Artichoke Parmesan Stuffing

I LOVE stuffing. With a deep and abiding love. It's kind of weird because I hate soggy bread. Anyways, I nominated myself to make the stuffing this year for Thanksgiving and it turned out really well and left me wondering why I don't make stuffing as a side dish more often. I mean...it's easy, it's tasty and...yeah..mmmmmm

Recipe from Our Best Bites

1 pound mushrooms, cleaned, ends trimmed and sliced or chopped
1 tablespoon butter
2 onions, chopped
1 cup diced celery
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2-2 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 loaf (1lb) sourdough bread, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 jars (6oz each) marinated artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
1 1/2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
1 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary leaves or 3/4 tsp dried
salt and pepper
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Toast chpped bread in a 400 dg oven until lightly toasted, about 10 minutes

In a frying pan over high heat, cook mushrooms, onions, celery and garlic stirring often, until vegetables are tender and lightly browned, about ten minutes. Pour into a large bowl. Add a bit of broth to pan ( a few tablespoons) and stir to scrape up browned bits. Add to bowl.

Pour two cups broth into bowl and add bread, artichoke hearts, parmesan and spices/herbs, mix well. Salt and pepper to taste. Add beaten egg and mix into stuffing.

Preheat oven to 350 dgs and spoon stuffing into a 9 x13 casserole pan. For moist stuffing, cover with foil or for crusty stuffing (yes, please) do not cover. Bake until hot or lightly browned, about 50 minutes.

Can make up to one day ahead-- make stuffing, put in dish, cover and chill. Allow one hour to bake.

YUM!

Mini Vegetable Cakes

These are a great way to get veggies into your kids when they aren't big fans of veggies. I can guarantee you there is no way my kids would knowingly have eaten beets, but chopped up small (use a food processor!) they didn't even care! And *I* personally wouldn't have liked to eat them either (seriously, I'm worse than my kids sometimes) but these were acutally tasty! Give em a try sometime you're feeling adventurous. (Credit to parents.com for yet another recipe that I'm posting).

Combine half an 8-1/2-ounce package corn-muffin mix with 1 egg white and 3 tablespoons water. Stir in 3/4 cup shredded zucchini and 1/2 cup chopped canned beets. Drop batter by the tablespoon into 2 tablespoons hot canola oil. Cook 2 minutes; turn and cook 1 to 2 minutes more, until browned.

The best cornbread ever. Seriously.

2 c. Bisquick
1 1/2 cubes butter
1 c. sugar
2 Tbsp. cornmeal
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. baking soda

Mix and pour in 9 x 13. Bake @ 350 for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.

We had this at a dinner party the other night and oh my! Seriously. There was a cookie salad there too and I chose this cornbread, without butter mind you, over cookie salad (well, I guess I say "without butter" kind of loosely, plenty o butter in the actually cornbread!). I loved it that much. It could be served as dessert and it should be served often. Thank me later. Well, really you should thank Janelle later, but you probably don't know her.