#cubanstuffing

Cooking time: a lot less time than you’d think!

Ingredients:

About 1 pound meat, in the following proportions:  1/3 ground beef - 1/3 ground ham - 1/3 ground pork

2 large white onions

Garlic Salt

1 bag seasoned stuffing

Dried plums/prunes (however much you want to put in)

Whole walnuts

A splash of dry cooking wine

1 medium sized bottle of large capers

My favorite holiday has to be Thanksgiving.  My family does it pot-luck style, with my aunt – our regular host since before I was born – making the turkey, Cuban style stuffing, and her special mashed potatoes (read: special = glorious).  One uncle brings a traditional American stuffing.  Another uncle does a rack of lamb or, this year, a leg of venison, and his famous corn soup.  Another aunt brings a corn soufflé, and a cousin brings a sweet potato casserole.  My mom makes the green bean casserole.  Every year we have the same meal with only slight variations.  A tradition.      

I have my own personal Thanksgiving morning tradition. When I was a kid, I used to wake up early and turn on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  With the Parade in the background, I’d help my mom make her casserole then spend the morning decorating the house for Christmas all by myself.  I loved the transition of it all; enjoying the parade and preparing the Thanksgiving dinner while welcoming the upcoming holiday.    In the early afternoon, my mom, aunt, and I would head to the host house and help decorate for dinner.  At night, I’d help out by making the mashed potatoes and preparing any last minute food.

Last year I broke from this tradition.  My aunt decided to spend the holiday with her husband’s family, and asked me to take over the turkey/stuffing/potato duties.  I was overwhelmed at first, because I had never made a turkey by myself and no one in my family other than my aunt had made one in years, so I felt like I was flying solo.  But while cooking the turkey made me weary, the thought of making my aunt’s Cuban-Style Thanksgiving Stuffing caused me heart palpitations (the good kind).  I was so excited to finally learn how to make it and was pleasantly surprised to find that it is pretty straightforward.  It tastes so rich that I never imagined it would be so simple.   

This year, my aunt is again visiting her husband’s family, and I’m so stoked to be able to host Thanksgiving for a second year in a row.  Our Thanksgiving is HUGE, with no fewer than 30 people each year.  To be asked to cook this special meal felt like an invitation to Fight Club.  Very exclusive, very prestige, what happens in Fight Club…you get the picture.  The cooking baton was passed to me, and I ran with it, with pride, and (in my opinion) with skill. 

Cook the three meats together in a pan and drain. Set aside.

Chop the two onions and sauté them until cooked. Throw in meat and blend well.  Season with garlic salt. 

Add the seasoned stuffing, dried plums/prunes.  Blend well.

Crunch the walnuts by placing a few handfuls into a zip-lock bag and beating it with something hard a little bit.  Don’t beat it too much or you will have more crumbs than pieces. 

Add the capers and some white wine (don’t swamp it). Blend well.