With Thanksgiving less than a week away, you most likely have plans in place.  Whether you are hosting a pot-luck dinner, cooking an entire meal, or visiting a special restaurant…I hope you have a wonderfully blessed day.  Now…on with the cooking!

After the turkey, the most anticipated dish is the dressing/stuffing.  Many people wonder what the difference is. Quite simply the dressing is cooked in a separate dish and stuffing is literally placed in the turkey cavity.  Today, most chefs agree that cooking stuffing in the bird is not safe.  When the turkey is done, the stuffing is not and the juices from the turkey are not at safe temperature.  If you bake the dish long enough for the stuffing to cook, the bird is overdone.  Besides, you would miss the crusty bits that are oh so good!

Every family has its own dressing recipe.  I wouldn’t begin to compete.  Whether you add sausage, oysters, fruits or nuts, this is the time to enjoy your tradition.  Mine is a simple southern style cornbread dressing and regardless of where my daughter celebrates Thanksgiving, she insists on eating my dressing.

A few years back we shared the day with my best friend, Connie and her family.  Her daughter, Brandi, and mine, Kristie, are also best friends.  Both girls were insisting on “their mom’s” dressing.  Brandi decided that we would have a cook-off.  Connie chops celery and onions in a food processor then adds them to the bread raw.  (I should add she makes the best cornbread!)

I hand dice everything to exact greatness and sauté in butter until perfection.  I make my own bread croutons and cornbread, spending much more time on the dish.  When the “dressing battle” began, Brandi announced that she couldn’t tell a bit of difference between the two.  Now that is funny and should have been a lesson learned, but I will continue to pamper my dishes in the name of “tradition.”

As I said, I wouldn’t compete with your family recipe, so I decided to give you one that is different and really great any time of year.

Ingredients

• 1 medium eggplant (peeled and diced)
• 1 can cream of celery soup
• 1 cup whole kernel corn
• 1 medium onion (diced)
• 1 large fresh tomato (diced)
• 1 cup bacon (diced small)
• ¼ cup butter
• ½ tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. black pepper
• 1/8 tsp. garlic powder
• 4 ounces American cheese (shredded)
• 1 16-ounce package Mexican cornbread mix
• Cheddar cheese (shredded, to garnish)

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Bake Mexican cornbread per package directions.  Cut in half after baking and use only half.
• Sauté diced bacon in large skillet until done, but not crispy.
• Add onion to skillet on medium low heat.  Sauté about five minutes.  Add eggplant, tomato, salt, pepper, garlic powder, corn and butter.  Sauté another 5-7 minutes until everything is transparent.
• Add soup and American cheese.  Stir until cheese is completely melted.
• Take half the baked cornbread and crumble into mixture.  Place into a buttered 9×3” round or 8”square buttered casserole dish.  Cover with foil.
• Bake for 40-50 minutes.  Remove foil and cover with shredded cheddar during final 10 minutes.