Bacon Walnut Stuffing: Great for Christmas or Thanksgiving

I realize this is a little late for Thanksgiving (the holiday when I made this dish) but it's a great stuffing that will be fantastic for Christmas as well. It's salty, nutty, crunchy and tart at the same time from a combination of apples, bacon and nuts. Instead of buying those packages of stuffing bread, it was cheaper to go to the Mexican market and purchase a loaf of cheap bread that I knew would go stale in a day anyway.

Bacon Walnut Stuffing

Ingredients

• 1 lb bacon
• 1 loaf stale french bread
• 1 large onion
• 2 large carrots, cut into thin circles
• 3 ribs celery
• 1 spring fresh sage
• 1 spring fresh thyme
• 2 large cooking apples, peeled and chopped
• 2 hand fulls of walnuts
• 1 can chicken stock
• 1 cup chopped oyster or shiitake mushrooms

Directions

1. Fry bacon to render the fat. Slice bread and allow to sit out and become stale or toast in oven until it hardens. Set bacon aside to try and drain off fat
2. Fry diced celery, onion, carrot and mushrooms in a little bacon fat with the aromatics until tender. I saved most of the bacon fat for basting my turkey, but you can use as much asyou want for frying the vegetables. Add to bread with walnuts, apples and chopped bacon
3. Pour chicken stock over stuffing as needed to soften slightly (but not too much)
4. Pour into baking dish and bake in oven at 350 for 20 minutes or until heated all the way through

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