Cornbread stuffing

My cornbread stuffing was the hit of the Thanksgiving party I went to, and it is really easy to make. This recipie has a slight variation from my mother, who adapted it from recipies found in the "River Road" cookbook. I like it so much I would eat it by itself, no turkey required.

Cornbread Stuffing:
1 tube of ground spicy sausage (in plastic, like Framer John Firehouse, etc.)
2 packages corn bread/muffin mix (jiffy)
2 eggs
2/3 cup milk
2-4 cloves of garlic
2 stalks celery
1 medium to large onion
1/2 green bell pepper
herbs de provence
small package of shelled pecans
2 small cans of low sodium chicken broth

Way ahead of time, I did it the night before, but the morning of would work as well, make the cornbread as directed. I cooked both packages together in in a 9x13 pan. Let the cornbread sit out, uncovered, so it goes a little stale.

Also before hand, possibly the day before dice the celery, onion, and bell pepper. Depending on your grocery store, you might be able to find trinity mix (onions, celery, bell pepper) in the frozen veggie section. Mince the garlic. Place the diced veggies and garlic in a large frying pan with some oil, salt, and pepper and cook until the onions are translucent. Don't have the heat too high, the goal is to sweat the veggies, not brown them.

Once the veggies are soft, extract the sausage from the plastic and break into small pieces in the pan. Cook until sausage is cooked, breaking the sausage into smaller pieces. Turn off heat and cool. If you are not going to make the stuffing right away, place sausage and veggies into a bag/container and refrigerate until needed.

Preheat oven to 350, or adjust cooking time to whatever temp the turkey is in at.

To make the stuffing, crumble about 4/5 to 5/6 of the cornbread into another 8x12 pan. I tried to go for dice sized pieces, but there were a few larger and a lot of small crumbs. Mix in the veggie/sausage mix and some pepper (and cayenne pepper if you want). Press down a little. Sprinkly herbs and pecans over the top. Pour at least one can of broth, I used almost all two, over the cornbread until the bread is extremely moist.

Bake in a 350 oven for ~45 minutes, until browned a little and heated through. Serve warm, and it stores well for leftovers.