Southern Style Corn Bread Dressing

[VOguy]

I can't claim this to be from our family. This came from a little restaurant in Covington KY. I got it back in 1974 and gave it to my mom for safe keeping when she passed away, I got all the recipe books.

The way I happened upon this was I was working in Memphis and our family lived back in northern Ohio. One Thanksgiving eve, I was heading home but my family had gone north into upper Michigan to be with my brother and sister. I decided to stop into a little place along I75 in Covington. I was sort of down and told the waitress that this was my first Thanksgiving without family. She said she would make it better, and sure enough, up came an entre that was every bit as good as moms. (We won't tell her that). I loved the dressing and she wrote down the recipe. Here it is, sized down to a normal family.

• 2 cups White corn meal
• 1 cup Flour
• 2 cups Milk
• 2 tablespoons Shortening
• 2 tablespoons Baking powder
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1 Onion, chopped
• 2 Eggs, beaten
• Pepper (see below)

Make a batter of the cornmeal, flour, salt, baking powder, shortening (oil from the baking turkey can also be used and is recommended), and milk.

Bake in a hot oven at 400 degress until done, about half an hour.

While the turkey bakes, prepare dressing.

Crumble the bread, add the chopped onion, pepper and a little more salt. Stir in the two eggs and wet with juice from the baking turkey.

If desired, the cooked liver, chopped fine, can be added to the dressing; a hard cooked egg can also be added.

After mixing thoroughly, put the mixture on one side of the baking dish and roast with the turkey until brown.

When basting the turkey, baste the dressing also to keep it moist and to improve the flavor.

Note: Add fresh ground pepper as needed to spice up the dressing. Mama used to say, "Three big pinches is 'nuf".

[Biker]

Oh ho! Miss IronsGold was considering making a cornbread stuffing for the 'boid' next Thursday. This just might be the recipe!

I'll recommend the chopped up liver and extra onion along with a few big pinches of sage. Thanks!

Biker

[VOguy]

I just now remembered the name of the place. Grandma's Country Kitchen. It was about the size of a Waffle House along I75, as I recall, just at the top of the hill in Covington KY.

One of the first times I went there was for breakfast, and they asked if I wanted Grits. Here I was a northern boy, and didn't know what the hell grits were, but I tried them. After a taste I put some maple syrup on them and dug in, which was met with this long Kentucky drawl of "You nawthern boys just don't know how to eat grits, does ya?"

That place was always my "stop off" point between Memphis and Toledo. Somehow, after making "the hill" in Covington, it was sort of the half way point, but in reality from Memphis to Toledo it was about 2/3rds.