Reinventing Dinner

Last weekend I found a rather forlorn box of Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix hiding in the back of my pantry. What to do with this pre-packaged mix? I know; let's make corn bread.

The directions call for milk and an egg. So of course I add some chopped bacon, onion and frozen corn.

The first step is to make the batter according to package directions.

Meanwhile, I fry the bacon and chop the onion.

Now I add the onion, corn and the cooked bacon and the bacon joos (credit Sandra Lee for that misnomer).


I pour the mix into a greased 8 X 8 inch baking dish. Then I grate some sharp cheddar cheese to sprinkle on top. Bake according to package directions.

Looks good.

This is a nice change of pace for us.

Fast forward a week:

Oh joy. Look what I woke up to this morning. If you click on the picture, you will see a couple of visitors on my deck railing. I think they are happy that I finally got around to putting out the bird feeders.

Here's a blue jay. Fortunately the other birds don't let the blue jays bully them around too much.

Now, let's re-purpose the leftover corn bread. Today I'll make stuffing (or dressing). Here I have green onion, an egg, bread slices, the corn bread, black pepper, salt, frozen homemade croutons (including the remaining focaccia), celery and fresh sage.

I later added another egg and defrosted a cup of homemade turkey consomme. One teaspoon of dried Herbes de Provence also join in the party.

I spread out the bread and croutons on a baking sheet and pop in a 250 degree oven for a few minutes.

After several minutes I add the chopped celery, chopped green onion and chopped sage. This goes back in the oven for about 15 minutes longer.

Mix all together so that the bread is thoroughly moistened.

Spread the stuffing in a greased baking dish. Since I am also making meatloaf, I bake this at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes.

Just about perfect.

Now I'm hungry.

Hmph. Will you look at my lone dinner companion? My daughter, who had requested the meatloaf, quickly ate and ran back upstairs. I guess I will cut her a bit of slack since she has a migraine today (but only a little, because I also have a migraine today). My husband said I could talk to him - right before he got up from the table and left the room. So that leaves just me and the cat. And he's eyeing my plate. "Please, Mommy, may I lick your plate now?"