Old Fashioned Bread Stuffing Balls and Filling Balls

It wasn’t until I married that I was introduced to Stuffing or Filling Balls. I’ve never liked bread stuffing because it is so “mushy” in texture. With stuffing balls there is an element of crunch that has made me for the first time actually ask for “stuffing.” These recipes come from my mother-in-law. I prefer the first recipe.

My dh is from Altoona, Pennsylvania. The grocery stores during this time of year sell bagged cubed bread that has no spices. This is the step saver I use to make these balls. But I have to buy my cubes up in PA when we visit, as down in Virginia I haven’t found these items.

Old Fashioned Bread Stuffing Balls

1 cup chopped celery
1 medium onion, chopped
1/3 cup margarine or butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
8 cups dry bread cubes (make sure hard and crunchy)
3/4 cup chicken broth or water

Mix together all ingredients except broth. Add broth and form balls. Dry an hour or overnight. (You might want to double the butter and seasonings to make the balls stick together better.)

Bake at 20 minutes at 400 degrees F.

Filling Balls

1 tablespoon melted butter
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 small onion, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
2 eggs, beaten
12 slices stale bread (if using premade bread cubes, handful for each slice of bread)

Dice bread, add onion, celery, eggs, butter salt and pepper. Mix baking powder in hot milk, mix with bread mixture. Form into balls, dry an hour or overnight.

Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

Rice Dressing

Because of my son’s food allergies, we can’t use bread stuffing the turkey. Instead we make a Wild Rice dressing for inside the bird, and then I bring stuffing balls. Here’s my paternal grandmother’s Rice Dressing, with a note in the margin “Dad’s favorite for Thanksgiving”. I still can’t use this recipe, because it calls for eggs, but I wanted to make sure I kept it in a “safe place”.

Rice Dressing

2 cups cooked rice
2 large onions chopped fine
3 or 4 stalks celery chopped fine
1 green pepper chopped fine
Liver, gizzard, heart, chopped fine
½ cup butter
1 Tablespoon salt
1 Tablespoon poultry seasoning
2 eggs
1 cup nuts (pecans) chopped
½ cup parsley
(Oysters & mushrooms if desired)

While rice is cooking, sauté onions, celery, pepper, liver, gizzard, heart in butter until cooked. Add seasoning & mix.

Beat eggs until frothy. Remove onion mixture from heat, add rice (here I add some liquid from the cooked giblets) fold in beaten eggs & mix thoroughly. Add nuts & parsley.

Stuff turkey or bake in buttered shallow casserole 30 minutes 350 degrees.

St. Martin’s Mice

A little late for today’s dinner, but I posted a suggestion for the optional memorial of St. Martin de Porres, St. Martin’s Mice over at Catholic Cuisine.