Stuff it

I recently found a good recipe for Southwest Cornbread & Chorizo Stuffing in Sunset Magazine. Just looking at the list of main ingredients enticed me: chorizo, onion, red bell peppers, fennel, cliantro, mushroom and butternut squash. For Margaret, and anyone else who might be interested, you should try it this week for Thanksgiving. I tested it today at the church lunch and I think it was a success. If you have a hard time finding chorizo, you can also try substituting it with spicy Italian sausage, although it won't have as much bite to it and then it won't be called Southwest Cornbread & Chorizo Stuffing anymore. Also, the serving size says, 10-12, but I think that's the case if you're having only stuffing for dinner (and you can with this stuffing). But you can always freeze the leftovers and pull it out whenever you need a side dish (that and kimchi). Just to warn you, the prep time for this dish is not short, but you can cut corners like buying pre-cut butternut squash from Trader Joe's (another one of my favorite places to shop) and ready-made cornbread. You might have to go to a higher-end market to find the fennel, but if you live in SoCal, you can find it at your local Ralph's, as I did. I guess you could substitute celery for the fennel (they are in the same vegetable family, but fennel has a more licoricy flavor), but only if you can't find fennel at all.

Since we're not having the traditional Thanksgiving dinner this year, I'm going to post some of my favorite recipes and just dream about the perfect dinner.