dressing

People have strong opinions when it comes to dressing, starting with whether it should be called "dressing" or "stuffing." In the South, my family always called it "dressing" and baked it in a casserole dish, not a turkey, and we always had two options: sausage or oyster. What we did not have was cornbread.

As a lover of all things cornmeal — corn dogs, grits, tamales, you name it — I figured it was high time I made a cornbread dressing. To my palate, white bread stuffings are often bland, but this New Orleans-inspired dressing packs a punch with spicy andouille sausage, chopped celery and red peppers, and a dash of hot sauce. I didn't change a thing in this recipe, and it was luxuriously moist, spicy but not too spicy, and full of flavor. Get the recipe for your Thanksgiving.

When planning a festive holiday meal like Thanksgiving, it's fun to think about the colors that will grace the table. The deep greens of vegetables, the vibrant red of cranberry sauce, the rich orange of sweet potatoes. And thanks to a side dish like this wild rice with mushrooms, earthy browns and buttery creams will also be a part of the food rainbow.
Wild rice takes time to prepare, so consider making this dressing in advance. It's a delicious and easily adaptable recipe, stir in whatever vegetables you have on hand. Cubes of butternut squash or wilted spinach would be welcome additions. Another great thing about this recipe is it's pretty healthful: it's both high in fiber and low in fat. Get the technique here.

Right now it seems as if every chef is looking to the South for inspiration. So why not take a tip from the likes of Alton Brown and John Besh and serve a Thanksgiving meal that oozes with Southern charm? Plan a dinner that highlights simple and delicious cooking. Start with an unfussy roast turkey recipe that's seasoned with lots of salt and pepper and served with a rich turkey gravy.

Keep things uncomplicated and bake an oyster dressing with bacon and hot sauce outside of the bird. It's spicy, bready, and deliciously briny. Whip up a batch of mashed potatoes loaded with sour cream and white cheddar cheese. Finally, round out the menu with a bourbon-cranberry compote. It's the perfect sweet-tart accompaniment to succulent turkey. To be inspired by this collection of curated recipes, keep reading.

If you're having a tough time motivating to eat your greens, JuicyNoelle posted this simple recipe in the Healthy Recipe Group for Sunny Avocado Basil dressing.

Trying to eat more greens? Me too. Leafy greens are one of nature’s most perfect foods to cleanse, restore, and rejuvenate a beautiful body and spirit. Re-invent your next salad with this fresh avocado and basil dressing. This dressing can be made ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator for three days. Throw it in a small Ball jar and take it to work too! There is a prettier version of this recipe on my inspiration board as well. I can't seem to make it as pretty here, but I promise this dressing is delicious! Let me know what you think!

Posted by FitSugar reader JuicyNoelle

Sunny Avocado and Basil Dressing

Ingredients

1 avocado, pitted and meat removed from shell
1/2 cup of basil, packed
3 tablespoons good olive oil
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 to 1 1/2 cups filtered water, to thin

Directions

1. Add the avocado, basil, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, salt, and honey to your food processor. Pulse a few times to combine.
2. Then add 1/2 cup of water and blend. Continue adding water up to 1 1/2 cups total until you reach your desired consistency.
3. Toss in a serving with salad and enjoy!

I find that in more delicate salads 2 to 3 tablespoons (almost 1/4 cup) of this dressing goes a long way. In firmer salads, such as in a curly green kale salad, this dressing massages beautifully into the leaves, tenderizing them nicely.

Note: If you do not have a food processor you may also deconstruct this dressing and still enjoy the taste. Simply scoop out the avocado, slice and lay it on top of a bed of greens. Add the basil leaves to the salad. Then in a small bowl mix together a dressing with a bit of olive oil, apple cider vinegar, honey, salt and a touch of Dijon mustard to bring it all together.

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If you have a nutritious and tasty recipe to share, post it in the Healthy Recipe Group, and you just may see it posted here on FitSugar.

Regardless of whether or not you stuff your turkey, it simply wouldn't be Thanksgiving without stuffing — er, I mean, dressing. Change things up and take a tip from denizens of the Deep South and Carolina low country: make rice the star of the dish. Not only is whole-grain rice healthier and gluten-free, but cooking up a pot of rice is less work than cubing pieces of day-old bread.

If you're on a tight timeline, keep things simple by using brown rice mix. Fluff in sweetness and crunch by adding dried fruit, almonds, and orange zest. Alternatively, build layers of complexity by browning aromatic vegetables, slow-boiling the rice separately, and then baking the components together to fuse all of the dish's earthy flavors. See both options when you read more.

It's arguably the standout dish at Thanksgiving, yet at the same time shrouded in ambiguity. What's the proper way to refer to it: stuffing or dressing? Is there even a distinction?

Some believe that if it's cooked inside a roast, it should be dubbed stuffing; if it's prepared outside the bird, then the proper name for it is dressing. But go south of the Mason-Dixon line, and cooks will call it dressing, regardless of whether its preparation, citing the term "stuffing" as an unpleasant-sounding word. Likewise, northern states and New Englanders generally refer to the dish as stuffing across the board.

So, much like the soda-pop debate, whether you term that beloved side of seasoned starch and vegetables stuffing or dressing is really a matter of where you're eating. But we can all call it one thing for sure: delicious.

Got a burning question? Join the Burning Question group in the YumSugar Community! It's your place to post the most pressing questions about the culinary world.

Recently, I decided to try a recipe that called for day-old bread. I wanted to make the dish that night and headed to the grocery store hopeful that I could find a loaf of day-old bread. Although I was out of luck, I chatted with the baker about my dilemma. How could I turn new bread into stale bread? Here's what she told me to do:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Slice the bread into 1/2-inch cubes. If your recipe calls for no crusts, remove them now.
3. Place the cubes in a single layer on a baking sheet. Do not season or coat with oil.
4. Bake for 15 minutes or until the bread cubes are toasted and dry, but not browned.

Use the dried out bread to make your recipe. This technique worked perfectly for me! How do you dry out bread?