Thanksgiving Sides: Sausage Bacon Stuffing with homemade bread cubes

An ode to my legal guardian.

For my close friends, my extremely complicated relationship with my legal guardian is nothing new.

This is a 12+ years in the making type of complicated.

I was an early adolescent when I first met my (to-be) legal guardian, and to say that she formed and modeled a lot of how I perceive the world would be an understatement.

She is with me in almost everything I do. Don't know how she would feel about that, but I hope it's nice for her to hear that she had a lasting impact on me.

She formed a lot of my back-bone knowledge when it comes to cooking. There's things I will never forget (always ice, double-fry your french fries) and some things I will never personally do (under no circumstances put oats into meatloaf, sorry.).

But since I moved out in February of 2022, I have been longing for one thing in specific.

Her Thanksgiving Stuffing. To the stuffing haters out there: don't even, this shit is so bomb, you can't even fathom. My boyfriend, A STUFFING HATER, tried this after I made it and said "WTF? This is so good." So, if I could kindly persuade her into making this for me every year, I would.

Alas here we are.

Do I know all of the ingredients she used? No, I'm not sure I will ever be able to remember them all. But what I think I got, are the steps.

I loved to watch my mom cook growing up, and I also found comfort in watching her cook.

Sausage Bacon Stuffing with homemade bread cubes

Ingredients:

• 1 pack sausage

• 1/2 pack bacon

• 4 celery stalks

• 1 onion

• 2-3 garlic cloves

• White wine

• Butter

• Chicken stock

• Fresh herbs like parsley, thyme, sage, and/or rosemary

• Homemade bread cube mix:

  • What I used:

  • Pretzel Rolls and other leftover rolls

  • Bagels (key for the most insane stuffing you'll ever eat)

  • Italian bread

• Seasonings:

  • S+P

  • rosemary

  • thyme

  • poultry seasoning

  • sage

  • parsley

  • everything bagel seasoning

Method:

1. Heat a large skillet on medium-high heat. In the meantime, small chop your bacon and pull apart your sausage.

2. Put both your sausage and bacon into the skillet and begin to render the fat out. To help quicken this process, add some water to help pull the fat out.

3. Season the meat with salt and pepper.

4. Once the bacon and sausage is cooked, strain the meats from the fat and put the fat and meat to the side. We will be using the fat it in a little bit.

5. Begin to cube your bread. Cube size will be dependent on how "chunky" you want your stuffing to be. I opt for a more textured stuffing rather than "mushy".

6. Once all bread is cubed, pre-heat your oven to 250* and split your cubes between 2 baking sheets.

7. Split the bowl of fats between the two baking sheets and season with salt and pepper. Toss the bread cubes to coat.

8. Place the cubes into the oven for 1.5 hours to dry out.

9. While the bread cubes are cooking, Small dice your onion, celery stalks, and mince your garlic.

10. In the same pan you cooked the meats in, reheat to medium-high. Throw about 4 tbsp. of butter into the pan and allow to melt.

11. Add your onions, celery, and garlic to the pan and begin to cook. Season your veggies with poultry seasoning, rubbed sage, salt, pepper, thyme, and parsley.

12. Cook the veggies until the onions are translucent and soft, then turn off the heat and add the meat back into the pan.

13. Finely chop any fresh herbs you want to add to the stuffing. This time I opted for rosemary and fresh sage.

14. Once the bread cubes are dried out, get your biggest bowl and toss together:

    1. bread cubes

    2. meat /veggie mixture

    3. fresh herbs

    4. chicken stock (I used bone broth I had pre-made)

15. You will want the mixture to be moist, but not soaking wet. (I like bulkier stuffing, so I opt for less liquid.)

16. Reset the oven to 350*.

17. Add the mixture to a baking dish, generously sprinkle everything bagel seasoning on top, then cover.

18. Bake covered for 35 minutes, then finish uncovered for 10-15 minutes.

I hope this makes it to your families Thanksgiving table this year, and if it does, let me know everyone's thoughts on it in the comments below!

What should I make next?!?!