This article is being written just before Thanksgiving. As such there is not a lot going on in the garden this time of year. We planted our garlic, cleaned out the dead annuals like tomato and pepper plants and now we just wait for spring. I have come up with a few twists to the Thanksgiving/Holiday Stuffing that I would like to share with everyone.

The modifications I make to the standard recipes on the box or bag of bread cubes are as follows. First, I increase the amount of onions, from 1 cup of chopped onions to 2 cups of chopped onions. I also increase the celery to half again or twice as much as the directions call for. I sauté the onions and celery with the butter called for ion the recipe, and I add a generous amount of hand rubbed sage, thyme and rosemary to this sauté.

Wait a second, back up.

The first thing I really do is start cooking some wild rice. We really love the chewy texture that wild rice brings to stuffing. It needs to cook for about an hour to get ready to add to the stuffing mix, so get it cooking before you start to cut up the onions. I like to use 3 to 3.5 cups of water for 1 cup of wild rice, it gets a little on the softer side that way and after baking it is just the right amount of chewy.

Ok, now back to the simmering herb drenched butter with onions and celery. I like to get the celery just starting to soften, the onions soft but not transparent before I turn off the heat.

Now, cut up 2 or three small apples. If they are from your own trees or you are sure they weren’t treated with pesticides then keep the skin on. If you bought them at the grocery store and not the organic section then peel them and dice them into quarter inch little pieces. Next open a can of sliced water chestnuts. These keep their crunchy texture even after cooking. I like to cross cut the slices from the can into little strips.

Mix all of the ingredients together according to the (now modified) directions on the package. You might need a little les liquid than called for because of the increased amounts of onion and celery. We use a vegetable bullion for the liquid.

Try this recipe next time you make homemade stuffing. You are sure to love it.