Blame it on Martha

This year, just because I can, I changed the recipe for turkey dressing I usually use and switched over to the Classic Stuffing recipe from Martha Stewart's recipe file.

It is significantly different from my usual recipe, not so much in the actual ingredients (butter, onions, celery, bread, sage, salt, pepper and chicken or turkey stock) but in the amounts. Traditionally, I use about four celery ribs, two loaves of bread, four onions, a tablespoon of sage, two sticks of butter and a couple of quarts of stock, plus two eggs to kind of hold everything together -- my family definitely prefers dressing instead of stuffing. And dressing has to remain integrated so that it can be served up in slabs, layered with slices of ham and turkey, slathered with gravy and eaten with gusto on the day after Thanksgiving.

Martha's recipe called for slightly less butter, which I immediately overruled. She might be the CEO of Martha Stewart Omnimedia, but she needs to get a clue about dressing, which is that it needs to be as buttery as possible. But her recipe called for slightly less sage, the same amount of bread, onions, salt, pepper, but instead of my usual four ribs of celery, Martha's calls for sixteen ribs, which is a whole stalk.

I cooked a little bit in a small dish so that I could taste it and it tasted great, but we'll have to see whether this comes across like turkey dressing when combined with all the other Thanksgiving dinner elements, or whether it tastes like a screwball celery casserole.