I’m thinking nearly every family who roasts a turkey will have their very “special” recipe for the bready side dish that goes in the turkey and the excess that goes in the pan.  The stuffing goes in the bird, the excess goes in the pan.

When our boys were growing up, they went though that typical period where green things on your plate where cause for great suspicion and even horror.  So, as all mothers do, I jumped through hoops to find ways to get them to eat green things.  For some reason, worms & trees went over famously, spinach on the other hand, I was never able to turn into plant or animal.

One Thanksgiving when my mom & dad were with us, mother told me about a dressing she made to take her parents house when I was a young child.  She had all the chopping done and my brother had come in to help her with the mixing.  He was about four at the time.  Her favorite part of the story was recalling the joy and absolute bliss on my brother’s four year old face as he was allowed and encouraged to stick his hands and fingers in to mix this all together.  Then the cap on the story was when she and John had it really finished and she spied four doughnuts on the counter that were left from my dad’s doughnut making that morning.  Together they decided to make those doughnuts the secret ingredient in the dressing that year.  And they proceeded to joyfully tear up the doughnuts and mix them in the dressing and had kept the secret 30 years.

She told me this story as I was chopping and mixing our dressing that year.  When I went into the fridge to pull out more carrots or onions, one of those 8 ounce bags of spinach caught my eye.  And the rest is history.

Mom never again found herself with a four year old and leftover doughnuts on the counter as she mixed stuffing but spinach has always made an appearance in our dressing/stuffing.  Most every year, I’ve put something new into the dressing.  This year it was Jerusalem artichokes.

Another part of our turkey dressing/stuffing tradition comes from my namesake grandmother.  Because the folks who like the dressing, often like the dressing best on the top and around the edges where it’s crispy, crunchy, grandmother always made dressing balls.  She’d just pick up about a nice serving size and ball it up in her hands.  Perfect with or without gravy.

But the best part of the dressing this year was the wedding balls.  We’re in Seattle at Jason’s celebrating a new family.  Emily’s mother, Leslie, and I both made our family recipe for dressing/stuffing.  Hers was stuffing and went in the turkey.  Mine was dressing  and vegan for our vegetarian.   Leslie had just a little stuffing that wouldn’t fit in the turkey.  I had a little that seemed like extra.  We mixed them together.  What better way to bring family traditions together!

I wish I’d had a Turkey disaster story for Katie’s Skeletons in the Kitchen  but not yet.

You can thank Kalyn for this post as I promised I’d reveal my secret ingredient after reading her post earlier in the week.

Hope all who celebrated Thanksgiving had a wonderful day.  Enjoy the leftovers and the weekend!