In Search of a Good Stuffing/Dressing Recipe

My Grandma Greta was a great cook.  The best fried chicken.  Super potato salad.  And the best dressing ever.

 

For years I have been trying to duplicate that dressing.

I just can't do it.

Every time I think I have found just the right recipe, it still doesn't taste like I want it to.

Too sticky.

Too dry.

Bland.

Weird flavor.

This year I decided to try the recipe that Greta said Mom had been making for recent Thanksgiving dinners....when she was still contributing a dish or two.  I know I saw a recipe in the pile by the dining room table when I was cleaning out things this past summer.  Written across the top was "Took it to G and K's house for Thanksgiving" so I knew I had it.  

But I threw it away.  One of those moments when I was overwhelmed with the amount of blank sheets of paper, empty envelopes, and stacks and stacks and folders and folders of recipes clipped from newspapers and magazines.  They all went in the trash.

Greta found a copy that she had submitted to some type of cookbook, so I bought the ingredients for a 'trial run' over the weekend.  Ingredients included two boxes of Stove Top Stuffing mix - cornbread variety.  A pound of sausage browned and added.  A few additional spices and some melted butter plus two beaten eggs.  Baked in the oven.

 



I covered mine in gravy along with dousing the mashed potatoes and turkey breast as well.  Not too bad, but the flavor was a little different. Probably the sausage.

The next day we fixed plates of leftovers, a repeat of the dinner the night before.  Very dry dressing.  More evidence of the sausage.

Not a fan.

Megan suggested a recipe from Pioneer Woman.  That included three loaves of bread chopped up and left on cookie sheets to dry out.  Uh...don't like that part of the prep.  Where will I put three cookie sheets of bread cubes to dry?  Sunroom?  Maybe but not the best option.



This afternoon when we were walking through Krogers, I picked up three boxes of Stove Top Stuffing - turkey flavor.  If all else fails....it will be my emergency go to stuffing.

 

Then we saw the bags of Pepperidge Farms already cubed bread crumbs with a handy-dandy recipe on the back which included onions and celery and nuts and chicken broth.  Hmmmm....we may have something that works here.

 

While I was pondering, I heard a voice asking me if I had used that brand before.  I had not, so I mentioned I was in search of a stuffing similar to my grandmother's and I just couldn't find it so this was going to be a trial run to see if it worked. The lady smiled and told me the secret to a good stuffing was cubing  a loaf of Roman Meal bread and a loaf of white bread and mixing them together.  

Oh my.

Sometime before Sunday evening comes I am making the Pepperidge Farms stuffing mix.    If it isn't acceptable, then Stove Top Stuffing it is.

Why didn't Grandma write down this recipe for me????????