Category: Columns

Thanksgiving with Kat Martin and Pecan-Raisin Stuffing

Thanksgiving with Kat Martin

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Raisin-Pecan Stuffing

Since Thanksgiving is just around the corner, I thought it might be fun to talk about my second favorite holiday (after Christmas), Thanksgiving!

With its glorious red, yellow, and gold colors, Fall is my favorite season of the year.  Then in November, on Thanksgiving day, we have a big family gathering.  We cook a huge turkey stuffed with old-fashioned dressing and serve it with mashed potatoes, giblet gravy, candied yams, fresh vegetables, hot dinner rolls, and pumpkin or pecan pie for dessert (or both!).

We start in the morning and cook all day, then sit down to a table filled to overflowing with the goodies we have been blessed to prepare.  We have kind of an open-door policy for friends and neighbors—anyone who, for whatever reason, hasn’t got a place to go that particular year.  It always adds a fun element to the get-together.

Since I love this holiday, I thought I would share a favorite recipe a dear friend gave me.  It’s been so long ago, making it every year has become a family tradition.  The best part is that every year when I read Sally’s recipe card, see her handwriting in fading blue ink, I think of the friend I haven’t seen in years.  Cooking her dish makes me appreciate her friendship all over again.

So here it is.  I hope you like it as much as we do.

PECAN-RAISIN STUFFING

Cook turkey neck and giblets in pan of boiling water until done (about 1 1/2 hours).

1 can chicken broth

2 cubes butter

1 can sliced water chestnuts and juice

1 small can sliced mushrooms and juice

1 small can of olives (drained)

1 whole apple chopped (peeling off or on)

1 medium onion chopped

1/2 cup of pecans

3/4 cup of raisins

1 egg (optional)

1 box stuffing mix (cornbread or regular)

Peel cooked turkey meat off neck and set aside.  Chop remaining cooked giblets and set aside.  (Leave some for turkey gravy.)  Pour can of chicken broth into large saucepan.  Add sticks of butter.  Bring to a low simmer.  Add turkey.  Add mushrooms and juice, water chestnuts, sliced olives, chopped onion, chopped apple, raisins, and pecans.  Beat egg and add to mixture.  Simmer until onion and apple are cooked.

In large missing bowl, place both packets of stuffing mix (I usually buy 2 boxes so I can add a little extra to achieve the right consistency)  Pour chicken broth/giblet mixture over stuffing a little at a time, stirring as you go.  Add thyme, sage, salt and pepper to taste.

When you are finished, stuff your turkey (stuff the old boy, my friend’s recipe card says), or grease 9 x 13 inch backing pan, load stuffing into pan, and bake for forty-five minutes at 350 degrees.

When you take it out, you will have a great, old-fashioned raisin-pecan stuffing for your table that I hope will become a family tradition.

And since it’s November, I hope you will watch for my new digital novella, WAIT UNTIL DARK, the prequel to my upcoming Maximum Security series that starts with THE CONSPIRACY, out January 22^nd.

Till then, happy Thanksgiving!  Kat.

Photo by Juan Carlo, Ventura Country Star

New York Times bestselling author Kat Martin is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara where she majored in Anthropology and also studied History. Currently residing in Missoula, Montana with her Western-author husband, L. J. Martin, Kat has written sixty-five Historical and Contemporary Romantic Suspense novels. More than sixteen million copies of her books are in print and she has been published in twenty foreign countries. Her last novel, BEYOND CONTROL, hit both big lists … NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER LIST as well as the USA TODAY BEST-SELLING BOOKS LIST. Kat is currently at work on her next Romantic Suspense.