Last year Alex and I celebrated our first Thanksgiving away from family. And you know what we did? We went out to eat.
If you’re wondering, why on Earth would a food blogger go out to eat on the most food centric holiday of the year? I’ll tell ya why. I love cooking, baking and all things food. But I don’t like the idea of making a five-course meal for only two people. Especially when one of those two people (cough, cough my husband, cough) doesn’t even like turkey.
At first going out to eat on Thanksgiving felt kind of wrong, but by the end of the night we were both laughing and having a great time. Still nothing could compare to celebrating Thanksgiving with family. Am I right??
So needless to say, when my parents told me they wanted to celebrate with us in Des Moines this year, I was overjoyed.
“Do you know what this means mama?” I squealed into the phone. “I get to cook my first ever full Thanksgiving meal!!!”
After we got of the phone, I immediately started preparing a Thanksgiving meal menu for the four of us. Some of the menu superstars include: turkey, caramelized onion smashed potatoes, this traditional Thanksgiving stuffing, cranberry orange brussels sprouts and butternut squash soup, which will be coming to the blog next week.
I’m ready to have the best Thanksgiving ever. And with this recipe for Traditional Thanksgiving Stuffing, you will be too!
Note: For meal planning I highly recommend the Knock Knock What to Eat Pad
- 1 loaf [url href=”http://canyonglutenfree.com/” target=”_blank”]Canyon Bakehouse[/url] Mountain White bread, chopped
- 4 stalks celery, diced
- ½ medium onion, diced
- 1 cup diced mushrooms
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ¼ cup minced fresh parsley
- 1 teaspoon dried sage
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 1 egg, beaten slightly
- 1 cup chicken broth
- Preheat oven to 350˚ F. Grease a 9×13-inch casserole dish and set aside. Place chopped bread on a baking sheet and bake until lightly toasted, about 20 minutes, stirring halfway through.
- In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add celery and onion and sauté, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes. Stir in mushrooms and cook for another 5 minutes. Stir in parsley, sage, thyme and marjoram, and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Transfer veggies to a very large mixing bowl.
- Add toasted bread cubes, chicken stock, egg, salt and pepper to the mixing bowl and stir until the dry ingredients are coated with the wet ingredients. Pour into the prepared casserole dish.
- Cover stuffing with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake until golden brown, about 25 more minutes.