Homemade by Jenny

Along with baking my very first turkey, I also decided to make my very own stuffing from scratch. I am so glad I did. It was waaaayyyy better than any box stuffing I've ever had! I got this recipe from Food Network's Ina Garten and the only modification I made was not to add dried cranberries. My husband is not much of a fruit fan as it is and since it already had apples, I didn't want to push my luck and have him not even try it since it had colorful red cranberries. I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to box stuffing again. Sausage and Herb Stuffing Recipe Source: Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa , 2008 Ingredients: 16 c. 1-inch bread cubes (1 ½ lb.) (I used French bread) 8 Tbsp. unsalted butter 2 c. diced yellow onion (2 onions) 1 c. diced celery (2 stalks) 2 Granny Smith apples, unpeeled, cored, and large-diced 2 Tbsp. chopped flat leaf parsley 1 Tbsp. salt 1 tsp. ground black pepper ¾ lb. sweet Italian sausage, casings removed 1 c. chicken stock Directions:

This year was my very first year ever baking a turkey. In the past, I bought turkey drumsticks for myself and a ham for my husband because I was told he didn't like turkey. I later came to find that he just didn't like dry turkey. Who does? So with his permission, I opted not to buy a ham at all (because ham isn't supposed to be served for Thanksgiving dinner anyway) and I bought a fairly small 13-pound turkey. I told him that I will do my very best not to dry it out in the cooking process. After purchasing the turkey, my hunt began online for the perfect turkey recipe. I didn't want anything too crazy but I didn't want it seasoned with just salt and pepper either. I stumbled across a few good recipes and finally settled on a Paula Deen Recipe. I did my very best to stay true to the recipe so as not to screw up my first turkey. However, I opted not to make her "House Seasoning" and estimated the amounts of the ingredients included with it, because I did n