On Nov 5, 2:19*pm, ImStillMags > wrote:
> For me it's not Thanksgiving without turkey, dressing, gravy, mashed
> potatoes, and my cranberrysauce.
> Everything else is just fine but I must have those 4 things.
>
> What's your must haves?

I know I will take flack for this here, but Stove Top Stuffing is a
must have.
After the turkey, of course.

Sure, I remember tearing the unsliced white bread apart for stuffing
when I was very little, and Mom diced the onions and celery and did
all that work, but once the good people at General Foods (before Kraft
took them over in the 80's) came out with Stove Top Stuffing, Mom
started making that, and to be honest, we all really liked it. So that
became our standard Thanksgiving stuffing. Dressing, whatever you want
to call it. For Thanksgiving, she frequently jazzed it up, adding
sauteed onions and celery to it, or sometimes a diced apple and
raisins. But that was the basis for Mom's stuffing. And my Mom and
Dad and the 3 of us kids, and eventually my two nephews, all came to
like Stove Top, to the point that it became the standard against which
all stuffing was measured.

During the years I prepared Thanksgiving for my family, I tinkered
with "homemade" dressing, either from packaged crumbs/croutons or from
stale bread. But to be honest, they always were too dense, or too
dry, or too moist or too salty, or too bland....something was usually
not quite right. Stove top stuffing was consistently good and
consistently the way my family liked it. Eventually, I just gave up
and gave in to it. If it tastes good and we like it, why bother
making it any other way?

Nowadays, I always add dried cranberries and sometimes slivered
almonds to it.
Today, I bought a ~7 lb oven roaster chicken (for ~$3.50), and without
any apology, I tossed a box of Stove Top stuffing in my carriage right
next to it. And I said, out loud, to myself "Stuffing just like Mom
used to make!!"

Nowadays, I enjoy Thanksgiving as the guest of my best friend and her
family. She's a wonderful friend, a good cook and I feel very welcome
and loved at her table, not just at holidays but all year 'round. Not
just from her, but from her kids and her parents, too. And there is
always Stove Top stuffing!

I'm making a pumpkin cheesecake for dessert this year. The recipe is
in every cooking related magazine out there this month. It's the one
in the Kraft cream cheese ad. Looks really good!