How to Make Dressing: Easy Holiday Stuffing Recipe Idea

When I was growing up, my mom spent a couple of days preparing her famous holiday "dressing". She would spend a few days before Thanksgiving making a huge batch of homemade stuffing. Her recipe involved making cornbread from scratch, cutting fresh celery, onions, and peppers into tiny pieces, and other time consuming tasks.

On this one occasion each year, she really dedicated a few days to cooking dressing. She would make enough for our entire family for Thanksgiving, as well as enough extra to freeze for the upcoming Christmas and Easter holidays. Everyone in the family loved her recipe. For years, I thought that I would never be able to make this dish, because her recipe was so very labor-intensive.

As she got older, it became more and more difficult for her to make this dish, just because of the time involved. My sister-in-law started buying pre-made dressing at a supermarket. It was okay, but in no way compared to mom's special homemade dressing.

Since no one was willing to take on the task of recreating her recipe, I decided to start looking for options. I figured that there had to be a happy medium somewhere between buying dressing at the local supermarket deli and spending two days making one part of a holiday meal.

I tried several different techniques for making dressing, and discovered that my all-time favorite stuffing is the easiest possible solution to the problem. I use Pepperidge Cornbread stuffing mix, and add in a few special touches of my own to create dressing that my family loves in no time at all.

This type of dressing doesn't freeze well, as my mom's did. However, it's so fast and easy to make that there's really no reason to freeze it. We actually have this dressing recipe several time each year, instead of reserving it just for holiday occasions.

Here is what I came up with:

Ingredients:

• 1 roll spicy sausage
• 1 package Pepperidge farm cornbread stuffing mix
• 1 can reduced sodium chicken broth
• 1 tsp Italian Seasoning Blend (use your favorite brand or homemade mix)

Instructions:

Simply brown the sausage and drain excess grease. Prepare the stuffing mix per package directions, substituting the chicken broth for a portion (or all) of the water. Add in the Italian seasoning mix. Stir in the cooked sausage, fluff and serve. If you want, feel free to stuff into your turkey and bake.

Variations:

This recipe will work with any type of packaged stuffing mix. I have tried several different flavors of Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix, as well as store brand mixes. The results are always good, but my personal favorite is this version made with Pepperidge Farm Cornbread stuffing.

No matter what kind of dressing or stuffing you like, try stirring in cooked sausage for a special treat!

I never cared for oyster stuffing, but many of my relatives enjoy adding oysters to their stuffing. They add raw oysters to the prepared mix and then bake until the oysters are cooked.

Other Easy Holiday Dressing Ideas:

See PepperidgeFarm.com for other ideas for easy holiday dressing preparation suggestions.