I made this last year and everyone seemed to love it. I think it was slightly overcooked but it still tasted great.

I come from a family that makes a traditional Stouffer's stuffing, with lots of herbs and spices, and I love it, but I love cornbread too, and this Cornbread Stuffing with Sausage and Apples (seen on Sara's Secrets on Food Network a while back) is a great side dish. I used spicy sausage but you might want to try the mild stuff.

• Everything you need to know, kitchen-wise, about Thanksgiving, including four different kinds of turkey and gravy, four different kinds of stuffing, six different types of potatoes, and even four variations on cranberry sauce.
• What to do with the turkey carcass.
• What to cook the other 29 days of November.
• Gifts for the cook on your list.
• Ideas for a simple, chic holiday party.
• More recipes from this month: Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls, Greek Salad Pita Sandwiches, Brown Sugar Ice Cream with Cayenne-Spiced Walnuts, and The Perfect Pie.

I always have the best plans around the holidays when it comes to food. I always have some mathmatical formula where I'm going to consume the least amount of calories possible. If I don't have any cookies, I can drink more. If I don't have any of my sister's brownies, I can have a third helping of stuffing.

It never works out though. I go back for seconds at my sister's house (ham, lasagna, chicken breasts, green bean casserole, various desserts), then have a turkey sandwich and stuffing later that night at home. I go to my other sister's Xmas Eve party and find myself eating pasta salad and grazing on tortilla chips, cheese, and trifle all night (and six beers - "light," but still). Then, on Xmas Day, another meal, this one consisting of turkey, oatmeal and sausage stuffing, yams with marshmallow topping, a bottle of wine, Oreo Cookie cake and cheesecake.

What did you have to eat the past few days?

So here it is, the day after, and if you're like me, you ate way too much food yesterday.

I got to my sister's house around 11am or so, and started the day with a couple of cups of tea. Then we moved onto the meal, where I had turkey, mashed potatoes, bread stuffing, carrots, cranberry sauce, and rolls. I also made a Cornbread with Apple and Sausage stuffing that seemed to go over well, though I think it was a little dry (if you make that recipe I would either cut the number of stuffing bags to 1 1/2 or up the liquid quite a bit). I had a couple of can of Diet Coke during the meal, so I think that made me feel better about the day.

Of course, I wasn't through yet. Later in the afternoon came all the desserts. I had a piece of my sister's Pumpkin and Cheese Cake Pie, then a slice of Boston Creme Pie. When I left for home around 7:30, I took a place with me that had two slices of banana bread, another slice of the Pumpkin and Cheese Cake Pie, another slice of Boston Creme Pie, and two brownies. All of which I ate when I got home, along with a turkey and stuffing sandwich from the stuff my roommate made earlier in the day. Wow. What did you have to eat yesterday?

(Oh, and I also started feeling rundown last night, and woke up this morning with a head cold, scratchy throat, tired feeling, etc. Am I being punished by the diet Gods?)

Forget the Tofurkey. Susan, the amazing vegan cook behind Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, has come up with a much more appetizing vegan alternative to the omnivore's turkey dinner. She made Tofu Stuffed with Brown Rice and Mushroom Dressing. The dish has the classic elements of stuffing and gravy, but is missing, of course, the meat. Susan marinates her tofu so that it absorbs some flavor before cooking, but it is pretty clear that the bulk of the flavor comes from what is inside the tofu. The stuffing has rosemary, sage, garlic and onion, along with nutty brown rice and mushrooms. The gravy is thickened with tofu, but has similar seasonings, along with a bit of nutritional yeast, which is often added to vegan dishes to give them an ever-so-slightly cheesy flavor. Her post also includes detailed photo instructions for cutting the pockets in the tofu to hold the stuffing.

Vegan or not - this sounds like an appealing fall meal for any Sunday dinner.

To quote Tom Cruise on The Today Show, "Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt..."

Matt Wilson over at Cracked.com gives his list of the Best and Worst Thanksgiving Food. I made a prediction before I even read the piece that turkey, stuffing, and pie would be in the "best" category, while green bean casseroles and yams would be in the "worst." Well, I was partly right. He actually lists turkey in the "worst" category!

Whaaaaa?

He gives big props to pie, corn on the cob, and yams though. He doesn't like the cranberry sauce in a can, and it makes me wonder if he even knows you don't have to have it in can, you can actually make fresh stuff yourself!

Matt, seriously, how can you not like turkey? Are you a Communist? (Funny part about the family awkwardness though.)

So what are your favorite ane least favorite Thanksgiving Day foods?

