You really cannot go wrong with Bell's Seasoning mix. A holiday classic, a mix of sage, marjoram and other herbs, it is readily available in supermarkets this time of year. Sure, you could buy individual bottles of the dried herbs and mix it up yourself, but they tend to be expensive on their own, and at around $2 a box, why not just go with Bell's?

One issue we do have is that that $2 box goes a long, long way. Even after preparing a huge feast for Thanksgiving, and sharing some with the in-laws, we still have half a box left over. Dried herbs are not known for holding their 'punch' for long, so what is a cook to do?

One option is to bake up some herb-seasoned bread for use in stuffing. Around here, we make large batches of stuffing for Christmas dinner, too. If you have a bread machine handy, the whole process is painless. You can try the following recipe for Bread Machine Whole Grain Bread, with the following modifications:

Add the following, reducing the quantities for cracked wheat and seven-grain cereal to make room:

• 1/3rd cup cornmeal
• 1 tbsp Bell's Seasoning
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp garlic powder

Bake as usual for whole wheat, or if you want to make several loaves, use the dough setting and crank out a few loaf pans worth! Or, you could toss the dough in a lightly oiled plastic bag, suck out the air, seal, and place in the freezer, since bread dough freezes well.

Most of the information I find online says that baked bread does not last in the freezer past 6 months. I've frozen stuffing bread in the past and saved it until the following Thanksgiving, and it's come out great. I'd say give it a go, but your mileage may vary.