Cranberry Cornbread Stuffing

My sister just cleared out her garden and gave me a gallon bag of fresh sage. In my pursuit to use some of it before drying it I found a great recipe on Foodnetwork.com for Stuffed Pork Chops.

I decided I didn't feel much like pork chops for dinner, but that cornbread stuffing sounded pretty good. Plus, I have three gallons of cranberries I need to figure out how to use.

I picked up a Costco rotisserie chicken, made some glazed carrots and I had a mini-Thanksgiving in no time at all.

I reheated the chicken in the oven 20 minutes before taking out the stuffing (or dressing in this case) and it made enough juice for some tasty gravy.

Ingredients:
2.5 cups crumbled cornbread
2 slices of bacon, chopped
1 Tbs. butter
2 celery ribs, chopped fine
1/2 onion, chopped fine
2 garlic cloves, minced
6 baby portobello mushrooms, sliced
1 Tbs. chopped parsley
1 Tbs. chopped sage
1 Tbs. chopped rosemary
1/4 cup dried or fresh cranberries
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup chicken stock
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a heavy skillet, start browning the bacon. Add the celery, onion, garlic and mushrooms and cook till bacon is fully cooked, about 10 minutes. Add the parsley, sage, rosemary (sorry, no thyme) and cook another couple of minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.

In a bowl, toss together the cornbread, cranberries and raisins. Add the rest of the ingredients including the chicken stock and gently toss to combine.

Transfer to a casserole dish and top with little bits of butter.

Cover and bake for 50 minutes.