Sourdough-Cornbread Stuffing with Bacon

I've always wanted to make my own stuffing. It's my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner. Since I was hosting this year, I thought I'd give it go. I looked through zillions of recipes and finally decided on a sourdough-cornbread. Sour, sweet, and bacon adds salt. Both my mom and mother-in-law insisted on taking leftovers of this home.

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
12 ounces sourdough, torn into bite-sized pieces
12 ounces baked cornbread, cubed or coarsely crumbled
1 stick butter
1 1/2 cups diced yellow onion
2 cups diced celery
2 tablespoon minced garlic
2 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoon fresh sage
2 tablespoon fresh thyme
16 ounces bacon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place sourdough and cornbread pieces onto two cookie sheets and bake for 25 minutes or until lightly toasted. Set aside.

Cook bacon in a large rimmed skillet according to package directions. Once cooked, place bacon on paper towel-lined plate to absorb extra grease. Cut bacon into 1-inch pieces and set aside.

Discard all the bacon grease except for tablespoons. Add butter to pan with bacon grease and melt over medum heat. Saute onions and celery until tender, about 10 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Pour in chicken both. Add sage and thyme. Stir then reduce heat to simmer. Add half of the cooked bacon. Simmer for about 10 minutes.

Place toasted bread into a large bowl. Carefully pour broth and veggies over the bread and toss, making sure all the bread is wet.

Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Transfer stuffing to baking dish. Sprinkle with remaining bacon. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the top is just golden brown. Stuffing should still be moist.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Side Dish Ideas:
Alfredo Green Bean Casserole
Cheesy Tomato Zucchini Bake 
Cranberry Sauce Three Ways: Traditional, Orange Zest, and Brandied 
Mashed Potatoes
Eric's Fried Rice
Sauteed Kale with Bacon
Simply the Best Macaroni and Cheese

Sausage and Apples

Last autumn I made apples stuffed with sausage and herbs. It turned into one of Eric's all time favorite dishes despite his initial reluctance to the combination. Even though this recipe screams fall, I made it again for him the other day. But I didn't feel like stuffing apples so I deconstructed it. This similar recipe is quicker and easier to make, but not nearly as festive or pretty to look at.

Ingredients:
1 pound spicy pork sausage
2 large tart apples (I used Granny Smith)
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons yellow onion, minced
2 teaspoons ground sage
2 teaspoons dried thyme

Directions:
Dice the apples (you can skin them first if you prefer, I leave the skin on), discarding the core and seeds.

In a large skillet, heat the butter over medium heat. Add apples and cook until tender, stirring occasionally, roughly 8 to 10 minutes. Once apples are tender, add onions and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove apples and onions from pan and into a bowl. Cover to keep warm.

Add sausage to skillet. Break up meat and cook until it's no longer pink in the center, 5 to 8 minutes. Stir in sage and thyme. Add apples and onions to the skillet. Stir and remove from heat. Serve.

Enjoy!

Krissy

More Sausage Recipes:
Black Bean and Sausage Stovetop Casserole
Cheesy Sausage and Potato Casserole
Pasta with Vodka Sauce and Sausage
Spicy Parmesan Sausage Meatballs with a Whiskey Barbecue Sauce 
The Tale of Two Quiches: Spicy Sausage and Spinach Quiche 

Crockpot: Simply the Best Macaroni and Cheese

My mom bought Arya a reindeer outfit.

This past Christmas was not only the first Christmas dinner I hosted, but also our first Christmas as a married couple, our first Christmas with Arya, and our first Christmas in our new place. So it was a pretty exciting holiday for us. But I don't want to talk about any of that. I want to talk about how freaking amazing this mac and cheese is. It's the best I've ever had; it tops any restuarant, store bought, or homemade version I've ever tried. It's that good. Even Eric and his dad, neither big on mac and cheese, both loved it. My mom and mother-in-law asked for the recipe. And the fact that it's made in the crockpot, all the much better! On Christmas day it was a life saver when everything else had to go in the oven.

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
2 cups elbow macaroni
4 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
1 8-ounce bag of shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup sour cream (I used low fat)
1 10.75-ounce can of condensed cheddar cheese soup
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
1/2 tablespoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Optional Bread Topping:
2 tablespoon butter, melted
3 pieces of sandwich bread, torn into bite size pieces
1/2 tablespoon McCormick Crusting Blend Garlic, Lemon, and Rosemary (or you can use garlic powder, basil, thyme, rosemary, whatever your favorite herbs are)

Directions:

Boil macaroni in water for 7 minutes. Drain.

Place all of the ingredients except the pasta, thyme, and optional bread topping in your crockpot and stir. Add pasta and stir again.* 

Cook for 2 hours on low. Stir in thyme.

Optional: After mac and cheese has cooked, transfer to a casserole dish. In a bowl toss together melted butter, bread, and spices. Top the mac and cheese with the bread and place under the broiler until the bread browns, about 5 to 10 minutes. 

