Yesterday began my four-day preparations for Thanksgiving (my husband and I have both of our families over every year), and as I was baking, a thought occurred to me: I haven’t done a giveaway in several months.  Time to rectify that!  After all, I have a lot to be thankful for, with the arrival of Baby Girl James who’s just the cutest cupcake ever.  And on a work-related note, on Friday I heard from my editor that my first book, Just the Sexiest Man Alive, has gone into its fourth printing!

So in the spirit of the holiday, I’ve decided to give away a grand prize of a $50 gift card to either Borders, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or Williams Sonoma (because I love all the baking/cooking accoutrements in their holiday catalog)– at the winner’s choosing.  And I’m also giving away three runner-up prizes of a copy of my current release, Something About You.  (For those who are interested, you can find an excerpt of Something About You here.)

All you have to do to enter is tell us, in the comments below, one thing you’re baking/cooking for Thanksgiving AND you have to include the recipe.  (Hey, we all can use good recipes this time of year, right?)  And if you’re not cooking or baking anything this Thanksgiving, then just post any favorite recipe of yours.  The contest will be open until 10pm CST on Friday, November 26th.

I’ll start us out, with recipes from two fantastic cooks: my grandmothers.  One is one of my favorite desserts, and the other is for the best stuffing I’ve ever tasted.  I make both of these every Thankgiving.

Grandma Arline’s Magic Bars

1 1/2 cups corn flake crumbs

1/2 cup butter

1 1/2 cups flaked coconut

1 12 oz pkg. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup chopped walnuts

3 tablespoons sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Combine corn flake crumbs, sugar, butter and mix thoroughly.  (I melt the butter first.)  Press mixture evenly into 13 x 9″ baking pan.  Use back of spoon to press firmly into bottom of pan to form crust.

Scatter chocolate chips over crust.  Spread coconut evenly over chocolate chips.  Sprinkle the walnuts over the coconut.  Pour sweetened condensed milk over walnuts.

Bake for about 25 minutes or until lightly browned around edges.  Cool.  Cut into bars.

Grandma Marge’s Bread Stuffing

3 loaves of bread

1 1/2 cup chopped onion

1 1/2 cup chopped celery

1 1/2 cup melted butter

1 tablespoon salt

2 tsp ground sage

1 tsp pepper

1 beaten egg

Milk

Break bread into pieces and leave out to go stale.  (Note: I do this two days before I plan to make the stuffing and leave the bread out for two days in two brown paper grocery store bags.)

Saute the celery and onion in the melted butter until soft.  Add the salt, sage, and pepper.  In a large bowl, mix celery/onion mixture with one beaten egg. Begin adding stale bread, add milk as you mix in the bread to keep the stuffing moist.

Bake for about one hour at 325 degrees in a buttered 13 x 9 casserole dish.  If made the day before and refrigerated, increase cooking time to about 1 1/2 hours.

Enjoy!  And happy Thanksgiving!