Butter Soaked Corn Bread Stuffing by Jean Noe

What is not to love about this stuffing?  I have a small dish of this in the oven at this moment.  It  smells amazing and will report how I like it.

I forgot to get a photo of the big dish but here is a photo taken of one of the times we served it left over.

Note added later:  Aw yes, this was delish.  Since I used home made bread I needed to increase the salt to taste.

This recipe comes from my friend Alice Clark, Dietitian whose mother-in-law created the recipe.  Feel free to double it and keep some in the freezer.  It freezes well she says and since her husband usually asks for this on his birthday in January it makes sense to double it and keep half in the freezer for a couple months.  Their family doubles this and I did not.  This made enough for one 9 x 13 baking dish.

8 ounces Jimmy Dean Sage flavored sausage
2 cups diced onion
2 cups sliced and diced celery
Combine, cook and drain.

6 cups crumbled corn bread (8 x 8 pan baked and left to air dry) (I used the recipe on the package of Bob's Red Mill Coarse Corn Meal).
3 cups bread cubes  (I used my whole wheat bread from the recipe posted on October 2nd 2014)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
Combine in large bowl

4 cups chicken broth (used two and it was quite wet but maybe because of the home made breads)
2 hands full dried cranberries
1 handful chopped pecans (left out)
1 Tablespoon rubbed sage
1/2 lb melted butter.
Add these ingredients and mix, toss as you add and drizzle.  Be careful not to flood or soak your bread cubes.

Place in a 9 x 13 pan.  This is a dense stuffing and will be fluffier the more you spread it out.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.  Serves 5 to 8 people depending on...well you know what I'm going to say.

One more note:  I made the corn bread and whole wheat bread on Monday and then left it in the oven on low heat to dry out for quite awhile.  Like maybe 4 hours.  This is because I wanted to mix up the stuffing on Tuesday.

I am putting the corn bread recipe here because I think this is my go-to corn bread recipe from now on. This is so good, I recommend making a double batch.

Golden Corn Bread
From Bob's Red Mill

1 cup Bob's Red Mill 100% Stone Ground Cornmeal
1 Cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour (I used home ground Prairie Gold whole wheat from Wheat Montana).
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 Tablespoon sugar (optional)  I used honey
1 egg
1 cup milk (I used whole milk)
1/4 cup butter softened.

Sift together (I did not do this) dry ingredients into bowl.  Add egg, milk and butter.  Beat until smooth about 1 minute. Do not overbeat.

Bake in a greased 8 inch square pan for 20 to 25 minutes at 425 degrees.  Serve warm with butter.  9 servings.   I doubled it and put it in the clay pampered chef jelly roll pan.  425 degrees for about 17 minutes.

I started this post in November and here it is 1-1-15.  We did put the left overs in the freezer and really enjoyed it a couple times in December.  This is such a good recipe it deserves to be shared.

Inspired by my artist sister I decided to create some art journal cards.  This is one I gave away to my friend Alice.