Pomegranate Sausage Stuffing

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

They're difficult and messy to eat. And you better wear your painting-the-guest-bathroom clothing because the juice stains pomegranates leave behind are worse than red wine. Like red wine, pomegranate juice is good for what ails you, helping to reduce bad cholesterol, improving oxygen flow to the heart, and pushing out the day of reckoning a little bit. Not only that, you can make a tasty Thanksgiving stuffing.

TWC has a lovely pomegranate tree so fresh is easy. If you don't have your own tree, you can often find fresh pomegranates at the supermarket or local farmer's markets.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb sausage of your choice (try Johnsonville Italian or Jimmy Dean Sage)
• 1 Lg pomegranate, seeded 

• 4 stalks celery
• 1 onion
• 1 Lg apple
• 1/2 cup of chestnuts or almonds (optional)
• 2-3 eggs
• 1-2 ozs half and half
• 1/4 lb butter (optional)
• 1 cup (more or less) bread crumbs (artisan breads are great for this--TWC likes sourdough) 
• Fresh thyme and sage to taste (use less sage with Jimmy Dean's sage sausage)

Preparation:

• Fry the sausage in a cast iron skillet while breaking it up with the spatuala
• Dice onions & celery and sautee in a cast iron skillet until the onions are limp and the celery is bright green. Don't overcook.
• Dice the apple
• Melt the butter
• Whisk or whip the eggs and half & half as if you were making an omelette. 
• In a large mixing bowl combine all dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.
• Add the egg mixture and the butter to the dry ingredients, mixing throughly. The stuffing should more or less stick together.

Recipe makes about enough to stuff an average turkey. Double the recipe if you prefer. Proportions are somewhat loose. 

Pomegranate is more subtle than cranberry in a stuffing though it serves a similar flavor purpose. 

TWC doesn't like mushy food so he generally bakes the stuffing separately in a loaf pan for 45 minutes to an hour at 350. Hard to do when the turkey is cooking at 325 and the rolls go in at the end on 450. Maybe that's why some people have two ovens.

What Else Pomegranates Are Good For:

Pomegranate juice drizzled into the finished drink is what puts the sunrise in a Tequila Sunrise. Pomegranate juice defines a good Singapore Sling. Oprah makes an excellent pomegranate martini. King Solomon made spiced pomegranate wine. The Jewish culture holds that the 613 seeds found in a pomegranate represent the 613 commandments of the Torah.

And, get this: It is more than likely that Eve was offered a pomegranate from the Tree of Life by the Satan hisself. Scoff if you will, but most apples require 600-800 hours of winter temperatures below 45 degrees to thrive. They don't get much winter chill in Mediterranean climates.

Happy Thanksgiving.

As Ever,

TWC