A seafood dressing made with the trinity, cornbread and French bread crumbs, shrimp, crabmeat and oysters.

Seafood Cornbread Dressing

There are so many different kinds of dressings out there, the most common ones in the South being one made with cornbread, another made including chicken and the other with only staled bread in the form of sandwich bread, French bread or leftover rolls or biscuits and the addition of herbs.

I've made cornbread dressing both with and without any kind of bread, but I find that I prefer the texture of cornbread dressing when it includes some bread with the cornbread. It's another one of those Southern things that folks tend to argue about though, because there are some who will tell you that only cornbread should be in your cornbread dressing, and that is the only way.

Well. Y'all know what I say about that! 

A bread-based dressing with the classic vegetable seasonings and the addition of mashed potatoes.

Bread and Potato Dressing

Let's see. A bread-based dressing with the classic vegetable seasonings, and the addition of mashed potatoes?

I'm not at all mad at it!

In fact, I cannot believe this isn't already something in the South for heaven's sake.

Thick cut, bone-in, pork loin chops, filled with a simple cornbread and mushroom stuffing and baked. Shown here with sour cream sauce, succotash and a side salad.

Stuffed Pork Chops

I rarely buy thick-cut pork chops, but it's really an absolute when you want to stuff them. Chops already are fast cooking, but when you create a split pocket in them it's essentially like creating two thinner cut chops with goodness stuffed in the middle!

Although there are a multitude of stuffing mixtures that can be used, I chose to make a simple trinity enhanced, cornbread based stuffing using some leftover cornbread and mushrooms I had on hand. Whether you choose to brine your pork chops or not is a personal decision, though it does provide a little bit of insurance against overcooking, should you not have an internal thermometer.

This chicken and dressing casserole is an old school well-loved dish in the South. It goes by many names - Poulet de France, Poulet de Normandy, Poulet Chicken or simply Poulet - made with cooked chicken, stuffing mix, milk sauce, topped with cream soup, and finished with cheese.

Chicken and Dressing Casserole

I have mentioned here before that once upon a time I did the Once a Month Cooking (OAMC) system {affil link} where you spend one weekend essentially cooking meals to freeze for the month. I did it with a small upright refrigerator freezer too and I loved it. The internet was a different place back then and nothing like it is now, so everything occurred on bulletin boards and forums.

Anybody else remember when AOL, Prodigy and CompuServe were the top three ways to the internet and you could only access them with a dial up connection, meaning that you had to tie up your home phone line? There was no such thing as a smartphone in those days.

Boy oh boy am I datin' muhself there.

 

A classic cornbread dressing made with day old cornbread, traditional sauteed vegetables and seasoned with sage.

Cornbread Sage Dressing with Gravy

Wow y'all! I cannot believe Thanksgiving is just days away now. Where does the time go? Before we know it, Christmas will be here, speaking of which... I put my tree up and started decorating this weekend, which is the earliest ever for me. There were a few reasons for starting a little early this year, and none of them have to do with blogging.

First, well... we moved this year and I wanted to make sure my tree would fit in the new house! I bought one of those Bethlehem Lights {affil link} LED instant-power trees (LOVE!) a couple of Christmases ago, and while it fit fine in the family room where I had a cathedral ceiling, I wasn't sure how it would fit in the new house that has standard height ceilings.

It fit, yay!

A cornbread and bread dressing, made with tart apple, hot sausage and pecans.

Sausage Cornbread Dressing with Apple and Pecan

I first made this dressing last Christmas, then again this Thanksgiving and I may even make it again this Christmas, though I'm actually still trying to settle between having a bread or rice dressing, since I'm going with a prime rib roast this year.

Yes, I'm moving away from the traditional turkey and dressing dinner for Christmas this year and going the route of a very expensive hunk of prime rib roast beef with au jus, that I have already warned The Cajun will not be cooked "well done."

A versatile stuffing mix made with toasted bread, sauteed onion and sweet bell pepper, tossed with crab and shrimp, and versatile enough for use in many different recipes.

Seafood Stuffing Mix

I have this basic seafood stuffing mix that I use for many different dishes, so this weekend when I was making Stuffed Flounder, I figured it was about time to get the stuffing recipe up all on its own.

