Primal Thanksgiving Stuffing

I will never ever forget...


The night before Thanksgiving, it was my job to help dad break up loaves and loaves of white
bread; there were pans sitting all over the kitchen, on top of the refrigerator, everywhere you looked you would see bread crumbs drying for dad's famous Thanksgiving stuffing.

I would be the first one awake on Thanksgiving morning, I simply couldn't wait to see what jobs dad had for me to do.  I always awoke to the aroma of that turkey already cooking, I always wondered if I got up this early what the heck time did he wake up to get all this started before me.  I remember seeing the "turkey guts" cooking in a pan.  I knew dad added all the good stuff to the stuffing, liver and gizzards and the famous turkey neck...he cooked them up, ground them and we ate every single part of that turkey.

When it was my turn to start cooking Thanksgiving for my family, I was never gifted enough to take everything from scratch and come up with that awesome stuffing my dad made every year.  So, my kids got Stove Top or Pepperidge Farm...whatever was on sale.  Maybe, it wasn't because I wasn't gifted - maybe I was a product of my environment and did what seemed to be the simplest way to get everything done.

Then, one day...not necessarily out of the blue.  I changed the way I ate.  And I changed the way I cooked for my family.  All of a sudden, my food creations would get better and better.  I was able to throw things together and create recipes.  I was able to add a little bit of this and a little bit of that and my kids were happy and they ate it!  Which made me happy!  I have this natural tendency to want to feed people, I think I get it from my dad.  And when I feed people, and they are happy, then I am happy to!


So, a few years back I desperately sought out a stuffing recipe that was grain free, gluten free all of the above...this was THE LAST thing I changed about our Thanksgiving dinner.  I would always say, "It's Thanksgiving, a little gluten won't hurt!"

So, when I found this recipe- they had me make bread and break it into little pieces to dry the night before Thanksgiving.  Please try to understand what happened to me at that moment.  Every flood of emotion, every Thanksgiving I spent "helping" my father, every smell, taste, sound, feel...came back to me and punched me square in the face.  I've never cried so hard breaking bread and setting it on trays to dry like I did that day.  I remember the first time I made it, sobbing out loud and telling my daddy, "I know you'd be proud of me now!"

You see, food is emotional.  There is always something attached.  That night, it came full circle.  I was able to carry on this tradition for my family that my dad loved so dearly.  That was obviously engrained in my soul.  I want my kids to remember someday, what I did from my daddy, and pass that on to their kids...a legacy!

SO without any further commentary:

Primal Thanksgiving Stuffing

Bread needs to be baked at least a day before so that you can set it out to dry overnight:

Ingredients

Bread

2 cups almond flour
3 tbsp coconut flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp real salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp coconut sugar (or 1 tsp honey)
2 large eggs
8 tbsp unsalted butter (or ghee)
1 cup sour cream (or plain, whole coconut yogurt)

Preheat oven to 425.  Butter an 8x8 baking pan.  Mix dry ingredients together in bowl.  In a separate bowl, mix together wet ingredients.  Pour mixtures together.  Pour batter in pan.  Bake for 30-35 min.

Stuffing

1 pound pork sausage
(bag of insides of turkey - boil and add to sausage)
2 tbsp unsalted butter (or ghee)
1 large onion (chopped)
2 large celery sticks (chopped)
10 fresh sage leaves (chopped)
1/4 cup parsley (chopped)
1/2 tsp real salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 grain free bread (cut into cubes and left out overnight to dry)
1 cup chicken stock (homemade;0)
3 large eggs

Cook sausage and turkey insides.  Drain and set aside...return drained grease to pan...add butter or ghee along with onion and celery to cook on medium heat (about 5 minutes.)  Stir in sage, parsley, salt and pepper.  Add mixture into pork mixture.  Add in dried and cubed bread.  In a separate bowl whisk chicken broth and eggs - pour this over all ingredients and gently mix until everything is wet. Pour into 8.5 x 11 baking dish and cook for 30-35 minutes until the top is golden brown.