My mom's cornbread stuffing is always a hit with our family. Here is her version: Cornbread Stuffing 2 cups finely chopped celery (1 cup finely chopped onion) 1 cup finely chopped green bell pepper 1/4 cup butter 1 8oz. pkg. herb stuffing or 4-6 cups small dried bread cubes 1 recipe (using 2 cups cornmeal mix or cornmeal) cornbread, usually made in a cast iron skillet, cooked and cooled 1 cup warm chicken broth or more 2 eggs beaten 2 1/4 t. salt 2 t. poultry seasoning (and we like extra dried rubbed sage) 1 t. pepper Saute the vegetables in 1/4 cup butter. Remove from the skillet. In a large bowl, combine the dried stuffing (bread cubes) and the crumbled cornbread with the warm broth. Add the sauteed vegetables, the eggs and the seasonings. Mix well. Add additional broth until you have a moistened but not soggy consistency. You want the dressing to be moist but still loose and not bound together. If you squished a portion in your hand, it would hold together, but fall apart when touched. Place in a greased, shallow, oblong pyrex baking dish and bake at 350F for 30-40 minutes covered with foil. Uncover the last 5 minutes to crisp up the top. I have in the past added 1 large peeled and chopped apple to the vegetables while mixture to saute and 1 pound lightly browned bulk breakfast sausage, crumbled to the stuffing mix when adding in the sauteed vegetables, eggs, and seasonings. Sage is a quite assertive herb, but a little extra really shines in stuffing/dressing with the turkey. You have to determine, by taste, just how much extra sage you want to add. In our region, we swear by Three Rivers Cornbread mix for the best cornbread or Martha White brand if we can't get the Three Rivers. At our family Thanksgiving we have more stuffing for dessert! Hope this helps! Teresa

Deanna if I tried kayaking I would probably turn over and drown LOL!!!!!!!! I just can't imagine flowers springing into spring from the snow. And believe it or not, I have never seen snow!!! Just the kind that melted in the air before it landed, and only moments of that. I do plan to have a snow vacation sometime in my life!!!!! Sally for some reason my lilies and amaryllis are just now blooming and I planted about 10 more that I found at Wal-Mart for 1.50 each. My Mother has about 50 beauties and I bought her 2 more. I was just on the gardening side and I plan to divide the bulbs after they finish with the breath taking blooms and I am playing with making hybrids. The gingerbread swap was cancelled so I am going to finish them as a gift for my 6 yr old greatniece, and one for me of course. Sharon I made this version of a seafood gumbo after I watched Paula make it, I left out the oysters and added more shrimp, used Italian sausage, used the frozen bags of gumbo veggies instead of only okra, doubled the garlic, used Worchester. I also have hot sauce to add if the person wants it spicer after it is served (like me). We serve gumbo over rice (I don't butter my rice, but I do add a chicken bullion cube to the water) with cornbread. Around here gumbo is like Brunswick stew, different everytime it is made. For any of you that have never heard a southern accent we are hard to understand but I have never heard a drawl like hers LOL. We ate at her restaurant in Savannah and I was not impressed so much with the buffet food, but I was impressed with how long people stood in line to eat there, including us. I had a cactus taco today and it was delicious so I am going this weekend to look for prickly pears, low in calories and hi in nutrients. My BIL is having surgery so I am making chicken and dumplings for them Monday using your recipe. Rainy today but I do plan to golf tomorrow. Beverly has made me think about a bike but I wonder if I will use it???? Hubbie bought a WII console and we played for a couple of hours. I laughed at him when he said it was exercise but we were moving around a lot. Have a wonderful weekend everyone. KOKO Rosa

My DD used to use the corn bread mix to make this casserole when we had a houseful of hungry teens to feed: CORN DOG CASSEROLE (12 servings) 1 cup thinly sliced celery 1 1/2 cups chopped onions 3 Tbs. butter or margarine 1 1/2 lbs. hot dogs 2 eggs 1 1/2 cups milk 1/2 tsp. sage or poultry seasoning (I only use 1/4 tsp.) 1/4 tsp. pepper 2 packages (8 ½ oz. each) corn bread/muffin mix 2 cups (8 oz.) shredded cheddar cheese, divided In a skillet, saute celery and onion in butter or margarine over med-low heat until soft but not browned. Place in bowl; set aside. Cut hot dogs lengthwise into quarters, then cut into thirds. In the same skillet, saute the hot dogs for 5 minutes or until lightly browned; add to vegetables. Set aside 1 cup of mixture. In a large bowl, combine eggs, milk, sage and pepper. Add the larger quantity of the hot dog mixture. Stir in corn bread mixes and 1 1/ 2 cups of cheese. Spread into a shallow greased 3 quart baking dish. Top with the 1 cup of reserved hot dog mixture and 1/ 2 cup of cheese. Bake, uncovered at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

I prefer a mix of breads, sourdough, wheat, rye, French/Italian, etc. Not into cornbread in there but I'll eat a little of it if nothing else is appealing. I know there's some who insist that cornbread must not be sweetened and to me that's about as arrogant as to insist that tea must be sweetened. I prefer both unsweetened but to each their own. Reminds me of some Youtube videos I've seen where people are saying "you don't want it to be ____..." or "you don't want large chunks (or small chunks or whatever)..." and I just think how the h#$% do YOU know what *I* want or like? Sheesh.