I know I've posted this recipe on FR before, but it wasn't on a holiday recipe thread, so here goes. It's also a favorite (I sure have a lot of favorite foods!).
Almost eveybody has a different recipe for this and some have very different ingredients, but the main concept is the same - a real tossed salad you can make several days ahead of time without the lettuce wilting. Time-saver tip: buy the veggies at a salad bar, already cut up. Cut or break them up into smaller pieces for this recipe.
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*MY* OVERNIGHT SALAD
1 head iceberg lettuce
1 cup fresh broccoli florets
1 cup fresh cauliflower florets
1 bunch green onions, sliced
6-8 slices cooked bacon, crumbled
1 pkg frozen green peas
1 cup Kraft green-can grated Parmesan cheese
1+ cups mayonnaise
In a very large bowl that will fit in your fridge, tear (don't cut) lettuce into bite-sized pieces. Sprinkle a layer of broccoli over that, then a layer of cauliflower. Continue layering, with green onions, then bacon, then peas.
Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over all, then dump the mayo on top and with the back of a large spoon, or with a spatula, smooth it all out to the edges of the bowl. It must touch the edges to seal them, and there can't be any holes in the mayo - all smooth on top. Cover with plastic wrap.
Refrigerate overnight or up to 3 days. When time to serve, use large spoons or salad utensils to completely toss all the ingredients, making sure the mayo and cheese coat the lettuce pieces and veggies.
For such simple ingredients, you won't believe how good this salad is and how many raves you will get for it!
Grandaddy's German Bread Stuffing
Story: This was my favorite turkey dressing as a kid, though I now prefer cornbread dressing over anything else. Still, I get a craving for this one, too, but hadn't fixed it until I was an adult and my grandparents were long gone - so no way to get a recipe.
Luckily, I had helped fix it so many times, I knew the drill. The "catch" is that this is definitely a stuffing made to be cooked inside a turkey. It needs the drippings for full flavor. For many years, I haven't stuffed a turkey, because I usually deep-fried them or got a smoked one (my favorite).
So, I had to tinker with grandaddy's recipe to make it more like I remembered it. It is absolutely the best with lots of giblet gravy - lots! This is for baking separately from the turkey.
3/4 loaf regular white bread*
1/2 loaf German dark wheat bread**
12 oz. pecan meats, broken
1 cup raisins, craisins or dried cherries, or mix of all
1 Tbsp sherry, optional
1 onion, chopped and sauteed in 3 Tbsp butter until transparent
1 batch cooked turkey giblets, if you have them
2 cans or pkgs chicken broth
1 jar turkey gravy or 1 env. turkey gravy mix
Salt
Pepper - lots and lots
Two days before the turkey is to be cooked, fill a roasting pan with torn-up pieces of the breads. Leave them out to get stale.
The night before you plan to cook the turkey or bake the dressing, prepare it as needed. Heat the oven to low, 200°-250°, add the pecans to the torn-up bread pieces in the roasting pan, and put the pan in the oven to lightly toast the pecans and bread together. Leave for about 30 minutes or until you can smell the pecans. This is important for letting the pecans release their oils into the bread.
Meanwhile, boil a cup of water with a little sherry and add the raisins, craisins (dried cranberries) or dried cherries (a few dried apricot pieces are OK, too). You can cook them until they are plumped or turn off the fire, cover, and leave them to plump and then cool.
Transfer cooled bread/pecans to a large mixing bowl, then add the sauteed onion, the plumped fruits and their cooking water. If you like some chopped celery, you can saute about 1/4 cup with the onion - but this dressing is best without it. I've also added 1 chopped apple sometimes.
Toss all the ingredients in the bowl *with your hands!* and add salt to taste and a lot more pepper than you normally would think was proper. This is German, grandaddy was German, and they even put black pepper in their cookies, remember!
If you are fortunate enough to have some turkey giblets on hand, cook them in a little water, chop what needs chopping and add them now, cooking water and all. If not, add one can of chicken broth and mix it in to see the consistency.
If it's still a bit dry, it's just fine for stuffing the turkey and you can put the bowl in the fridge until it's time to stuff the bird.
If you're going to bake it by itself, add another can of chicken broth (or box, if you use that kind) and see if it's moist enough. It should be.
Now, to emulate the taste of the missing turkey drippings, stir in one half jar of turkey gravy or make up a batch from an envelope of turkey gravy mix and water, then add half of that.
Let the dressing rest in its bowl in the fridge until baking time, then stir in the rest of the gravy, and put it into a casserole baking dish (1 large or two small). Bake covered for 30 minutes at 350° and then uncovered for an additional 30 minutes. Serve with lots and lots of gravy!
When re-heating, moisten by adding more chicken broth and a small amount of the real gravy served.
*For the white bread, I've used everything from dinner rolls to regular white bread to potato bread to hamburger buns or hot dog rolls to Italian ciabatta to sourdough. I save bits and pieces in the freezer all year, just for my Thanksgiving and Christmas dressings.
I have also saved breads I've bought at country bakeries on trips with friends or from special dinners for this same reason - and then called the recipe "Friendship Stuffing" - mixing it with wild rice or cornbread for quail or game hens or other birds.
**(Pepperidge Farm, Oroweat, Brownberry, examples of store brands - this is a brown bread, dark all the way through, not beige - and no rye flour - sometimes called molasses bread - but not the steamed sweet Boston-type brown bread)