Recipe: Vegetarian Cornbread Stuffing/Dressing

This was developed over the years from a recipe my mother-in-law gave to my husband.  While this version is vegetarian (at least the part NOT used to stuff the turkey), it really is much better using chicken stock rather than vegetable stock. Note: while I love this stuff, it does essentially take two days to prepare.  It also makes a LOT of stuffing.

Day (or evening) 1:

2 red bell peppers
2 medium onions
4 stalks celery
1 stick butter
Double recipe cornbread (I use the recipe off of the Quaker Corn Meal Box -- it makes two nine inch rounds)
Twelve pieces bread (this year I used half sourdough and half standard buttermilk)
1/2 - 1 tsp kosher salt
2.5 tbs Bell's Poultry Seasoning
1/2 - 1 tsp ground chipotle pepper

Chop peppers, onions and celery in food processor.  Fine, but not too fine (definitely not pureed). Saute veggies in butter until soft.  Let cool completely, place in Ziploc and refrigerate until ready to use.

Toast bread in oven on low heat, until thoroughly dried.  Crumble dried toast and cornbread thoroughly (you can process them, but it make the final texture smooth -- some people are okay with this, others prefer more chunkiness) in a large bowl.  Add salt, poultry seasoning, and chipotle. Mix thoroughly.

Next morning:

Veggie mixture
Cornbread/bread mixture
1 stick butter
2 eggs, beaten thoroughly
3-5 small cans vegetable broth

Mix together veggies and crumb mixture.  Cut up butter into very small chunks, mix into crumb/veggie mixture.  Add eggs.  Add broth one can at a time until the proper consistency is met.  The dressing should be wet, but not dripping. (Minimum 3 cans.)

Use to stuff turkey.  Put excess in 13 x 9 pan, cook at 375 until brown on top, 35 - 40 minutes.

ETA, 11/25/11: This Thanksgiving, I used 2 large onions, 3 peppers (2 red, 1 orange), made the veggies a little chunkier, increased the chipotle powder to 1.5 tsps. and added half again as much Bell's seasonings.  People loved it.

Eat for three days, along with leftover turkey and cranberry pineapple sauce.  Best thing to do?  Make sandwiches with stuffing spread on one side, turkey in the middle, and cranberry sauce on the other, preferably on sourdough bread.

Oh, the turkey?  Rub with Penzey's Bicentennial Rub.  Pat down with a stick of butter, softened, with more rub in it.  Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, then drop temperature to 325.  Pull turkey briefly from oven, cover with cheesecloth saturated with olive oil, return to oven.  Cook for about ten minutes per pound, until turkey hits 165, basting every 20 - 30 minutes. Pull off cheesecloth when you estimate it's about  20 minutes until done, so the skin can brown.