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by Siri Von Essence

No matter how many people are coming to Thanksgiving Dinner, just the two of you or 20, it’s easy to make homemade dressing and everyone will love you for it.
Let’s make this a recipe for four adults.

Start with some day old (or longer but not too much longer) whole wheat bread. Cut half a loaf up into little squares. You could toast them if you like. I don’t. The point of the bread is to absorb the juices from the turkey. If the juices hit the bottom of the pan they can caramelize, get crisp and become inedible. If the juice can stay alive at the bottom of the pan it could make good gravy (more about that later), but we want to save the juices and capture that flavor in the dry bread.

Put about four tablespoons of butter in a frying pan. Cut up at least two onions—sweet, not strong. Vidalia are my favorite. The folks in Vidalia, Ga., say only their onions can be authentic. This is like the French in the Champagne District saying only their sparkling wine can be called champagne. I’ve tasted some fine wines from California that could be called champagne, and I’ve tasted some stuff from France that gave me a headache. So, bottom line, I don’t worry about where the onions come from. Red onions are great and yellows work fine. I would stay away from the Bermuda Whites. Brown the onions without burning them. They get bitter if they go too far, and then you have to pick black specks out of the hot pan.

Throw in some chopped celery. You need this for crunch so don’t overcook them.
That’s the basic recipe, and now the fun begins.

Be sure to season the onions and celery with generous portions of salt (at least a tablespoon) and pepper (a couple of teaspoons) and about a tablespoon of sage. Add about a quarter cup of chopped walnuts. You might want to add some dried fruit—cranberries, prunes or apricots.

Now add the bread to the mix. Be sure you turned off the flame. The mixture should be moist. If it’s too dry, add some chicken broth or water. Cooking the dressing inside the bird and in the pan alongside the bird is not going to add moisture to the dressing, and it’s going to dry it out a little, so make sure it’s plenty moist going in.

If you want great gravy, then cook the extra dressing either inside the bird or outside the pan. Cooking it alongside will absorb too much of the precious bodily fluids of the bird. After you’ve cooked the turkey, take it out of the pan and let it cool for half an hour before serving. This is the critical half hour when the gravy is made. Mix a little flour (one to two tablespoons) in some warm water, about a cup (the French call this a roux) and add this slowly to the bottom of the pan. Add salt and pepper. Keep stirring. Don’t go anywhere.

Hopefully you’ve got some giblets left in the pan. You could cut them up and serve them with the gravy or serve them separately, but leave them in the pan while you’re cooking the gravy.

That’s it! Nothing to it! Now, sit back and enjoy the love.