Dressing, not Stuffing

A few days ago one of my friends said her daughter-in-law had asked her to bring dressing for Thanksgiving. I immediately thought of salad, and told her so. “Bite your tongue!” she said. I’ve lived “up North” for too long.

In Southern-speak, dressing means what everyone else calls “stuffing.” But stuffing, as I understand it, is put inside the bird, with maybe another pan full as well. Whatever you call it, everybody likes it.

In the South we don’t bother to stuff the bird. We just make lots and lots.
Usually I used my Aunt Ida’s recipe (yes, the same Ida my dog is named for). The problem is, there is no real “recipe.” She just made dressing. I have some vague directions my mother wrote on a card, but somehow my dressing never tastes as good as hers did.

She loaded it with sage and hot pepper, but otherwise it was a typical dressing: onions, an egg or two, and cornbread. The cornbread HAD TO BE Southern cornbread, that is, made with white cornmeal and WITHOUT sugar.

Sugar is not for bread! Sugar goes in the tea, iced tea. I was surprised to find, when I moved north, that iced tea is considered a seasonal drink. Why? You drink cold sodas all year round; you drink cold water, why not iced tea? I was so grateful to McDonald’s when they introduced their sweet tea (although it’s too sweet). It is real tea, made fresh, with the sugar added while the water is still hot enough to dissolve the sugar. A cold glass of tea and a packet of sugar is, in my opinion, a mockery. And these canned teas? An abomination.

Oh yes. And sweet potatoes might go in a casserole (without marshmallows), but this is only because Southerners never miss a chance to eat something sweet and pretend it’s something good for them. The green something on the table, for example, will probably be lime Jell-O fruit salad. We believe sweet potatoes go in pies. The other pie will be pecan.

But nothing I can cook will be as good as what I had at the kids’ table, sitting with my cousins and telling knock knock jokes.