Dressing or stuffing? Crisp or mushy? Every family has it’s own way of creating the bread-based accompaniment to a Thanksgiving Turkey, whether it’s stuffed inside the bird itself–which Alton Brown, entertainer and mad food scientist will tell you is EVIL–to casseroled or muffined or, in my family’s case, little crisp balls with soft steamy centers.

I can’t tell you when my mother found this recipe. I suppose it was probably in the late 1960’s or early 1970’s. I can totally picture her paging through a Good Housekeeping magazine at the hairdresser’s or the doctor’s office. My mother was always nose deep in a book, but I don’t remember her reading any magazine at home except the TV Guide, so it must have been someone else’s magazine. And I doubt she’d have torn out the recipe without asking, she would have either carefully copied it or asked permission to remove that page.

However it happened–since it happened–we’ve been eating these stuffing balls for over forty years. Friends ask for the recipe. Guests have taken them home with them and then their relatives have asked. I think it’s simply the novelty of stuffing balls, not that they’re Michelin Star-worthy or anything. They’re a homely food. But they have NUTS in them, which my mother loved, and which is always a plus in my playbook. And as I said, they’re crispy on the outside, and soft on the inside. So in the spirit of Thanks-GIVING, I thought I’d share my recipe! Be prepared to make extra and save some back for leftovers. They’re excellent reheated.

ZAM’s Stuffing Balls

4 c. Stale bread, softly crumbled

1 c. walnuts, finely chopped

1/2 c. parsley, finely chopped

1/2 c. celery, finely diced

1/4 c. onions, finely diced

1/2 c. butter

1/2 t. salt

1/4 t. pepper

1 egg lightly beaten

1/3 c. chicken broth, or more as needed

1. Preheat oven to 375
2. saute onion in butter until translucent
3. add parsley, celery, walnuts, and salt and pepper, cook on low until softened.
4. pour cooked mixture over bread crumbs. Stir
5. add lightly beaten egg, stir
6. add enough broth to moisten, and then form into (loosely packed) balls about muffin tin size. (alternatively, you could bake these in muffin tins, but then they’d be muffins, and stuffing balls just sound funnier and more delicious than stuffing muffins, or stuffins)
7. Bake at 375 degrees, 15-20 minutes until golden crisp and cooked through.

Okay. Now… I admit, I quintuple this recipe. I go whole hog. I chop up bags of bread, bunches of celery, oodles of onions, and a peck of parsley, because truly, this is my favorite part of the meal. I’m partial to getting them good and golden on the outside, and eating them soaked in gravy and snuggled up to a fresh hot turkey breast slice when they’re still crisp but steaming on the inside.

Plus I’ve got my hubby, four kids, and all their friends eating them. There are never enough.

We’ve got one other ZAM family Thanksgiving tradition in our house–one that started years ago, when the kids wanted to eat with their friends and still have Thanksgiving at home. We eat our Thanksgiving meal on Friday, because it turns out, there are a LOT of people who wouldn’t think of switching up their days and we just don’t care that much what day Thanksgiving happens on.

Besides, on Thursday, I have all these people with days off from school and work, and I can get them to clean, so when I do get around to making a Thanksgiving meal on Friday, the place is presentable, all my kids are at the table, all their friends can join us without their moms flipping shit, and we can settle in, eat, and go black Friday shopping after instead of lapsing straight into a food coma.

It’s ingenious! Plus, all that cooking and eating really ruins any football watching I want to do on Thursday.

That’s life Chez ZAM! What’s your holiday tradition?