Thanksgiving Recovery...And the Stovetop Stuffing Debacle

So...the Superbowl of Food is over and you're sitting back, loosening the waistband on your stretchy pants, telling yourself that you will NOT overindulge for the rest of the holiday season because Good Heavens(!) you're stuffed like a turkey yourself!

Or maybe that's just me.

Here's the menu that my family enjoyed on Thanksgiving (and for several days thereafter):

• Baked crab dip*
• Marinated cheese*
• Dry-brined turkey*
• Bacon-pecan stuffing* (in the bird, then baked)
• Filling (that's stuffing that never saw the inside of the bird)
• Kluski noodles* (a PA tradition)
• Kick-butt mashed potatoes*
• The best gravy. Ever.**
• Baked corn* (another PA tradition)
• Cranberry-citrus compote*
• Green bean casserole (no, not the tacky kind)
• Baked Oysters*
• Amazing green salad with glazed pecans & goat cheese (yay Jill!)
  
• Pumpkin cheesecake
• Chocolate-dipped strawberries
• Pumpkin roll
• Upside-down apple pie

*Prepared lovingly by ME (everything else generously contributed by my fab family and our guests Marc & Mallory).

**Prepared by me to a point, then turned over to mom because she is the Gravy Queen!


I won't even get into the whole "Stovetop Stuffing Debacle" started by my husband.

Ok - I will get into it.

Two days before Thanksgiving I asked my husband John if there was anything special I could fix for him, especially since this was a heavy PA-centric menu to keep the family happy and we wouldn't be able to travel to Jersey to see his family. His response? "Y'know... something like Stovetop Stuffing".

Uh, EXCUSE ME? Do you know what I do for a living???!!! Do you know that I'm being featured in the newspaper the day before Thanksgiving for my STUFFING RECIPE??? (You can see that article here). AND that they even made a VIDEO of me preparing said stuffing??? (You can see that one here, and yes, I do a little dance:)

Husband: "Y'know...with stuff in it. Not just bread"

Oh.

Yeah, I can do that (and boy, did I!).

But nonetheless, can you guess what John had on his plate as we sat down to Thanksgiving dinner?

Yup.

Box and all. You didn't think I'd actually cook that...did you? ;)