Potato Stuffing or Filling (Gluten Free)

Last Monday, our son and daughter-in-law came to dinner. It's kind of funny. Every couple of weeks or so, our son calls up, sort of to check in on the old folks, and announces that they will come to dinner. They are extremely considerate. When I was in and out of the hospital for my hip replacement operation, they brought dinner no less than three times, on top of a busy work schedule. But anyway, they were here, and I used the opportunity to check off two of the dwindling number of recipes in the New England section of the cookbook.
The last time I was at Safeway, they had an amazing, buy one, get one free offer involving those giant roasting chickens that Purdue used to call oven stuffer roasters. I had actually forgotten about them because Bob has been doing most of the cooking lately. For some reason, I took something down to the freezer and found it stuffed with two huge chickens. I had been toying with the idea of corned beef and cabbage for dinner, since I love corned beef and cabbage, but seeing the chickens brought me back to my senses.
I remembered the Potato Stuffing and decided to go with that, although I did not use it to stuff the chicken. Cooking was kind of a rush, because I had tutoring before and did not get home until 5:45. Bob had put the chicken in while I was explaining the mysteries of decimals to my tutee. I had to clean up the kitchen and start cooking. He had also considerately boiled three potatoes for the mashed potatoes.
I was able to make the stuffing gluten free by using gluten free bread as the bread cubes. Everyone,  my daughter-in-law particularly, spoke highly of the result. She said she wanted to dive right in to it. This is a woman who really likes potatoes in virtually any form. However, I found it kind of blah, meaning lacking in flavor.  I added garlic powder to pep things up, but if I was going to make it again, I would add a chopped onion sautéed in butter.
Now that I think about it, using it to stuff the chicken would definitely add flavoring. But I would still add a chopped onion. This is an easy recipe to make, so if you have some left over mashed potatoes, or a few boiled potatoes, it would be a way to quickly dress up roast chicken.

Potato Stuffing or Filling

2 cups mashed potatoes
2 eggs lightly beaten
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups tiny white bread cubes
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
1/2 teaspoon thyme
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 cup milk

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Beat the potatoes with the eggs. Heat the butter in a skillet and brown the bread cubes in it. Sprinkle with the marjoram, thyme, salt and pepper and stir into potato mixture.
3. Add the milk and mix well. Turn into a greased baking dish and bake forty-five minutes. Or use to stuff a five pound chicken.  Makes four servings.

Oyster Stuffing (Gluten Free)

Oyster stuffing is...terrific, provided you like oysters. If you have no feelings about oysters, or have never had them, hiding them in stuffing might be a way to get to know them. However, I would go to someplace like Clyde's  first, with a friend who likes oysters and try one or two oysters off your friend's plate.
I first had oysters at the Harvard Club when I was about 14. Being an adventurous eater, I was not squeamish about sliding an oval of slippery saltiness down my throat. I have loved them ever since, and hope to emulate our 90 year old friend, Mrs. Curtiss, who sends us a postcard every fall saying "I'm going to Paris to eat oysters." There can be few better ways of spending one's money in one's old age.
This oyster stuffing is obviously meant for a goose, since the first ingredient is butter or goose fat, moving on to a goose liver. Well. we were having turkey, so I used butter and extracted the turkey liver and chopped that up. This meant that Watson, the new puppy, could not participate in a canine Thanksgiving tradition, that of giving the dog a sauteed turkey liver. I'm sure he would have loved a turkey liver, but since he had never had one he wasn't upset.
I had to  make two stuffings, one with oysters, and one without, for my shellfish allergic husband, Bob. Neither one was stuffed into the turkey, as Bob split the turkey open and roasted it in pieces. I made the oyster stuffing gluten free by using gluten free corn bread stuffing from Whole Foods. Oyster stuffing outside a turkey is perhaps a little dry. If you want to put it in a baking dish, cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and use more oyster liquor, which is a polite word for that glutenous stuff the oysters come in. Oyster juice, if you will.
We had gone to the Thanksgiving service at church and did not get home until after 11 am. I had done next to nothing in advance, in spite of my advice doled out with the Thanksgiving menus. I began with the oyster stuffing, since I wasn't baking any bread. I had in the back of my mind that the stuffing had to be finished so it could go in the turkey, even though we had been talking about spatchcocking it for a couple of weeks.
The oyster stuffing was done in half an hour, and what wouldn't fit in the baking dish went to my brother George who acted as taste tester. He pronounced it good and asked for it when it was time to fill the plates.
Another convert!

Oyster Stuffing

1/4 cup butter or goose fat
1 onion finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 goose liver or turkey liver, chopped
6 cups stale one-quarter-inch white bread cubes (use gluten free stuffing, available at Whole Foods and other businesses that sell gluten free products)
2 cups oysters with liquor (oyster juice)
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 egg lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon marjoram

1. Melt the butter in a skillet and saute the onion and celery in it until tender, but not browned. Add the liver and cook quickly two to three minutes. Put the bread cubes in a bowl and add the liver mixture.
2. Strain the oyster liquor, through cheesecloth if gritty, into a saucepan. Bring to a boil and add cleaned oysters. Simmer three minutes or until the edges of the oysters just curl.
3. Skim out the oysters and quarter them if they are very large, halve them if they are average. Add to the bread mixture.
4. Add the remaining ingredients and enough oyster liquor, usually about one-third cup, to moisten the dressing. Makes enough stuffing for a seven to eight pound goose or turkey.