How to Make Holiday Stuffing

Cynthia: The secret to really good stuffing is excellent bread. And I’m going to show you how to make some stuffing today using essential baking company bread which is one of our Seattle local bread purveyors. They have wonderful bread. I’m going to use their meal grown bread which is a whole grain bread. I’m going to use a little bit of their Rosemary bread, so aromatic and some of their Columbia bread which is awesome just a blend of refined flowers and a whole grain flowers. They did a perfect job with it. So, got to have a good bread. You’ve got to tear it up into small pieces. This is where you can get your kids to help or your friends or your mom or your dad or sister, brother, whoever to help you tear up or cut up the bread. And then I have chestnuts. This has to be done before hand. So, this is a whole chestnut and what you do is you cut a deep “X” in the chestnut and that flatted the chestnut, just like that. You put in the oven at 400 degrees and let it bake in there for 20 minutes, and they pop open like that, pretty exciting. And then, you get help again to peel them and they come out looking like this. They look like little bran’s or something pretty nice, and those get chopped up and they go in the stuffing to, but it needs to be done before you start. So, I’ve got my roasted chestnuts. That’s done. I’ve got my bread cut up and what I have here is a stick of butter and one whole onion that has been chopped and that’s cooked in there nicely. And I’m going to put that right in the bread just like that. It seems like a lot of butter I know, but it’s going to go for. This will serve like 12 people or so, so no problems there. Now, I’m going to stir that up and I’m going to put a little water in my pan here because I may need to add a little hot water to the stuffing because what I’m looking for is a mixture that’s nice and spongy and soft, so it doesn’t get dried out, but I don’t want it soggy so that’s the feeling I’m going for. Now, the next thing ingredients that go in are heavenly harvest ingredients, I’ve got a cup of fresh cranberries. I’ve got one local organic, gorgeous apple that’s been chopped up that goes in. And I’ve got about three stalks of celery chopped up that goes in. Now, we’re getting in there, and this is such a beautiful colorful stuffing too. And I guarantee you, you will not find stuffing this fresh and tasty in the grocery store. So, pretty soon here, I’m going to have to get my hands in here. This needs a little liquid so I’m going to put a little liquid in there. And after this where it goes in there are fresh herbs and chestnuts. And if you can get fresh herbs like growing in your yard that’s the best. You could use dried too but the fresh herbs are going to add so much more flavor and the main one is fresh sage. Ah! tastes heaven. Then and I’ve got lot of it like a big handful of it that goes in. I’ve also got some thymes and some marjoram, those will go in there. And of course salt and pepper, very important and you can be pretty liberal with the salt and pepper because the bread can really take it. No problems. So, I probably put a teaspoon of salt in there, and I’m going to just go crazy with my pepper here. And now, my chestnuts, here they go. That’s all in there, very good. Let’s all get stir it up and I’m going to tell if I think it’s the right thing by feel and taste. So, I’m going to feel it, and I want it to feel kind of soft in there. I think it needs a little more water, don’t be afraid of putting that water in there, it’s good. And now, I’m going to start feeling oh yes, that feels good. I like that. And then I’m also going to taste a little bit of it to make sure the salt and pepper is right. Now, it tastes right okay. Oh! This is great. This all goes in a 9 x 13 pan and then it goes in the oven and cooks for—bakes in there for about 40 minutes at 350 degrees, or of course you can put it in your turkey. You can stock your turkey with it. Steve? Steve: What? Cynthia: I forgot to pick up the turkey. Steve: When do you need it? Cynthia: Now. Steve: You owe me. Cynthia: Thank you. Give me. So, this all goes in here like this. And what I do of course is make two a double recipe of this and half of bit goes in the turkey if I had the turkey which I don’t and the other half I bake because people just love the stuffing. They love it as a side dish or left over. And you just press it in here with your hands since this is a very tack of thing. And I’m going to cover this with foil and bake it, and wait for the turkey to come. Turkey.