Does anyone know why stores don’t sell celery by the stalk? Or better yet, if they do, why I cannot find it anywhere?
I think that this situation might be akin to why I don’t love bananas (as in I ate them WAY too much as a kid), but I can’t stand celery. I used to eat it daily with peanut butter as a snack and loved it. Then one day? No more please. I don’t love the crunch, I don’t love the flavor raw, and I definitely don’t love how fibrous it is. If I’m buying celery it’s pretty much ONLY for a soup recipe or for this dressing, and that’s it. So inevitably the rest of the bunch goes bad and I feel like a wasteful person for about half a day.
Am I the only one with a celery dilemma? Please, someone say it isn’t so!
Anyway, on to the dressing. Mom always knows how to make the best dressing that I can’t seem to stop eating on Thanksgiving. Or Christmas. Or anytime that we have dressing for whatever reason at our house. I leave the table stuffed with yummy foods, and you can pretty much bet that 50% of that is dressing. She makes it with homemade cornbread and bread, celery and onion, salt and pepper and poultry seasoning, and just the right amount of chicken stock to bring it all together. She knows how to stuff it in the bird (Lord help me I still don’t know how to do that) and cook it to perfection in a baking dish. Mom just knows…and you know what? I’m 100% OK with her being the expert. It’s the magic of Mommy!
MOM’S PERFECT CORNBREAD DRESSING
- 1 small boule OR 8 slices of white bread, cubed into 1/2 inch cubes
- 1 8-inch round cornbread (you can make your own or a lot of stores sell it if you don’t want to make it)
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 3 Tbsp butter***
- 1-2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
- 1-3 cups chicken stock
Preheat oven to 350. In a large skillet melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion and celery and saute for about 10 minutes until the celery is very tender and the onions are translucent. Add in the salt (start with 1 tsp), pepper, and poultry seasoning and stir to combine. Crumble the cornbread into the mixture and add the bread cubes. Stir to combine evenly. Add the chicken stock, 1/2 a cup at a time, to moisten the dressing. Keep in mind that this part is where you get to decide if you like your dressing more moist or more dry. I ended up adding about 2 cups of stock. Once you get the moistness down taste the dressing and add more salt as desired. Spread evenly into a greased 9×13 pan and cover with foil. Bake for about 20 minutes, then remove the foil and bake another 10 minutes until the top is golden brown and crunchy. Serve with turkey…or heck, just serve by itself!
***Sometimes if I’m feeling sassy (which can be often) I’ll brown a package of sage breakfast sausage and then use the drippings to saute my veggies in. Just add the sausage back in with the bread when the veggies are done and you’ve got a decadent dressing that really would serve as a meal on its own!***
Oh dressing. How I love thee. And oh Mommy…how I love thee more!
P.S. I’d LOVE it if you clicked over to the Shape Magazine Best Blogger Awards and voted for Faces of Beauty! I’m so excited to be nominated and would love the chance to share the message of Faces of Beauty with even more of the world!
I hate celery with a passion. Cooked or Raw it doesn’t matter – yuck! I totally wish they would sell individual stalks at my grocery store.
King Soopers in Louisville sells it by the stalk. It is the only way I buy it!!
I totally agree with you about the celery. I just read this post about 10 minutes after cleaning out my fridge… and throwing away a whole package of rotten celery. Can you chop it up and freeze it?
I have run into the same celery problem as you. I have discovered that celery lends itself well to smoothies and juices – especially with apple and ginger. If that’s your thing, give it a try next time you buy celery. Very hydrating too.
The fact that this is called “dressing” rather than “stuffing” makes me know I’ll love it. 🙂 We used to have a lot of southern style Thanksgivings growing up, with some family friends of ours. It’s been years since I’ve had a good “dressing” at thanksgiving – I’m ready to go back!
Wow, this sounds delicious. I love all the chopped onions and celery in here.
Small chopped celery in the bolognese-sauce ist great, along mit carrots, whole new texture. try it 🙂
Ditto on the celery. I try not buying it a lot because I hate throwing out food. The fibers getting stuck between my teeth really annoy me. 🙂 I’ve never had cornbread dressing before but this looks like it might be worth buying some celery.
Celery is guranteed to go bad in my fridge. It’s one of those things I buy thinking I’ll eat it, but I never do. If I could buy it in a quantity I’d use, I’d be a much happier food shopper.
This looks amazing! My Safeway sells individual celery stalks!! it is awesome! I only buy what I need. You should ask your produce person, maybe they can do it for you!!
Dressing is my favorite thing on Thanksgiving (besides pie!). This looks delish.
I have the same problem with it going bad so I get it from the salad bar at my grocery store. This way I can buy only what I need for a recipe.
I agree with Anna, I throw the rest of the diced up celery in the freezer, so no chopping next time. But buying it by the stalk would be awesome! Or get it already chopped up from a salad bar at the grocer, pricey but easy;-)
I feel exactly the same way you do. Used to eat it all the time with peanut butter; now I really don’t care for it. My MIL once told me you can just tear a few stalks off of a bunch of celery and they’ll let you do that. It makes me nervous, so I just bought a bunch, chopped it up and threw it in the freezer. Since I”ll only be using it for soups, I’m not really concerned if it loses some crunch in the process.
I feel the SAME way about celery and I don’t mind eating it raw. I just can’t have stalk after stalk after stalk. They really do need to sell smaller packages of the stuff!
This sounds delicious, I love playing around with different kinds of stuffings (sorry I’m not a “dressing” gal ;)) I hear ya on the celery thing too. I do like celery but even I can’t finish a whole thing of it before some inevitably goes bad. At least it’s cheap right?
I love the sound of this cornbread dressing. Perfect for the quickly approaching holiday season.
I can eat cornbread dressing by the bowl! It’s my favorite dressing. I can’t wait for Thanksgiving 🙂
I’m right there with you on the celery thing! Bleck! Cooked celery is OK.
I’m loving these early Thanksgiving posts…they’re pumping me up for next month 😉
That is scary close to my Mom’s stuffing recipe. I can eat way to much of it and then pay for it later.
I have never had a cornbread dressing! I think it sounds delicious though.
LOVE the sound of this, Heather! and it makes me all happy and excited for upcoming holiday foods!
I already voted for Faces of Beauty!! <3