Recipe Trial Number 1 for Thanksgiving (Corn-Free Cornbread Stuffing with Sausage)

This year we'll be at my mom's for Thanksgiving. For the first time, we're going to try making a complete Thanksgiving dinner that Tommy can eat. So between now and then I'm going to be trying out some new recipes. I've already had two dreams about Thanksgiving, and neither of them ended very well. Both dreams involved me basically doing no preparation in advance and then dinner didn't end up at all what I had hoped. Yes, I am aware that I have very mundane dreams...

The first recipe I'm trying out is a cornbread and sausage stuffing. I had great intentions of grinding my own pork and spices to make sausage. But then I ran out of time. We already had some leftover cooked ground turkey, so I just seasoned that to make a mock sausage. I just mixed the spices in with the cooked turkey, but it would be better to cook them with the turkey. 

Success! If you didn't know better, you might not realize it's a gluten, corn, dairy and egg free stuffing. I still plan on trying a stuffing recipe with Tommy's bread, but so far this recipe is a real contender for Thanksgiving. 

Corn-Free Cornbread Stuffing with Sausage

1 recipe Corn-Free Cornbread
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground sage
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp granulated garlic
1 Tbsp canola oil
1 large onion, diced
3 celery ribs, diced
salt and pepper
2 cups chicken stock
2 Tbsp flaxmeal

1. Preheat oven to 300°F. Break the cornbread into chunks and spread on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool, then transfer cornbread to a large bowl.
2. Raise oven temp to 375°F. Spray a 9" x 13" baking dish with non-stick spray.
3. In a large non-stick skillet, cook the ground turkey and spices. Transfer ground turkey to the large bowl.
4. Add 1 Tbsp oil to the skillet. Saute the onions and celery with a sprinkle of salt and pepper over medium heat until tender. Add to the large bowl.
5. Whisk together the chicken stock and flaxmeal. Let set for a couple minutes. Pour over the cornbread mixture.
6. Gently mix and place in baking dish. Bake for 35 minutes.