Do You Love Turkey

I’ve modified this recipe and call my version “Mom’s Recipe for Rice Turkey Stuffing”. Every year I have to come up with something to take to a friend’s for Thanksgiving dinner. I am single so NEVER cook for a crowd and never have. So I need to follow a recipe. But often I do not have the exact ingredients, so I do often modify the recipe by using what’s on-hand instead. I decided this was quite sweet and tasted great! I found the original recipe in Debbie Macomber’s Christmas Cookbook (see below to purchase it). I love all of Debbie’s books, don’t you?

For example, in the following recipe: I did NOT cook a turkey (at least not yet) so I did not have turkey drippings. Instead I used a package of turkey dressing. The recipe called for raisins and I used Craisins because I had them already. Macomber’s recipe called for Hazelnuts but I had pecans so I used them. Also I did not have fresh parsley, so I used dry spices. Also her recipe called for scallions as well as onion, I decided just onion was fine. Oh AND I also substituted wild rice because I had it on-hand and it is so much richer and healthier than the white version in her recipe. Actually, I guess I have changed this recipe to be my own.

I also like to try a recipe first so I’m sure it tastes alright. With this recipe I decided to make it up and freeze it because it is still 12 days til Thanksgiving. Also I’m almost a vegetarian and except for the turkey gravy and the chicken broth there is no meat involved, or at least it is close enough for me. For sticklers you could use vegetable broth. I will eat this for dinner or to accompany meals between now and the holiday (by the way this works also for Christmas dinner). If you are traveling for Thanksgiving you can just take it out of the freezer and drive to your hosts and pop it into the oven. So make it ahead, saving a lot of time on the day of the holiday. Also I felt it was a little too dry so will add some more consomme when reheating it. If you cook it in an actual turkey, I’m sure it will be moist enough.

I also make this recipe as a main dish during non-holiday times as well. Yum!

This is the book from which the above recipe was majorly modified.  It has many great holiday recipes and is worth owning.

Well it’s a theory that Europeans were reminded of the African Guinea Fowl which had come to Europe through Turkey, and then they named the bird after the country of Turkey.

It was H.W. Bush who gave the first Presidential Turkey Pardon in 1989 and that started a new tradition.