a belated thanks

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving this year. Ours was filled with time with the family. We left for the shores of New Jersey early morning on Thursday. Why drive so far on the day of? Well because my mom and sister decided we wouldn’t have a traditional meal and instead we would eat homemade Indian food. Both the husband and I are trying to establish our own family traditions, one of which is to make turkey on this day. We weren’t thrilled about the menu however like a dutiful Indian daughter, I trotted home with my husband.

Mind you, I enjoy love Indian food. I will be the first to point out, Indian food runs in my blood and I can't go too long before craving it but this isn’t the time to make roti, curry, rice and daal. It’s one occasion we have to be able to stuff ourselves with mashed potatoes, green beans and pumpkin pie and get fat without guilt.


At work we had a lunch to celebrate the holiday. They would provide the meat and we were asked to bring in a side dish. In matter of seconds I knew I would bring stuffing. I searched the web for an interesting recipe but ended up creating my own. Forewarning this recipe uses boxed ingredients. I prefer to cook from scratch so this is a bit strange, even for me, but I have never made homemade cornbread and that night was certainly not going to be different. It is my goal to make it from scratch one of these days!

My Cornbread Stuffing

3- 4 stale Jiffy cornbread mix muffins or 2 cups pan-baked, crumbled
1/4 cup of stale bread, cubed (I used French baguette)
Olive oil
2 tablespoon butter
1 onion finely diced
2 stalks of celery finely diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup low sodium chicken stock
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme (fresh can be used but I didn’t have any on hand)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Salt and Black Pepper, freshly cracked

Few days or a day before making the stuffing, follow the instructions on the box to make cornbread. I’ve always used Jiffy so I prefer it however if you like a different brand use that and follow its instructions.

Preheat the oven to 350F degrees

Crumble the cornbread and cube the bread. If the bread is too dry to cut, briefly soak it in water. Finely chop onion, celery (with leaves) and garlic. Add olive oil and butter to a large sauté pan on medium heat. Add the chopped vegetables and sauté until onions are translucent. Season with salt and black pepper. Stir in crumbled cornbread, season with salt and black pepper, again. Once the cornbread is incorporated into the onion mixture, stir in cubed bread and low sodium chicken stock. Season with thyme, lemon juice, salt, and black pepper and mix well.

Transfer the stuffing to a baking pan and bake for 15 minutes or until the liquid has evaporated. Serve warm. Since I brought this to work for lunch, I reheated the stuffing in the microwave. For winging it, this was a success if I must say so myself. I would make one change to the recipe, I would decrease the amount of lemon juice or eliminate it altogether. It added a slight sweetness to the stuffing that I didn't care for, but others didn't mind.

In addition to homemade cranberry sauce, beer and cheese soup, and homemade spice cake, we had fried chicken bought from a local grocery giant. Fried chicken with cranberry sauce and stuffing, anyone?


On the day of giving thanks, we ate a full fledged Indian meal with dishes I can’t remember because I was dreaming about homemade rolls and occupied my time with the kids and the rest of the family. Although we didn’t eat the way we had hoped, we were grateful to be with people we adore, most of the time.

And of course, I thank you, my readers, for coming around to read this blog, even when I've disappeared from the Internets for unknown amounts of time.