With the feast approaching and our opportunity to give thanks, it’s time to simplify the menu without sacrificing the tantalizing taste of it all.  Mrs. Cubbison is my go-to stuffing mix. Made right from the box it’s packed with flavor, but it also allows me to customize it and make a stuffing I’m proud to call mine.

I love Mrs. Cubbison because it saves me time so I can make other items and carry on traditions. I slip back to childhood when we create a ham. As a child, my eyes would widen and my mouth salivates as I watched my grandparents create artwork from ham, pineapple, and maraschino cherries.

I don’t recall what the sides were to that luscious, beautiful ham, but at our house, I like to coordinate the flavor of stuffing. I love a stuffing called Pineapple Ginger Stuffing. It compliments the ham and the juices so magnificently. Plus, it’s so easy–no boiling water or mess. The Divine Miss M can make it and be proud!

Sundays are the day that we celebrate family. Food is the center of the celebration. This Sunday we celebrated with Mrs. Cubbison. My initial thinking was turkey, but then my husband mentioned he liked ham a lot better than turkey so, being the loving wife I am, we made a ham.

It wasn’t just any ham. It was a tribute to my paternal grandfather. I remember as a child watching him prepare the ham. It was beautiful. He used pineapple rings, maraschino cherries and brown sugar. As I began the “decorating” of the ham, my husband was mesmerized and I think it must of hypnotized him because he assisted. Trust me, he never helps in the kitchen!

With the ham decorated the side fixings became the center of attention. I decided this was the perfect time to make stuffing. Then I started questioning whether stuffing goes well with ham. This is when I turned to Mrs. Cubbison’s Best Stuffing Cookbook. Thankfully, nothing was in the oven because I got lost in this cookbook. There are stuffing recipes for not only turkey and chicken, but ham, seafood and more. There’s stuffing with meats, stuffing with fruits and just plain old stuffing. After much deliberation, I elected to go with the Pineapple Ginger Stuffing on page33. It’s meant to be used to stuff chicken breasts, but I left the breasts out of it.

Mrs. Cubbison’s Pineapple Ginger Stuffing

Ingredients:

2 cups seasoned stuffing mix

1 cup slivered almonds

1/2 cup fresh or canned pineapple pieces, drained

1/4 cup melted butter or margarine

6 pitted prunes, chopped (We used Sunsweet)

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 cup pineapple juice

2 tsp. sugar

How to Make Pineapple Ginger Stuffing

Combine the stuffing mix, almonds, pineapple, melted butter, prunes and ginger in a large bowl

Toss lightly, though thoroughly

Add pineapple juice and sugar and mix lightly.

As someone who loves to cook in the kitchen, I know the value of quality ingredients. They can transform an ordinary recipe into an extraordinary meal. Mrs. Cubbison’s is a brand that truly reiterates this.

The easiest stuffing I’ve ever made. I kid you not. There is no boiling water. No hocus pocus. Just add all the ingredients and get on with your cooking!

Once I had the stuffing made, I spooned it around the ham. I mean, stuffing so easy should get to bake next to the meat of honor; don’t you agree?

Doesn’t that look beautiful.

I baked it all together. Added a side of Alex McCord’s Potatoes Au Gratin et Moutarde. I actually doubled the mustard and used MoreHouse Pure Prepared Mustard. It made a huge difference in taste. We all had a double helping!

When the house started smelling amazing and the timer went off, I removed the stuffing from around the ham. It was so moist! It was also extremely beautiful.

As someone who loves to cook in the kitchen, I know the value of quality ingredients. They can transform an ordinary recipe into an extraordinary meal. Mrs. Cubbison’s is a brand that truly reiterates this.

I’m going to be honest and tell you that before I served up the stuffing, I tasted it. It was not my idea of stuffing. I’m accustomed to the salty, seasoned traditional stuffing. I haven’t ventured from that in my cooking. I served my husband first and held my breath. He is a man of few words unless he dislikes something and then you can’t get him to stop talking about it. He ate a piece of ham and then some stuffing. He said, “This stuffing is REALLY good. I can’t believe you haven’t made this for me before now.”

Yeah. It was that good.

Once I sat down to eat and tried the stuffing I was really impressed by how well the stuffing complimented everything. It worked well with the fancy pants ham. It added something to the potatoes au graten. It even went well with the peas.

I watched as my nine year old, The Beauty Queen, picked all the prunes out of hers. Not to put aside, but to eat! She even asked Li’l Man if he was going to eat his stuffing.

It was a huge hit!

We can’t wait for Sunday to come up again. We’re eager to try Mrs. Cubbison’s new Cranberry Stuffing. If it is anything like the Pineapple Ginger Stuffing Recipe, we’re gonna be living for Sundays!

About Mrs. Cubbison’s:

Mrs. Cubbison’s Kitchen was founded over 60 years ago by Sophie Cubbison, a California pioneer in her field (in fact, she is going to be honored later this year at the California Museum (Sacramento) with a display in the “California’s Remarkable Women” exhibit). Mrs. Cubbison’s Kitchen currently makes stuffing, croutons, meatloaf mix, and crispy onion topping, but will debut other products in the future.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.