Christmas Eve Grazing - A new tradition on getting stuffed!

WE started a tradition several years ago, of cooking a turkey on Christmas Eve and basically grazing on it all day.  This is because then we feel like we have gotten our fill of holiday turkey without eating turkey on Christmas day.  I never cook turkey except at Thanksgiving and Christmas times -- maybe sometimes on New Year's Eve.  I don't know why this is -- it just is!  Generally Christmas Eve is a strange, unpredictable, "day-without-our-own-brand-of traditions" sort of day -- the way we deal with it has nothing to do with the "reason for the season". It has to do with, "what do we still need to get done"? Picking-up kids who might be flying in at the airport, last minute grocery shopping, or wrapping gifts -- or even house-cleaning.  I have finished Christmas shopping on Dec 24th, but it has been a while since I did that.  It is not a pleasant or fun thing for me to do and I usually end up buying any old thing for gifts just to get out of the madness. Mostly, I cook on Christmas Eve while everyone else finishes wrapping gifts and the pile under the tree grows larger and larger.  I try to get as much of the preparation for the Christmas meal done ahead of time as I can, so that I don't have to be a slave to the stove on Christmas Day. Some years, I have been more successful than others.  This was not a banner year in that department, because of my constant preoccupation with this blog! Rather than doing the expedient thing of buying organic stuffing mix in a bag, I got to thinking about what I wrote about making my own stuffing and then thinking back to my mother making her stuffing from scratch.  I also got a cookbook for myself last Christmas, called, The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook -- actually I bought 2 of these cookbook that I planned to give as gifts.  But then as I got looking through it, I gave one as a gift to my daughter, Jaimie, and I kept the other one. I was reminded that this was the best most comprehensive cookbook that I had ever seen.  Publishers Weekly in their review described it as, "A foolproof, go-to resource for everyday cooking." The philosophy behind this cookbook is best expressed at the end of the preface.  "A cookbook is like a diary, a reminder of who we were as cooks.  Maybe we can write our stories in these pages, recipes that will remind generations yet to come of how we lived, and of how we cooked for our family in the early years of this new century."


The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook took the place of the Joy of Cooking for me. I really didn't do much with the cookbook, until last February or so.  I really started looking through it when I was looking for a recipe for Eggplant Parmesan (this recipe is fabulous!  So is the All-American Meatloaf -- this will be a future blog topic!).  I then remembered why I didn't gift this cookbook.  I love Christopher Kimball who is a cooking writer and editor -- he is the founder and editor of Cook's Illustrated. I knew that there would be a great section on STUFFING and I wasn't disappointed! The only disappointing thing was that they did not recommend cooking the stuffing inside the bird when you cooked poultry, because it lengthens the cooking time and the turkey would end up over-cooked and dried out.  I solved the drying out problem by brining the turkey. (Although there is a nice section on brining, for some odd reason, they did not put 2 & 2 together.) Okay, so I didn't make my own bread for the stuffing, but I did as the book suggested, by buying a high quality of white sandwich bread.  I did not buy spongy, tasteless "Wonder-type-bread".  Instead I went to the store bakery and bought 2 loaves - a loaf of almost-like-homemade white bread and a loaf of almost-like-homemade whole wheat sandwich bread (that wasn't too heavy & chewy). I cut up both loaves into 1/2" cubes and then laid them on cookie sheets and baked them in a slow oven to dry them out.  This is what took me so much time.  David cut up some fresh sage and thyme to use in both the stuffing and to rub under the skin of the turkey after it was brined and I was prepping it to be grilled. Plus he chopped up all of the other vegetables for me too -- isn't he a great husband?   This is the recipe that I followed:

CLASSIC BREAD STUFFING WITH SAGE & THYME
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
4 ribs celery, chopped fine
2 onions, minced
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley
3 tablespoons minced fresh sage or 2 tsp dried
3 tablespoons minced fresh thyme or 2 tsp dried

1 tablespoon minced fresh marjoram or 1 tsp dried (I used dried marjoram, since I did not have fresh on hand)
3 pounds high-quality white sandwich bread, cut into 1/2" cubes and dried
5 cups low-sodium chicken broth
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons pepper
(All of the ingredients that I used were organic, except for the bread, but it was definitely all-natural, w/o preservatives and other chemicals).
1. Melt the butter in a 12" skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the celery and onions and cook until softened (I forgot that I also used 3 large cloves of minced garlic too), about 10 minutes. Stir in the parsley, sage, thyme and marjoram and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Transfer to a very large bowl.
2. Add the dried, cooled bread, broth, eggs, salt and pepper to the vegetables and toss to combine.

3. This is when I stuffed the turkey, however, if you insist on "dressing", you can turn the mixture into a buttered 10" X 15" baking dish.  Cover w/foil and bake for 25 minutes in 400 degree oven.  Remove the foil and continue to bake until golden, about 30 minutes longer. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.
NOTE:  There are various variations -- you can add apples, cranberries, dried apricots, chopped water chestnuts, bacon, pecans, etc -- whatever you like.  I like it just plain (but may try it sometime with chopped water chestnuts sometime for an interesting texture twist).  You can also use homemade cornbread, but that recipe is slightly different.  I may try that sometime too.

THIS WAS THE BEST STUFFING WE EVER HAD!  Everyone in my family commented and raved that there was no comparison to any stuffing I had ever made previously -- this was the premier stuffing!  I will NEVER, EVER buy packaged stuffing mix again!!!!!!  There is no comparison and I was once again reminded, why I DO NOT use mixes of any kind.  I don't know why I ever started using stuffing mix, other than, if you don't use high quality bread, the flavor is compromised.  I also thought of a few ways that I could save time for the future.  I may just make my own bread cubes in advance and put them in a ziploc bag and freeze.  Then when it is time to make the stuffing or croutons or however I want to use the cubes, I just have to bake them in the oven to dry them out!

Unfortunately, I only bought a 15 pound turkey -- it was just for the 10 of us.  The turkey was not big enough to hold all of the stuffing, nor were there any left-overs for us, other than the turkey carcass which I will use to make turkey pot pie.  The left-over stuffing that did not fit into the turkey was not baked, but refrigerated and saved.  My daughter is having Christmas again with her in-laws today.  I happened to have a turkey breast in my freezer -- so she stuffed the turkey breast with the left-over stuffing and roasted it in my oven to take with her today to contribute to their Christmas dinner.  Lucky in-laws!!!  She also took the left-over buttery crescent rolls that I made for our dinner -- double lucky in-laws! -- wait until I tell you about these rolls!


Anyway, my Christmas Eve was spent cooking and doing some prep work for our Christmas breakfast & our Christmas dinner.  This was a Christmas dinner extraordinaire and you will get a chance to hear all about it!