Thanksgiving Herb Stuffing

I hosted my first Thanksgiving this year for 5 people. It was a great success for the most part. I learned a lot of tips. First, read ALL directions twice before doing! This prevents a lot of mistakes. Second, you'll want one helper for the kitchen for the last hour or so of cooking. Everything else is up to you, but no fear- I prepped A LOT ahead of time as you'll see. I consider all of these recipes a level 2. Nothing is really tough to make for a traditional Thanksgiving meal but the volume of dishes, the orchestration necessary to have it all ready and hot, and the stress ( though don't let this ruin it- really) of hoping it'll all turn out okay make it a bit more than a beginner's level.

Servings: about 13-14 “normal” servings. For me, it feed five twice with 4 additional side servings

Prepped: afternoon before

Oven time: 40 minutes at 350 

*Easy to microwave for half a minute right before putting on table*

adapted from: http://www.food.com/recipe/thanksgiving-stuffing-cheat-using-stove-top-46560

Ingredients 
1 medium onion, minced

3 stalks celery, chopped fine

2 TBSP butter, unsalted
1/2 tsp poultry seasoning- need to make? http://allrecipes.com/recipe/homemade-poultry-seasoning
1 1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth
¼ cup water
2 (6 ounce) packages Pepperidge farm herb seasoned cubed

1. Finely dice the celery & onion. Heat butter in largest saucepan ( NOT 3 qt) over medium heat. Add onion and celery and poultry seasoning and cook until tender crisp. Remove from pan.

2. Add the water and broth to pan and heat to boil. Remove saucepan from heat

3. Add in stuffing (dry box ingredient) and mix lightly. Add veggies back.

If making now (not prepping early):

Put back over latent heat. Cover and let stand 5 minutes.

Put in GREASED 9 x 13 dish. Cover with foil to prevent tops from drying out too much. Middle rack at 350 for 20 min. Remove foil and cook another 10. Stuffing should be partly soft and partly crunchy when done.

If making on Thanksgiving:

Stir everything lightly in pan and transfer to a GREASED 9 x 13 baking dish. Cover with alum foil, label, and refrigerate. I put it in fridge 25 hrs before baking and it was great.

When ready to bake,  simply bake for 35 min at 350. Check, remove foil, and bake another 5-10 minutes. Stuffing should be partly soft and partly crunchy when done.