Jeanne Jones: Make a heart-healthier dressing

Dear Jeanne: I read your column religiously, and I greatly appreciate your many recipe revisions. This is my husband's grandmother's Thanksgiving dressing recipe. It is very tasty, but not at all heart healthy. Can you please revise this so that we may continue to enjoy it without all the guilt? Thank you.

— Michele Ross, San Antonio

Dear Michele: When I revise "Grandmother's" recipe, especially when it's eaten on Thanksgiving, I know that taste is pretty important. Not having the exact quantities of cornbread, biscuits and broth makes it difficult to accurately revise this. What I can tell you is that you can use the low-fat versions of the cornbread, biscuits and sausage, then change the Crisco to a light-tasting olive oil and cut the amount by 3/4. The texture is just a guess to me, but I will try so that you can have an outline to go by. The most important thing to know is that you really don't need all that fat to make a good dressing, and if you like, you can add even more vegetables or use different bread. You actually don't need all the eggs, either, but that was Grandma's way, so on Thanksgiving you can do it like that. I don't know how big Grandma's recipes of cornbread and biscuits were, but if you use two pans for my recipe, it'll be too thin. If you want a crispy crust, spray or brush the top with a very thin layer of light-tasting oil or nonstick cooking spray, and if you want lots of crispy crust, use a muffin tin and make individual servings.

Jeanne Jones is the author of 33 cookbooks, most recently "Cooking From the Cupboard" (Rodale Press). For more information, you can go to her website, jeannejones.com.

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MYNA'S DRESSING

Makes: 20 servings

1 day-old standard recipe of nonsweet cornbread, crumbled

1 day-old recipe (on box) of Bisquick biscuits, crumbled

1 bunch of green onions, bottoms and tops, finely chopped

1/2 cup celery, finely chopped

1 pound country sausage (hot or medium), cooked, crumbled, drained and blotted

1 cup Crisco

6 whole eggs

1 teaspoon sage

1 teaspoon pepper

Salt, to taste

1 teaspoon sugar

Chicken or turkey broth, as needed

Put all ingredients except the chicken or turkey broth in a large bowl. Add the broth until the desired consistency, finishing with hot water, if necessary. The dressing should be moist enough to pour into two greased 9-by-13-inch pans, something like thick cornbread batter. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

MYNA'S LIGHTER DRESSING

Makes: 20 servings

12 biscuits, made from a reduced-fat recipe (or day-old bread), crumbled

12 pieces cornbread, made from a low-fat recipe, crumbled