Momma and Daddy's Cornbread Dressing

1 5-6 pound Hen for broth
6-8 eggs, boiled
4-5 pans cornbread (made the day before)
3-4 onions, chopped
1 bunch celery, chopped
sage to taste
salt and pepper to taste

To make broth, take hen, including neck and giblets and boil on stove top covered until chicken is tender. This will make the broth you will need to add to the dressing once its assembled.  Reserve neck and giblets for gravy. 

Chop celery and onions by hand, a food processor chops them too fine.  Crumble the cornbread by hand into a large roasting pan.  Salt and pepper.  Add chopped celery and onions.  Add as much sage as desired over the top of the mixture.  Using a cup, pour broth over mixture until moist.  Stir all together well.  Keep adding broth as needed.  You want the dressing moist but not wet and soggy.  Taste often and add more sage, salt and pepper if needed.  Daddy is the official taster in our family!
Cook at 325-350 for about 1 hour.

Giblet Gravy:  Take the remaining broth, add canned broth if needed.  Heat and add cut up giblets from the hen and chopped boiled eggs.  Thicken with cornstarch to consistency you want.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Add parsley flakes and a few drops of yellow food color to  make it rich looking.  You can also chop and add some of the hen if desired. 

Every Thanksgiving and Christmas since I can remember, the aromas of this dressing cooking in the background at our house has always been apart of our holiday traditions.  My mother and daddy would get in the kitchen together and assemble this dressing each year and as I said before, Daddy was the official taster.  He knew just when and how much sage, salt and pepper to add.  He never missed his mark, it was always perfect.  This Christmas they set out to see if they still had their touch, both in their 80s, and there is no doubt that they still do!  The dressing this year was perfection!  Walking in the house and smelling it cooking brought back wonderful childhood memories! 

Merry Christmas Pretzels

2 packages of pretzel rods

1 package each of milk chocolate and white chocolate melting chocolate (almond bark)

Assorted colored sugars, sprinkles, cookie decorations, etc..

Melt one of the chocolates in a microwavable safe bowl.  Use 40 second intervals, stirring after each, until chocolate is melted and easy to stir.   Prepare a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper for pretzel rods to cool on.  You’ll also need a paper plate to catch excess sprinkles that fall off as you go.  Using one pretzel rod at a time, coat the pretzel leaving about an inch and a half at the end where you are holding it.  Once the rod is coated, swirl the rod around in a circle and shake excess chocolate off of pretzel rod so that it is evenly coated and not globed on.  Use any one color or multiple colors of sprinkles to coat over the chocolate.  Place rod on parchment paper lined cookie sheet to cool.  Continue until all of the first chocolate is gone then melt the second batch of chocolate and repeat directions with it.  You’ll find that the lighter colored  sprinkles will show up better on the dark chocolate and the dark colored sprinkles will show up better on the white chocolate.  Hold the pretzel rods over a paper plate as you shake sprinkles and then when you have accumulated enough, use what is on the plate to decorate a few of the pretzels.  This will give you a few eclectic ones!  This is a good sweet/savory snack that looks pretty, fun to make and nice to give as gifts. 

Cracker Snack

1 cup vegetable oil

4 tbsp. dill weed

1 package Hidden Valley salad dressing mix (not buttermilk)

1 24-ounce package oyster crackers

Mix all together, drain on paper towels and store in covered container.

Okay, first of all, don’t wait until the weekend before Christmas to make these because you will not find an oyster cracker within 30 miles of town.  I went to every store we have and all of the oyster crackers were gone.  Apparently I’m not the only person in town who likes to make this snack at Christmas time.  I started thinking about what I could use in place of the oyster cracker and it occurred to me that it’s just a little cracker so I figured the regular flavor goldfish would probably work as a substitute.  While I was coloring outside the lines I also thought it would be cool to use the Spicy Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix instead of the regular just to give the crackers a little extra kick.  So here is how I put this all together…..

I used a 30 ounce box of goldfish crackers, the box looks like a giant milk carton.  Pour all of the goldfish into a large plastic bowl.  Open and sprinkle 2 packages of Spicy Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing mix all over the goldfish.  (2 because there are more goldfish in this box than oyster crackers that come in the 24 ounce bag)  Next sprinkle 5 tablespoons of dill weed (again, more because there are more goldfish) over the crackers.  Mix all of this together thoroughly and then slowly add the cup of oil.  Mix/fold, mix/fold, mix/fold to coat the goldfish completely.  Place two paper towels on two cooking sheets and spread the goldfish out evenly on both trays.  I don’t like my crackers greasy so I baked them at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes, just to dry up the oil a little.  Remove the paper towels and let goldfish cool.  Store in air tight containers.