Making Dressing

Dressing - as in turkey and dressing - was a mystery to me until a few years ago. What exactly was it I wondered. On those Thanksgivings that we ate at home when I was growing up, my mother trusted a bag of herbed Pepperidge Farms dried bread crumbs mixed with broth to compliment the turkey. Since daughters learn from their mothers, that is what I did for many years. But after I became a nurse, I got to know some black women and figured I could learn from them how to make the real thing, a good Southern cornbread stuffing. The basics were similar, but some said to add an egg or a can of cream of chicken soup or some crumbled sausage or a can of creamed corn, so much was still left to me. When I put my first homemade dressing on the table one Thanksgiving, it was a proud moment. Eventually I got the hang of it though just making something once a year does not lend itself to greatness. Yesterday I cooked the cornbread and put it in the freezer. On Thanksgiving morning, I will crumble it in a big bowl along with it some saved biscuits, add seasonings, chicken broth and turkey drippings, melted butter, and whatever else strikes my fancy, and bake it til it looks like a Southern Living photograph. I hope it will be a nice part of the meal.