So, the bitterness over yet another too-little-too-late comeback attempt still looms large, but looming larger is this wicked, come-to-Jesus hangover I inflicted on myself.  Let's do shots, she says.  Ok, I say.  Ugh.  At least my head stopped pounding, and now the world has kind of gone all soft focus.  My brain feels stupid and it's very challenging to finish a sentence.  And for some reason, my husband is letting me play with knives and chop things.  Which brings me to the purpose of this post:

Recipes!  On a football blog!  Oh suck it up, I don't actually expect you people to cook any of this, and my brain is too out of it to talk about my trip to Green Bay last week.  So read on, or not, whatever.  I'm just killing time while my giblets boil.

My mom is an excellent cook.  She has Thanksgiving dinner down to a science, and the things I always loved the most were her deviled eggs and her dressing/stuffing/what have you.  I have a more adventurous palate than my mom though, so I've tweaked these recipes a bit, and I recommend them.  They're pretty damn good (if I do say so myself), and my husband says I make the best deviled eggs he's ever had.  And he means it!  I asked him!

So here's something to stuff in your recipe box.

Deviled Eggs a la Sara

1 dozen eggs, hard boiled, peeled, cut in half, with the yolks scooped out
1/2 cup full fat mayo (not Miracle Whip), seriously don't use low-fat mayo, low fat mayo makes angels cry
Between 2 tbsp and 1/4 cup dijon mustard, however much you like, really.  I have a buddy who only uses dijon mustard, no mayo.  Do what you will.
A least 1/2 tsp paprika, I probably use a little less than a teaspoon
Cumin to taste ( a couple good shakes)
Cayenne pepper to taste (a couple good shakes)
Black pepper to taste (probably about ten times around with the grinder)
A little kosher salt, or you can use a few shakes of cajun seasoning
1 tbsp dried parsley

Mix the yolks with all the stuff, mash it with a fork until it's smooth.  Scoop into a large zip lock bag.  Cut one of the tips off the bottom of the bag to make a piping bag type thingie, or feel free to scoop each egg by hand.  Trust me, the bag is faster.  Fill the eggs, dust with paprika, and devour.  I'm pretty sure that a few people are friends with me just for these damn eggs.

And here is:

Janette's Stuffing (kind of...mostly)

1 bunch celery
Two medium sized yellow onions, or four little yellow onions
1/2 cup fresh parsley
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp paprika (we like paprika in my family, can you tell?)
1 tsp poultry seasoning...and here's where I differ from my mom.  The grocery store often has this selection of poultry herbs in the organic section, I think they're sold by a company called Melissa's or something.  Anyway, they were out of them yesterday, so I'm stuck with poultry seasoning.  Thyme, Rosemary, Sage and something else, maybe Marjoram.  I don't know, but they were PERFECT, just stick the whole package in the food processor with all the rest of the crap if you can find it.  If you can't, well, poultry seasoning works fine too.
Hmm, what else did I use.  Oh yeah, about a teaspoon of kosher salt, a bunch of cracked black pepper
2 sticks of melted butter!  Hell yeah, that's what I'm talking about.  Don't use margarine.  You deserve butter at Thanksgiving, everybody does.
about 2 cups of chicken stock
Oh yeah, bread is a good idea.  About two small loaves of Sourdough bread, cubed to the best of your patience.  I cubed it this morning while I was still in the "wishing for death" phase of my hangover, so it doesn't look too pretty, I might as well have just torn it up.  Oh well.

So.  Preheat your oven to about 400, and get a 13x9 pan out.

Stick everything but the butter, chicken stock, and bread in a food processor.  Don't have a food processor?  Buy one because it makes a huge difference with this recipe.  You need tiny pieces.  This is another area in which my mother and I disagree, she likes the chunks, and I like kind of a celery, onion, herb soup.  I think the texture is much, much better.  I just don't care much for cooked celery chunks, but if you do, bully for you, whatever. 

Anyway!  Process your food until it's soup consistency with still some small pieces, probably pieces about 1/2 cm big.  In the mean time, melt your butter in the microwave and put your bread pieces in a very big plastic bowl.

Dump the soup over the bread.  Give it a couple stirs until it's coated.  Then, add the butter.  Then, add about a cup of the chicken stock, and save the other cup until later, just check to make sure it doesn't dry out.

You can cook it indefinitely, just remember to check it and add more stock as needed.  Sit back and observe while your house starts to smell AWESOME.

Well, that was fun.  Starting to feel a little better now, and I can keep water down (I mean, seriously, I guess 30 is too old to do shots?  because today has been BRUTAL!) so I'm going to take care of potatoes and the deviled eggs.  Turkey is on the Weber, dinner will probably be ready in about two hours.

I've got so much to be thankful for, I lead a charmed and blessed existence.  I'm very thankful that I stumbled on to Ninersnation.com, and I'm thankful for the insightful commentary and entertaining reads that you guys provide! 

Happy Thanksgiving all!