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.
Stuffing is my absolute favorite Thanksgiving dish, hands down. I really don’t care about the rest of it, but there HAS to be stuffing. I’m partial to mostly traditional flavors, so this is right on target, and looks great! And so exciting that you are hosting your first thanksgiving! Good job on the planning ahead, that is the key to a lower stress T-day 🙂
i’m stuffed reading this post! 😀
Oh YAY for you, Lauren! But you kinda need to STAP it. You got the dog I have been wanting and NOW you are telling me your family is coming in to celebrate Thanksgiving with you. If you guessed that my family won’t be joining us and Boy and I are contemplating eating out, you would be correct. BUT I am not jealous or envious, that is a sin. I am super happy for you!! Now I just expect you to post lots of pictures of you having the very best time on Thanksgiving, puppy pics included! And if you could send me some of this stuffing (actually, I’ll take a sampling of everything. wink wink), I would gladly accept! 🙂 For real, this stuffing looks delicious! LOVE that you stayed traditional with it. SO YUM! Cheers, doll! xo
that looks amazing. I am craving some stuffing now. 🙂
This looks delicious! I really enjoyed your story to go with it!
Thanksgiving meal is both really fun and overwhelming to cook. The food is great, but it’s a day spent in the kitchen – so I understand being conflicted about it, especially just the two of you. My family talked about ordering in pizza next year – not sure how I feel about that but who knows! Anyway, stuffing is one of the best sides, and this looks so nice, not too soft. 🙂
Looks good! We don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here, but ehh, food is food! 🙂
This looks absolutely delicious, I love stuffing, thanks for sharing at the Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop.
made this tonight, hubby already asking for it again, fabulous and so simple, thank you for the recipe!!!! I am still full!!