Corn Bread Stuffing (Gluten-Free)

This recipe comes to us from Janet Wolkenstein

Celiac.com Sponsor (A12):
Perfect for Thanksgiving or Christmas). Note this recipe has 2 parts: cornbread croutons, and the stuffing ingredients after the croutons
are made.

Cornbread croutons:
2 cups yellow corn meal
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup skim milk
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 egg, beaten

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl and stir together until evenly mixed. Stir in milk, oil, and egg, and mix just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour batter into a greased large cookie sheet to form a thin (¼ inch, approx.) layer. Bake at 400 for 10-15 minutes until done, (be careful not to overcook the bottom). (If the top is still very light when the underside is done, you can put the pan under the broiler for a few seconds to lightly brown it, if necessary.) When cooked, remove from oven and, using a pizza cutter, score the sheet of cornbread in a grid pattern with each cut being about ½ inch wide. Let cool and break apart to form ½ sized croutons.

Stuffing Recipe:

1 batch cornbread croutons as above.
1 - 12 oz roll of Jones Original breakfast sausage (can use another brand if you like, but Jones tastes good and has no artificial ingredients or gluten).
2 stalks chopped celery (optional)
¼ cup lightly chopped walnuts (optional)
salt
pepper
marjoram
sage
thyme
garlic powder

Crumble sausage into small pieces and cook in pan, draining well when done. Mix cooked sausage with croutons in large plastic or Ziploc bag, making sure they are evenly intermixed. Add chopped celery and walnuts if desired (can use more or less walnuts or celery if you are particularly partial (or not) to one or the other). Mix evenly. Add pepper, sage, thyme, marjoram, and garlic powder to taste. ( I use a few shakes of each from the spice containers, mix, taste, and adjust as necessary.) Save the salt for last; you may not need to add any since the sausage is moderately salty already.

Also, if you use a large Ziploc type bag to assemble the ingredients, you can just shake it well when you add each one, and it gets things blended easily. Just make sure its sealed properly or else you will have stuffing EVERYWHERE!

This will make enough stuffing for one large bird, or one small bird plus an extra small pan that you can bake on the side.