"Blue Christmas" Stuffing

One of the best parts of Christmas and Thanksgiving for me is stuffing. Since it's what I love, I make it for all our family gatherings. However, all of recipes tend to call for chicken stock, and apparently many people make sausage stuffing (I never have, but that's that).

Making stuffing for a semi-vegetarian to eat is easy enough. I usually take a box mix and spruce it up because of time constraints, but here's the "Blue Christmas" style I came up with. It's heavy on the fruit, especially blueberries, which gave it its name. It got rave reviews from family and friends. Unfortunately, I rarely measure, so all measures are approximate. Feel free to experiment and make it your own.

Start with a standard box mix of your favorite variety. You're basically going to follow the box mix, but with a few tweaks.

Start by chopping half an apple and a quarter of an onion per bag of stuffing mix. Saute them in olive oil until the onion is browned slightly and the apple is soft.

Now, instead of chicken broth, measure the same amount of blueberry juice cocktail. Yes, you can use juice in stuffing mix and it works just as well as chicken stock. Throw in some blueberries, fresh or frozen, about half a teaspoon each of garlic powder and cinnamon, a dash of pepper, and a quarter teaspoon of nutmeg and allspice. Bring this "witches brew" all to a boil, and follow the rest of the package directions.

That's my blueberry option, but I'm sure lots of other fruit juices would work, too. Apple or cranberry juice comes to mind off the top of my head, though I'd adjust the spices if I used those. Let me know if you try it, and what works!