A Taste of Thanksgiving

This year, I am hosting Thanksgiving for the very first time.  I am so excited to decorate and meal plan and have people over, but I want to make sure I don't ruin Thanksgiving.  It's a lot of responsibility for one person (I guess, two people if you count hubby, though I don't think he's as worried).  This is not just a random dinner... it is one of the most anticipated meals of the year.  Since I will not take my new responsibility lightly, I am practicing dishes and getting in the Thanksgiving mindset ahead of time. 

Since hubby is Italian, his mom uses sausages in their stuffing.  To be quite honest, I'm not sure what is in my family's stuffing, but I don't think there are any sausages.  It just doesn't sound like something a Cuban would do, though I guess that stuffing doesn't exactly sound like something a Cuban would make in the first place.  Anyways, I was thrilled to find a recipe for sausage and peppers stuffing on Laura in the Kitchen and decided to make a mini-Thanksgiving themed dinner.

Laura's brilliant idea is to use turkey sausage, which makes the stuffing a mini dinner all its own.  I took the sausages out of their casings and cooked them up.  Central Market didn't have turkey Italian sausages like the ones Laura used but instead had turkey sausage with craisins.  I wasn't thrilled at first, but it turned out so delicious I would seek them out again.  I added the peppers to the sausages and cooked them up while I cut the bread into chunks (I toasted the bread after cubing it to dry it out as much as possible).  Then I combined all the sausage and peppers with the bread cubes and began adding chicken broth to get to my desired level of moistness.  I put the mixture into the oven and hoped for the best.  While it baked, I made some mashed sweet potatoes to add some vegetables to our meal.

 Here is the stuffing.  I like mine with a little crispiness on the outside.  You can't really imagine how good it is just by looking at it.

Mashed sweet potatoes so we don't feel too guilty about just having stuffing for dinner.

The stuffing smelled heavenly as it emerged from the oven.  The sausage and peppers gave the dish an incredible aroma that filled the apartment and intoxicated hubby as he came home from work.  I'm glad it smelled good, but the real test came in when hubby took his first bite.  He smiled as he took a bite admitting that stuffing can taste good even when made outside of a turkey (a recurring argument between us).  The cubes of bread were moist with the outer most layer having the slightest crunch.  The sausage and peppers conjured memories of a large, warm Italian sandwich while the craisins surprised the taste buds with a tart sweetness.  It was delicious meal and got us exciting for our Thanksgiving meal.

Here was our plate of deliciousness.  Thinking back on it now, it's basically a deconstructed Italian sandwich of sorts.

I haven't put a picture of Maui up in a while.  Tonight she graduated from puppy training class.  We are so proud.