It's a very versatile mix that can be used to stuff large butterflied shrimp, to make patties for Vancleave (crabmeat and cheese) po'boys, to stuff large mushroom caps, hollowed out eggplant and squash of all types, and other vegetables, fill crab shells, or to make pan-fried crab cakes, to name just a few.

Chicken and Herb Dressing Casserole

 

Chicken and dressing made with a whole cooked chicken, a homemade herb dressing and homemade gravy.

Chicken and Herb Dressing

Okay. Fair warning. This chicken and dressing is a bread dressing and it has a butter roux - puh-lenty of butter. Like 1 full stick of Paula Deen worthy butter. And this one is made with a combination of chicken and herb dressing, meaning bread dressing and not cornbread, so don't go balking at me.

Fresh jumbo shrimp stuffed with a mix made with buttery Ritz crackers, Old Bay, Cajun seasoning, fresh parsley and fresh crab.

Crab Stuffed Shrimp

I had thawed out two packages of shrimp thinking that I would either make gumbo or fry them, but when I realized these were some of the larger shrimp, I knew they were worthy of something just a bit better.

I thought very seriously about grilling them, but then remembered that I had not yet done a stuffed shrimp for the website. Besides. Once you get the image of a crab stuffed shrimp in your head, well, you're bound to have to go there!

While oyster dressing may not be a traditional holiday dressing across the south, here along the Deep South of the Gulf Coast, where the oysters are salty-sweet, it absolutely is a star.

Southern Cornbread and Oyster Dressing (Stuffing)

I realize that oyster dressing is not something that is common at the holidays all over the country, and not even in The South really, but it certainly is down here in The Deep South, especially along the coastal waters.

For Thanksgiving and Christmas, my Mama almost always made two dressings - well, essentially three, really, since she also stuffed the turkey with her herb stuffing.

A traditional southern cornbread dressing, made with crumbled cornbread and toasted crumbled bread.

Traditional Southern Cornbread Dressing

Southerners sure do love their traditional cornbread dressing and some of them will get all "stuffy" over what constitutes dressing and what constitutes stuffing. In my humble opinion, it mostly just depends on where you were born!

A twice-baked potato, stuffed with crabmeat, cheese and simple seasonings.

Crab-Stuffed Twice-Baked Potatoes

Every year, on the weekend near the 4th of July, Our Lady of the Gulf Catholic Church in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi (Mississippi's West Coast) hosts their church bazaar, the annual Crab Festival, though these days it has grown to be such a large event that it's not really a little church function anymore, but rather a very important coastal event. The festival has been held since 1984.

There are rides for the kids, all sorts of vendor booths, raffles, cash drawdowns, live entertainment, and of course lots of food. Besides the usual fair foods, you'll find loads of seafood dishes and of course, many of them made with crab.

Summer squash is mixed with the Trinity of vegetables, cream soup, eggs and fresh bread, for a squash dressing.

Summer Squash Dressing

Here's another recipe you might want to consider for your squash bounty! It's really a basic run of the mill squash dressing that we all pretty much have, this one using toasted bread crumbs. I decided to add in a bit of Trinity and some Cajun seasoning, just to bump up the flavor a bit.

Stuffed (Deviled) Crab

Stuffed crab, made with fresh lump crabmeat, onion, and bell pepper, seasoned with Old Bay and Cajun seasoning and bound with egg and toasted bread crumbs and baked.

Deviled Stuffed Crab

I so love stuffed crabs! My Mama almost always made these from freshly picked crabs and then stuffed the cleaned and sterilized crab shells as I have here, but most folks would just make these into patties, or put them in those aluminum crab shells, which is perfectly acceptable!

A casserole of meatballs, topped with green peas, a cream soup gravy and stuffing.

Meatball and Stuffing Bake

This is a family pleasing meal and this dish will disappear so quick, you'll barely remember makin' it!

It's a super delicious casserole dish and something different to do with those pre-cooked, frozen meatballs everybody loves having on hand. The Cajun absolutely loved this dish - meat and stuffing? What is not to love??

For those who prefer a bread dressing, this bread and herb stuffing mix will fill the bill!

Homemade Herb Bread Dressing (Stuffing)

Is it stuffing? Or is it dressing? Does it really matter? Course not!

It's really the same to me - just depends on the presentation, as far as I'm concerned. I say if it's cooked in the bird, it's "stuffing;" if it's cooked in a separate dish, its "dressing." Whatever you call, we sure love it!