Tasty bread is a quick post-holiday solution

By now, you may already be making a start on the nearly nonstop cooking and baking necessary to pull off another monumental Thanksgiving dinner.

Come Friday morning, though, you could probably use a break. I mean, after a two-day kitchen drill like that, who couldn’t? Even so, nobody wants to suddenly come across as a lazy shirker or slacker, just because the company’s long gone and the crowd around the table has shrunk to just a few family members needing to be fed.

This is precisely when and why the following recipe comes in handy. It’s a quick, easy, flavorful batter bread (no muss, no fuss and no kneading, either) you can put together in nothing flat to make turkey sandwiches or as a great go-with for a pot of soup made from that leftover turkey carcass, or maybe to round out just a big, satisfying turkey salad of one sort or another.

You might already have flipped by this recipe in an ad in the Sunday paper. But you might not have, so here it is:

HARVEST STUFFING BREAD

2cups all-purpose flour, divided

1cup whole-wheat flour

1envelope fast-rising yeast

1tablespoon sugar

2tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon minced onion, divided

1tablespoon parsley

11/2 teaspoons poultry seasoning

1teaspoon salt

11/4 cups water

1tablespoon butter or margarine

1egg, beaten

1/2 teaspoon celery seed

Combine 1 cup of the all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, undissolved yeast, sugar, 2 tablespoons of the onion, parsley, poultry seasoning and salt in a large bowl. Heat water and butter in a small saucepan until very warm (120 to 130 degrees); stir into the flour mixture.

Beat dough 2 minutes at medium speed of electric mixer, scraping bowl occasionally. Stir in remaining all-purpose flour to make a stiff batter. Cover and let rest 10 minutes. Turn batter into a greased 11/2-quart casserole. Smooth top of dough with floured hands. Cover.

Let bread rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 30 minutes. Brush beaten egg on loaf. Sprinkle with remaining onion and celery seed. Bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes or until done; or, if a glass casserole is used, bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. When baked, remove from casserole and cool on a wire rack. Makes 1 loaf.

If you plan to use the bread for sandwiches, and you happen to have a square casserole dish, use it. The slices will lend themselves to sandwiches a little bit better than round-dish slices do. Or I think so, anyway.

And, speaking of sandwiches, whether or not you decide to make this stuffing bread, if you have leftover turkey and maybe some leftover dressing to go with it, here’s an absolutely perfect chance to try Edmonds cook Arch Whisman’s brought-home-from-Ireland turkey sandwiches.

In a July 20, 2007, Forum column, Whisman told us he’d “experienced a great sandwich” at Blarney Castle, made with “equal amounts of coarsely chopped turkey mixed with sage dressing and coarsely chopped purple onion with an iceberg lettuce leaf on seedless rye bread.

“After I got back home,” he said, “I duplicated it, using leftover turkey breast and Stove Top stuffing, to which I added a heaping quarter-teaspoon ground sage, on Orowheat’s light rye bread spread with Best Foods mayo. SO GOOD.”

The Forum is always happy to receive your contributions and requests, so don’t hesitate to send them along to Judyrae Kruse at the Forum, c/o The Herald, P.O. Box 930, Everett, WA 98206. Please remember that all letters and e-mail must include a name, complete address with ZIP code and telephone number with area code. No exceptions and sorry, but no response to e-mail by return e-mail; send to kruse@heraldnet.com.The next Forum will appear in Friday’s Time Out section. Meanwhile, have a wonderful Thanksgiving!