Table Talk for Nov. 20, 2008

• By TOMMY SIMMONS
• Advocate Food writer
• Published: Nov 20, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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When members of The Advocate Food staff decided to share their favorite dressing recipes for the holidays, a call was also put out to our readers to do the same.

Here are some of their favorites:

Oyster Dressing a must
Jennifer Poe, of Prairieville, sent her family’s recipe for a much loved Oyster Dressing.
“Being from New Orleans, we always served a rich and delicious Oyster Dressing with our turkey for Thanksgiving. My mother remembered her mother preparing the dressing when she grew up, and it has stayed in our family since,” Poe wrote.
Oyster Dressing recipe follows.

Gets rave reviews
Pam Nicolle wrote that she has been making of version of cornbread dressing, which she refers to as “My Dressing” for almost 20 years. “It has always been greeted by rave reviews.

I believe the secret is the amount of broth which bakes down to a very moist dressing,” Nicolle said.
‘My Dressing’  recipe follows.

‘Always delicious’
Kitty Claus admits that her family’s Rice Dressing recipe is not very detailed. “This was my grandmother’s recipe, and it is as specific as it has been all of my life. It does require seasoning to taste, but it always comes out delicious,” she wrote. Claus urged readers to try it.
Rice Dressing recipe follows.

Buttermilk makes it
Virginia Worley recommends a buttermilk-based cornbread in dressing. Making the cornbread from scratch takes a little longer, but the results are worth it, she said.
Cornbread Dressing recipe follows.

Don’t overbake
Donna Foreman Dunnehoo, of Zachary, said the Foreman Family Dressing is based on a recipe from her mother, Mavis McKey Foreman. The secret is to not overbake the dressing. It should be moist like cake, not dry and crumbly, Dunnehoo wrote. She serves the dressing with giblet or turkey gravy and sliced cranberry sauce.
Foreman Family Dressing recipe follows.

Convert via crawfish
April Schroeder wrote that dressing is one of her favorite foods because it brings fond memories of going to grandma’s on Thanksgiving. Schroeder said she was disappointed when she and her husband had their first Thanksgiving seven years ago to discover that he did not like dressing. She tried a few variations of dressing to no avail and then developed a recipe for a Crawfish Cornbread Dressing. “It’s the only one he will eat,” Schroeder said.
Crawfish Cornbread Dressing recipe follows.

A weeklong production
Writer Dorothy Trick wrote about her mother’s New Orleans French Bread Stuffing. Trick said making the stuffing was a weeklong production in her mother’s kitchen in Metairie. Her mom and an aunt would sit at the kitchen table and chop and talk.

“It was made with stale French bread, which had been purchased a week ahead. She prepared two batches, one to go in the turkey and another dish to feed the whole family. I always made sure that my serving of stuffing came from inside the turkey because it had the most flavor.”
New Orleans French Bread Stuffing recipe follows.

Perfect over the years
Niki Woodruff, of Denham Springs, wrote that her holiday dressing recipe came from her sister, Sharon Chisholm-Maranto, who gave it to her 30 years ago when Woodruff was a young housewife and living in West Virginia. It is simple to make, she said, and the dressing freezes well.

“Usually at Thanksgiving, I make a double or triple batch, then freeze the amount I want to serve for Christmas,” Woodruff added.
Never-Fail Cornbread and Chicken Dressing recipe follows.