Sausage Dressing

Sausage dressing (aka stuffing) is a family tradition. It all began with my Grandma Carol who passed on her recipe to her son, my dad, who has now passed it down to my sister and now to me. It is so incredible! My mom's side, the Walton's, only ever did Stove-top so my dad offered to make our recipe one year and has now got them hooked on it too. Everyone who tries it loves it and is immediately converted. So yeah, lot's of pressure on me for my first year making it. It's like my family's legacy; I felt like I needed to honor my ancestor's by making it great ;) So Greg volunteered me to make the stuffing for the Smith Thanksgiving dinner, which I was completely good with and I was pretty nervous. I called my Dad, talked to my sister and grandma just to make sure I knew what I was doing. It was so much fun doing it this year because all growing up, I would wake up to the wonderful smell of this baking every Thanksgiving morning. So the smell of the dressing baking signifies Thanksgiving to me. It was really fun making all the pies and dressing myself this year. It was really exciting and I felt so accomplished by the end. Anyways, here is my family recipe. You will not be disappointed.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 loaves dry white bread (it can be the cheapest bread you can find because you just dry it)
• 2 big onions, chopped (I chopped this the night before to save time. Great idea!)
• 1 lb. sausage (I use Jimmy Dean regular )
• 1 stick butter
• 3 stalks celery, chopped (Chop night before and store in fridge also)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 4 Tbsp. fresh sage, chopped into tiny pieces
• 2 tsp. poultry seasoning
• Dash of pepper
• 7-10 c. chicken broth

Directions:

1. Several days before you will be serving the dressing, begin drying the bread. You can either lay it on the counter or what I do is put my oven on the lowest setting and set the bread on the racks inside. Leave the oven door open a few inches to keep the humidity down inside the oven. Turn the bread over after around 30 minutes or until the bread feels dry.  Take it out and cool it on baking racks; when it is cooled down, break it into bite size pieces and put it in the bread bags. Leave them open to prevent humidity.
2. Cook sausage and break into the smallest pieces possible; remove and set aside for later.
3. Saute onion and celery in the cube of butter (you will need the entire stick); set aside.
4.  Put dry bread into a very large bowl and pour the chicken broth over it. You want the bread to be soaked but not mushy.
5. Mix in the sausage, onion, and celery. Mix well.
6. Add the spices; mix well; taste and add more of any if desired.
7. Bake in the oven at 350 degrees F until the top is golden brown; about 30-45 minutes. Serve.

That's it. It really wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and I felt so accomplished afterwards. It tasted exactly how my dad makes it so I know I did it right. And the whole family enjoyed it for Thanksgiving so that's another win for me!