Thanksgiving Stuffing

This is the stuffing recipe that my family makes every year for Thanksgiving. My mom created it by combining several different recipes that we have used in previous years. Stuffing is my favorite dish on Thanksgiving, I love the apples and nuts in this recipe and it is never too dry. Usually my mom makes me my own pan of stuffing without the sausage, but the sausage adds a lot of great flavor to the recipe.

Ingredients:

•  2 eggs, beaten
•  1 stick of butter
•  1 onion, minced
•  5 stalks of celery, minced
•  2 cloves of garlic, chopped
•  1 32oz container of chicken broth
•  1/2 tsp of salt
•  1/2 tsp of pepper
•  1 tsp of sage
• 1 tsp poultry seasoning
•  fresh parsley chopped
•  1 large bag of seasoned bread cubes
•  1 jiffy cornbread mix, prepared and crumbled
•  1 sleeve of saltine crackers crumbled
•  2-3 granny smith apples cubed
• 1 lb of Jimmy Dean Sausage
• 11/2 cups pecans chopped

  Directions:

Saute celery, onion, salt, pepper, and garlic in butter in a pan until tender. Then in a large bowl mix together the saltines, corn bread, and seasoned bread cubes. Next add the celery mixture to the bowl.
Saute sausage in separate pan and add to the large bowl. Add eggs, chicken broth. (Add the chicken broth gradually until the stuffing mixture is moist, but not soggy)  Season the mixture with the sage, parsley, poultry seasoning, and, salt and pepper as desired. Add the chopped pecans.
Place in a buttered 9x13 cassarole dish and bake at 350 for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Cook for 30 minutes covered with foil and 15 minutes uncovered. (Usually this recipe will make enough to also fill a buttered 8x8 pan as well as the 9x13)