Southern-style Dressing

I think that holiday food traditions really highlight the differences between regional cooking styles. I never believed anyone actually cooked the "stuffing" inside the turkey until I saw pictures of it actually done. That just seems gross to me! Down here we call it "dressing," and we make it in big lasagna-sized pans to ensure there's enough to go around. Being a very picky eater as a child, I never even tried dressing until I was in college. I worked at Dino's, which had T&D on the meat-and-three every Sunday, and it was good! The dressing was very much like what my mom makes. I'm hoping to volunteer to make the dressing this year in Georgia as we gather with my husband's family for the big feast. There's always so much good food that dressing is understandably not a priority, and we often just go with something like Stove Top. That's okay, but I'd rather have real dressing, so I'm going to make it!

These are my mom's instructions, which are not super exact, but I've watched her make the dressing many times so I know how it should look and feel and I'll try to describe that here.

Ingredients/shopping list:

***Corn Meal Mix (sold next to the regular corn meal but already has some flour and leavening built in)
buttermilk (you can add 1 tsp vinegar to a cup of milk, but it won't be as good)
eggs
5 biscuits, rolls, or slices of white bread, or two hamburger buns (Seriously.)
1 cup each chopped celery and onion
1 stick of butter
1 can cream of chicken soup (oh hush, you won't even know its there)
chicken broth as needed (get the box that you can keep in the fridge and use as needed)
ground sage
poultry seasoning (My mom says either or but I say why not both? Unless poultry seasoning already has sage...hm, check label.)

***Note: Do NOT use a boxed "corn muffin" mix like Jiffy. It will be way too sweet and won't make enough. I mean it!

Okay, Step one, cut a whole in the box...wait, that's not right. Step one, make the cornbread according to the directions on the bag, using the buttermilk and eggs from the list. Use the same pan you will use for the dressing--a large rectangular or oblong baking dish, like 9x13. You can do this in advance or just while you do the other prep work.

Meanwhile, chop your onions and celery and sautee it all in the stick of butter

Crumble the cornbread all up in the pan. Add whatever form of white bread you are using--either five biscuits, five slices of bread, or two hamburger buns, also crumbled up (just tear it with your hands). Add the cooked celery and onions with all the melted butter, the cream of chicken soup, and enough chicken broth, a little at a time, to give it all a soupy, pudding-like consistency. Salt and pepper generously and add the sage/poultry seasoning (a generous tsp, maybe), mix it all up to one big homogenous mass, and spread in the pan (it should have surface tension and be thicker than cake batter). Bake uncovered until golden-brown on top, about 30-45 minutes (I'm going to say 375 degrees). Enjoy!

Simple avocado salad

A month or so ago I got a random urge to make tamales from scratch, so I did. I doubt y'all want to make tamales from scratch, so I'll spare you the step-by-step (but it was actually really easy and they tasted great and I'll tell you how if you want). I wanted some quick and easy sides to serve with them, and the idea for this salad popped into my head, even though I do not eat avocados. Or raw onion. It's basically guacamole that's not mushed up, but Stacey liked it so much that she requested I make it again a couple weeks later, so I thought it was worth sharing.

2 ripe but not over-ripe avocados
1/2 a small purple onion, finely chopped
1 or 2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and finely chopped
1 lemon
sea salt

Dice avocados into medium-sized cubes (cut them in half lengthwise, remove the large pit, use a small sharp knife to cut down into each half in a grid pattern, turn each half inside out, and easily cut the resulting cubes from the peel). Place cubes in a small glass bowl and add tomato and onion. Cut lemon in half and squeeze both halves over avocado mixture (I put my hand underneath to catch the seeds and let the juice run through my fingers). Sprinkle with 1/2 tsp of sea salt or other coarse salt. Voila!