I wanted to try something different for stuffing this year, so I surfed the Web and cobbled together several stuffing recipes to form this delicious mess of brown.  It does contain some pretty classic elements (dried fruit and sage, for example), but using oatmeal as the base instead of toasted bread as well as punching it up with dried Bing cherries should set this apart from the competitors.  (In my mind, when a recipe I create turns out well I imagine myself having done well in a contest.)

Anyway, here are the important bits.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb sausage (I used hot Italian because that was available)
• 2 shallots diced
• 2 or 4 celery stalks diced
• 2 or 3 leeks sliced maybe half an inch thick
• 8 oz dried Bing cherries
• fresh sage (I probably added around two of those plastic fresh boxes from my garden so maybe a quarter cup?) (this is the only herb so don’t skimp unless the sausage you use is sage forward, in which case go easier I guess)
• salt and pepper to taste
• cayenne to taste
• 1 cube butter give or take very soft
• 5 cups rolled oats + 1 cup steel cut oats (one could alter the ratio as desired)
• 3 or 4 cups chicken stock (I make my own; be careful if you use store bought because they tend to be salty)

Directions:

• Brown the sausage (it will cook together later so concentrate on browning only)
• (I use a pastry knife to break up the browned sausage once browned)
• transfer sausage to very large bowl
• In the same pan and beginning with the shallots and then in order the celery, leeks, and cherries
• add the oatmeal(s), sage, and the soft butter to the bowl; mix let macerate for ten minutes
• add maybe half the stock to the bowl; mix
• When the vegetables are softened add them to the bowl and mix thoroughly
• Add salt, pepper, and cayenne tasting as you progress
• Add up to the remaining stock (not too wet but not too dry) and continue to mix thoroughly
• layer the mixture into your smoking pan(s), cover in foil, and transfer to smoker
• smoke for a good 90 minutes repositioning as necessary (my smoker only goes to 275f so that’s what I used)
• uncover and smoke for another half hour (adjust covering and uncovering to get your desired smokiness

Something like that.  I didn’t take notes.  Or these are my notes just several days after the fact.  Probably the next batch will be even better!  This is likely the best stuffing I’ve ever had so that’s something.