I remember Mama part two

So today is Thanksgiving and now the fun begins! I'm also taking a fruit trifle to our dinner in Athens - but this is about dressing - not trifle!

First thing is, get the sausage cooking. We do NOT eat pork (God said it was bad for our bodies and it IS) so I got chicken sausage. Fry it up til it's brown, save any drippings. Because I didn't cook the turkey, I roasted some chicken legs a few nights ago, added water to the pan drippings and saved it - will add sausage drippings to the chicken drippings. (NOTE I did not say drOppings!) NOTE: If you insist on eating pork, use Jimmy Dean's spicy sausage in a little fat roll. We only use chicken sausage and the only kind they have here is in little teeny sausages so I just cut off the outside casing and squeezed the meat in the pan.

Now, get a humongous bowl and crumble up all that bread. IF you are blessed enough to find canned/tinned water chestnuts, these are a yum addition at this point as well. Just chunk em up - nobody can figure out what the crunch is - I like that!

Add the sausage and all the drippings.Add reserved turkey (or in my case previously saved chicken) drippings and enough of previously made stock (on the left - look at that gorgeous color!) until you get the stuff back to the original consistency of cornbread. Mix well. Some think this part is yucky - but you gotta TASTE to see if it needs more salt! Add salt and pepper to taste.

ALSO - this is the place where you can "kick it up a notch" and add some crushed red peppers, jalapenos, cayenne - wherever your imagination leads.

Put back in the oven and bake as the cornbread recipe directed.

Check out the size of my oven - and this is the "big" one! In Abu Dhabi, I had a gas oven that was big enough for 2 cookie sheets on the same shelf. This one is the same size as my big round Greek baking pan!!

When cool, spoon it into your prettiest bowl and ENJOY! Happy Thanksgiving to all of you - and to you, Mama!

Serve warm with turkey - YUM!