Two Day Stuffing, Two Minute Meal


The quote of Thanksgiving Day was by Derek who, as he was looking at the cornbread stuffing fresh out of the oven and finally ready to serve, keenly detected that there was pieces of sausage links mixed in abundance among the rest of the ingredients, and said something to the effect "how can you go wrong with sausage in there?" So true.  The sausage in the stuffing reminds me of cooking from any of Tyler Florence's recipes whose special little friend in the kitchen is bacon, and who might very well  add salty pork to oatmeal if he thought he could get away with it.  Back to the stuffing.  If you have nothing better to do with the better part of two days, I'd highly recommend the Bon Appetite recipe, but know that you might be knowingly wrapping yourself in your own little culinary bubble T-day as you dedicate your efforts to this dish, and that your wife, three kids, guests and the spring-like day outside might all have to take the back burner, so to speak, to the RECIPE.  The day before you can make the cornbread, which will eventually get cut into your croutons, cut in small 2 X 2 squares and baked at 250 to harden.  Cornbread is a very crumbly structure to begin with, so beware when eventually mixing everything together that those perfect squares will break down and turn mushy with too much handling.  The next day will include some simple toasting of pecans, a bunch of chopped onions, celery, chopped rosemary, sage, thyme (allot at least three hours to de-leaf thyme off the stems!), rosemary and eggs.  And oh yeah, the part that jumps out at the taste buds: one pound of Johnsonville Maple Brown Sugar Breakfast Sausage Links, broken down into pieces and folded into the mix.  Bake at 350 for 40 minutes to get that browned crisp on the moistened cornbread, and you have yourself a two day dish that will you hope, but also ironically, be devoured in like two minutes by appetites that have been saved since Halloween for the big meal.