Recipe: Amish Dressing from Author Roseanne Dowell

What's a Thanksgiving turkey dinner without dressing? Roseanne Dowell shares her dressing recipe. I must confess I usually go for the boxed kind. I made dressing for my in-laws one Thanksgiving. I still hear them crunching the dried up, tasteless stuff. I am going to be brave and try making Roseanne's.!! 


Roseanne is generously offering a copy of her book, A Second Chance, for a drawing. To enter, please send an email to rodow62 at yahoo dot com with "A Second Chance Contest" in the subject line. Thanks so much, Ro.

AMISH DRESSING
by Roseanne Dowell

 My mother in law used to make this every Thanksgiving.

18 slices bread (lightly toasted and cubed)(about 16 cups)
3 c celery (chopped) (sautéed in 1/2 c. butter)
¾ c. Small onion – sautéed with celery
2 c. potatoes (diced, cooked)
1/2 c. parsley (snipped)
1/2 c. carrots (chopped'- partly cooked)
Salt (to taste)
6 eggs
1 qt. chicken stock

Mix the above ingredients in order given. Add 6 well beaten eggs, 1 qt. chicken stock. Toss together lightly. Bake the dressing in a 9x13 well-buttered baking dish for 1 hour at 350 degrees 8-10 servings.

Half recipe

9. slices bread toasted and cubed (about 8 cups)
1/2 c. celery, finely cuts sautéed in butter
1./2 c. onion sautéed with celery
1 c. cooked diced potatoes (salted)
1/4 c. parsley (finely cut), I use dry
1/4 c. cooked, diced carrots
3 eggs, beaten
2 c. chicken stock

Instructions

Mix the above ingredients in order given. Add 3 well beaten eggs, 2 cups chicken stock. Toss together lightly. Bake the dressing in a 8x8 well-buttered baking dish for 1 hour at 350 degrees 8-10 servings.

Roseanne is sharing an excerpt from her romance/mystery book, Connection of the Minds.

Blurb:
Visions of someone’s life disturb Rebecca Brennan’s dreams. The dreams become dangerous and she’s determined who shares her mind. Her search leads her to a small town and puts her life in danger too.

Excerpt:

The next morning Rebecca, once again, sat in Bernard Clark’s office. Something about the heavy-set, middle-aged man with salt and pepper hair and scruffy beard reminded her of her grandfather. As usual, he listened to her story with a serious expression.

Was this really helping? How many hours had she spent sitting across from the mammoth mahogany desk, staring at the book-lined shelves behind him? And so far, she didn’t know anything more than before. Once more, that’s it. If nothing changed today, she’d quit coming. Maybe he was a quack, like her brother said. Rebecca took a breath and relaxed in the comfortable atmosphere, inhaled the smell of new leather that clung to the chair, and leaned back. Okay, maybe she did have a deep extra sensory perception connection with someone like Bernard said. The question was with whom. 

“I think you need to find this person,” Dr. Clark suggested. “It’s possible the physic mind is reaching out to you for help.”

"How?" That’s why she was here. If he didn’t help her figure it out, that was it. No more visits. Besides, it cost money, and who could afford it? If Allison hadn’t agreed to pay half, well that was another story. Dr. Bernard’s voice brought her back.

“Start with the dreams,” he suggested. “Tell me about them again.”

“I see scenes with emergency vehicles. Last night someone got shot," she told him for what seemed like the hundredth time. "I wonder if he has something to do with law enforcement or other emergency operations. I'd recognize the town if I ever saw it in person. It’s so vivid in my mind."

"Would you consider hypnotism?" Bernard fingered his beard. Intense blue eyes stared into hers. "Maybe your sub conscious mind will reveal the place, or person, or something to help you find it."

Leary about being hypnotized, but desperate to find who shared her mind, Rebecca agreed.

Under her hypnotic trance, she revealed the name of a shoe factory. A place called Booth’s Boots, and she repeated the name, Morris, over and over.

"It’s not much to go on," Rebecca told Allison later,” but it’s more than I knew before. Maybe Morris is my mind connection."

Encouraged by the information, she spent the better part of the day doing research. Using the Internet, Rebecca keyed in Booth’s Boots. Instantly, several websites popped up.

“Okay, let’s check out Boothsboots.com.”

A website, showing various types of boots from hunting to work boots, popped up.

“This is great. Let’s see what this says.” She clicked on News and Events. “No help there. Okay, let’s try Outlet Stores.” She almost jumped out of her chair. “There it is!” A factory, located in Morrisville, Ohio.

“Morrisville, could that explain the name Morris?” A prickly sensation went up her spine. She was getting close; she could feel it.

“Okay, let’s try this.” Rebecca didn’t care she was talking to herself. Besides, it wasn’t the first time. Keying Morrisville into the search engine, she held her breath, more determined than ever to find the town. If it took all day, then so be it.  A site popped up with several suggestions. “Okay, let’s see what this one is about.”  Morrisville.net homepage popped up, and further down the page, it showed–Pictures taken around Morrisville.

She held her breath and clicked on one. The first picture that came up was a log cabin. No help there. “Okay, how about this one? The Square. ” It looked familiar. Shivers ran up her spine. “Okay, how about Hotel Darby. Yes! I’ve seen this place.” One more. She drew in her breath and clicked on Victorian.

“Oh my God, that’s it! That’s the house.” She almost jumped out of her seat. The Queen Anne house in her dreams showed on the screen big as life.  Where is this place?  Clicking back to the homepage, she found it on the map. “Not far from Wattsburg; only a three hour drive from here. I have to go there.”

"Allie." Rebecca phoned her friend. "I found it, I searched the net, and I found it. Even pictures of the town. I recognized all the buildings right down to the house."

"Calm down…"

"I have to go there. It’s only a three hour drive." Not waiting for Allison’s response, Rebecca continued. "I have to find out who I’m connected with."

"What are you going to do?" Allison asked. “Walk into the little town and say hey, someone here is connected to my mind."

Rebecca laughed at her friend’s wit. “I have a plan. First I’ll go to the newspaper office and check for stories about someone being shot on Friday. Then I’ll try to find out where he is. I’m sure he’s alive.” Her intuition told her danger still lingered, but she couldn’t explain that to her friend.

"Maybe it’s a she," Allison said. "What makes you say he?"

"I don’t know." Rebecca paced the living room. "It’s just a feeling I have. It doesn’t matter; whoever it is, I have to go." Okay, it was a crazy scheme, but feelings like this couldn’t be ignored. “There’s no turning back now, Al, I have to find him.”

“Would you like me to go with you?”

 "I have to do this myself.”

“I don’t like this, Beck. You shouldn’t be doing this alone. What if it’s dangerous? I mean you see cop cars and stuff. What if he’s a criminal?”

Rebecca shivered. God, what if he was a criminal? No, something told her that wasn’t the case. Call it a gut feeling or intuition, whatever it was, Rebecca would bet her life he wasn’t a criminal.

“I’m sorry, Al. Thanks for the offer, but no. I have to do this on my own. I’ll be fine. Really.”

Connections of the Mind is available at Muse It Up Publishing, amazon.com and all major online booksellers.

You can find out more about Roseanne's books at www.roseannedowell.com

Check out her blog at http://roseannedowellauthor.blogspot.com

ConneCC