*Since I was making this for Christmas dinner (and for the first time!) and didn't want to screw it up, I did not add the pasta to the crockpot. I made the sauce in the crockpot and add the pasta afterwards. However, I read many, many reviews on this recipe and none of them talked about the pasta becoming mushy. Next time I make this, I'll add the pasta right in.

Now, because I was so busy cooking and entertaining on Christmas day, I kinda sorta forgot to take a picture. But I did take a couple of pictures of some reheated leftovers (oh, it reheats very well) sans bread topping.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Crockpot Recipes:
Alfredo Green Bean Casserole
Brown Sugar and Garlic Chicken
Creamy Butternut Squash Soup
Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip
Orange Chicken
Pumpkin Butter 
Tomato and Artichoke Chicken

Chicken with a Honey Mustard Sauce

I'm not a big fan of yellow mustard. I like Dijon mustard. But I love honey mustard. Eric shares this love. So when I saw a recipe for a Dijon mustard sauce, I knew immediately that I was going to turn it into a honey mustard sauce. It turned out soooo good. And what's better than a delicious recipe? An easy, delicious recipe. It's hard to believe something that tastes this good could be so easy to make.

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoon yellow onion, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
3 tablespoons chicken broth
3 tablespoons honey mustard
1/2 tablespoon dried thyme

Directions:
With a meat mallet, pound the chicken breasts to 1/4-inch to 1/8-inch thickness. (Or you could buy Tyson's Thin Sliced Chicken Breast, which is what I had in my freezer. They are so convenient!) Combine flour and pepper in a shallow dish. Coat the chicken in the flour mixture.

In a skillet, melt the butter over medium heat then add chicken. Cook each side for approximately 6 minutes or until the chicken is no longer pink. Remove chicken from pan and cover it to keep it warm. Leave the drippings in the pan.

Add the onion and garlic to the skillet and cook until tender, about 1 to 2 minutes. Dissolve the cornstarch in the milk (you could replace the milk and cornstarch with 1/3 cup heavy cream) then add to pan. Add chicken broth and honey mustard. Stir and continue to cook until the sauce has thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir in thyme.

Spoon sauce over chicken and serve.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Chicken Recipes
Baked Garlic Chicken
Chicken Enchiladas with Fire-Roasted Tomatoes
Chicken Patties
Chicken Stuffed with Ricotta, Pesto, and Sun-dried Tomatoes
Jalapeno Popper Chicken
Lime Mustard Chicken
Olive Garaden Chicken and Gnocchi Soup Knock Off
Orange Chicken in a Slow Cooker
Parmesan-Seared Chicken

Savory Baked Apples Stuffed with Sage and Sausage

I've been dying to do a savory apple recipe. When I told Eric that I planned to make apples stuffed with sausage, he was less than excited. I should have taken a picture of the face he made. But I wasn't going to let that deter me. And I'm glad I didn't. These turned out fabulous. I fell in love with them at first bite. It took Eric a couple more bites to come around. After the first bite, he said it was different. And it did have a different palate than what we're used to. But he finished every last bite of the stuffed apples and then declared that they were good. I honestly can't wait to make them again.

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter, divided
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons yellow onion, minced
1/2 pound spicy pork sausage
1 teaspoon ground sage
1 teaspoon dried thyme
salt
pepper
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (I made my own by toasting a couple pieces of white bread and crumbling them)
4 to 5 apples (I used Fuji)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8x8-inch baking dish with cooking spray.

In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon butter and olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and cook until tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the sausage to skillet. Break the meat up and cook until it's no longer pink, 5 to 8 minutes. Stir in the sage and thyme. Season with salt and peeper. Stir in breadcrumbs and remove from heat.

Cut off the tops of each apple. Scoop out the insides of the apple including the core, seeds, and flesh. I used a regular spoon, though a melon baller probably would have made it easier. Discard the insides.

Divide the stuffing among the apples, packing each apple full. Place the apples in the baking dish. Dot each apple with a small dab of the remaining butter.

Bake apples until the flesh is tender, 45 to 60 minutes.

Because Eric was so unenthusiastic about this dish, I only made 3 apples; that way he'd have leftover sausage to eat for dinner in case he didn't like the apples. Thankfully he did! But I could have easily stuffed 5 apples with the sausage.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Apple Recipes
Baked Apple Chips
Apple Rings!
Delicious Apple Pie 
An Apple Cider Cake
Apple Cider Cupcakes with Caramel Filling and Spiced Rum Frosting

More Sausage Recipes
Black Bean and Sausage Stovetop Casserole
Cheesy Sausage and Potato Casserole
Pasta with Vodka Sauce and Sausage
Pumpkin Penne Casserole
Roasted Sausage, Potatoes, and Peppers 
Sausage and Bean Casserole
The Tale of Two Quiches: Spicy Sausage and Spinach Quiche