For our Thanksgiving dinner, I had to carefully plan the itinerary. I had invited more friends that can realistically fit around our table. I was worried about not having enough oven space to cook all our food. So I planned it all very carefully, making the pumpkin cheesecake and nut bake a day in advance and laying out what I had to do on Sunday afternoon. I used my new hand blender to whizz up mountains of breadcrumbs for the stuffing from some lovely wholewheat bread. It was stale bread but I also toasted it to make it a bit more dry.
And because our oven space was completely in use due to the turkey and roast potatoes, I made the stuffing in the slow cooker. Earlier in the year Mum sent me her slow cooker book from Company's Coming, and it provided just the recipe.
Slow Cooker Stuffing
makes 8 cups
from Company's Coming Slow Cooker Recipes
1 c chopped celery
1 c chopped onions
1 T parsley flakes
2 t poultry seasoning, or herbs
1 t salt
1/4 t pepper
10 c dry bread crumbs
1/4 c hard margarine or butter
1 T chicken or vegetable bouillon powder
1 1/2 c hot water
Mix the first six ingredients in a large bowl.
Add bread crumbs and stir.
Combine margarine, bouillon powder, and hot water in a separate bowl. Stir to melt the margarine and dissolve the bouillon powder. Pour over bread mixture.
Turn into a 5 litre slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 5 to 6 hours. Add a bit more hot water for a more moist stuffing.
This recipe made the stuffing ridiculously easy on Sunday afternoon. I made the crumb mixture on Saturday, and on Sunday just added the hot water mixture and started it going as soon as we got home from church. It was ready when we sat down to eat at 5 pm.
Planning the whole meal in advance on my little index card was a bonus. For most of the afternoon I was ten minutes ahead of schedule!
