I make stuffing! The best part of the bird is the stuffing! I also make a separate batch of stuffing that has chopped up dried fruit in it (apples, golden raisins, apricots) for my vegetarian daughter and her BF. That separate batch of stuffing gets stuffed into a small pumpkin. I try to find one that has WHITE skin, because my DD says the flesh is much sweeter than the ordinary pumpkin. I hollow out the pumpkin, rinse it, pat it dry, and then cram in the stuffing and bake it all until I can easily poke a fork in the pumpkin meat.
I take after my mother too much to give a recipe for stuffing. I use whatever I have, and make it work, LOL. Basically, it's bread cubes, diced celery and onion, garlic, seasoned salt, a bit of white pepper, whatever fresh herbs I can find (thyme, sage, basil, rosemary, tarragon, etc etc etc), a couple of eggs, and enough broth to get it all gooped together. Sometimes I'll reserve a pan of stuffing outside the bird and put dried red peppers in it. My dad loves hot spicy food, so I'll fix a pan of WOWEE stuffing just for him.
For the pumpkin stuffing, I will cut back on the herbs and add just a TOUCH of cinnamon and maybe a teensy dash of clove.
Sure smells good in my kitchen!!
Peace,
~VOW
