Comfort food...stuffing

Generally I make stuffing with my roasts and I stuff the birds and then put the extra stuffing in a casserole dish. Since it's just my daughter and I, I have been buying the little fryer chickens, which usually amount to four or five pounds.

So I start with whatever vegetable I feel like adding. Usually it's celery, onion, and mushrooms. Quite a few people in my life do not like mushrooms so I will leave them out when cooking for others. But for myself, I love mushrooms and will add them to anything I can. So last night when putting together my stuffing, I diced a medium yellow onion, a package of button mushrooms, and a four sticks of celery.

I added a stick of butter (1/2 cup). Olive oil works well as an alternative.  To the mixture of veggies I added a teaspoon of minced garlic, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper, and 1 Tablespoon parsley. 

I cooked this mixture until the onions were clear and the celery was soft. 

Now what I made last night was more than enough for stuffing so I took only half of this skillet and put it into a mixing bowl for the stuffing. The other half I refrigerated to use later in breakfast omelets.

Next for the stuffing I put together what I call my "stuffing marinade." I take two eggs and beat them, then add two cups of either chicken stock or vegetable stock. To that I add 1 teaspoon salt, a dash of ground black pepper, 1 teaspoon parsley, and 1 teaspoon ground sage. I mixed that together and added it to the sauteed veggies in the mixing bowl. Then I added a cup of milk. 

From there the bread needs to be added. You can buy already prepared bread "crumbs" for stuffing from the grocery store, but regular bread works just as well. To sop up this mixture it took about 20 pieces of white bread...which amounts to almost a whole loaf. 

Put the stuffing mixture into a greased casserole dish. Mine fit into an 8x8 Pyrex dish. 

Cover with aluminum foil and bake in the oven for an hour covered and then 15 minutes uncovered.