by!
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