For years, the "Tofurkey" seemed like some sort of make-believe food item and I pictured blocks of tofu stuck together and carved into a giant turkey shape. This particular mental image was smashed the day I first spotted an actual Tofurkey at the market. The product is a 100% vegan roast made out of tofu and vital wheat gluten (this is the combination, with seasonings, is known as "Tofurkey"), stuffed with a brown rice stuffing and accompanied by a side of "giblet and mushroom gravy," which contains more Tofurkey, mushrooms and a variety of seasonings, oils and thickeners.

I decided that I'd give it a try and see what it was like. After all - how bad could it be?

I can think of at least one situation in which White Castle Slyders really hit the spot. Maybe two. Neither of those two situations are Thanksgiving, however, so I was pretty surprised to see a recipe for turkey stuffing on the White Castle website. It involves a number of slyders - their small, rectangular burgers that have five little holes in the patties and come with onions and a pickle - and some more traditional stuffing ingredients, such as celery and spices. The pickles are removed before starting the stuffing, but since onions, bread and sausage can all play a big role in stuffing, it actually doesn't seem too strange.

The recipe is after the jump, if you're brave enough to try it.

I know that in some places Thanksgiving stuffing is called "dressing" when it is not cooked inside the turkey, but where I grew up everyone called it stuffing no matter how it was cooked; it was what went into it was much more important. My stuffing is much like a hot, crispy bread salad and uses bread, onions, celery, sage, apples and dried fruit for a mix that is half savory and half sweet. Because it is not stuffed into a bird, but baked in a casserole dish, it seemed prudent to go all-out and make the dish vegetarian. It will still be enjoyed by the meat-eaters, especially if they are they type that puts gravy on their stuffing anyway, and will provide an option other than straight veggies for vegetarians.

Need some ideas for stuffing recipes for an upcoming holiday dinner, Thanksgiving or otherwise? 50 Best Stuffings and Dressings has, as the name suggests, fifty different recipes to spice up your stuffing, whether you like to bake it in a bird or on the side. Not all stuffings are meant to be used in turkey, however, despite the fact that is what most home cooks are focused on right about now, nor are they all geared towards fall and winter menus. This book includes recipes for stuffing beef, pork and vegetables, such as acorn squash, and many of them are hearty enough to serve as a main course if you bake them in a casserole dish on their own. The recipes include Chile, Hominy, and Rice Stuffing, Gingered Cranberry and Almond Cornbread Stuffing and a Classic Bread Stuffing, which includes a number of additional variations.

As one-subject cookbooks go, the scope of this one is quite limited, but since stuffing and dressing recipes aren't covered too frequently in other books (and rarely are more than a handful presented) this could easily turn into a great resource at home.

Mark Bittman,the minimalist, talks about stuffing versus dressing for a Thanksgiving dinner. Dressing is what Southerners call the bread-based mixture when it is baked outside of the turkey. Dressing can be veg-friendly, gets crisper at the edges for a lovely textural addition, is easy to make and there are no cooking temperature/bacteria problems to worry about, as there are when the stuffing is in the bird. Bittman uses a James Beard recipe, and there is a video how-to here.

One of the Times' writers tests a whole variety of different fats in pie crusts. She liked various animal fats. She doesn't say what her baking background is, but Rose Levy Berenbaum (author of the Pie and Pastry Bible) recommends a combination of mostly butter with a bit of shortening, much like this recipe.

Using colorful vegetables to dress up the Thanksgiving table is a great idea, as the soft textures and bland colors of mashed potatoes, gravy and turkey are uninteresting, to say the least. Try Stir-Fried Cabbage With Cumin Seeds , Hashed Brussels Sprouts With Lemon Zest , Wilted Chard With Pickled Red Onions and String Beans With Ginger and Garlic .

Have you tried Fragrant pears? They're one of the most recently exported fruits from China to the US and really make other Asian pears pale in comparison. They are small and oval, with long stems and light green or yellow skin that will sometimes have a red blush. "The flesh is extraordinarily tender, crisp and juicy.... the flavor is delicate."

Add corn to Thanksgiving dinner. Did you know that corn in mashed potatoes can give it a rich, creamy taste that will fool people into thinking that you've used a ton of butter and cream, but without the fat?

Frank Bruni dines at The Lonesome Dove Western Bistro and gives it a "satisfactory" rating.

• Mom's Roast Turkey, complete with turkey stuffing from Simply Recipes. How could you go wrong with something that Mom made?
• Here's a plan for Thanksgiving for One, which involves a tiny guinea hen instead of an actual turkey, from the Amateur Gourmet.
• Beer Can Smoked Turkey, from Cooking for Engineers, sounds like a good option if you're looking for something a touch less traditional.
• 101 Cookbook's Sage, Walnut and Dried Fig Stuffing is inventive and is baked alongside the bird, not in it.
• If you're a cornbread fan, try the Mushroom, Bacon and Cornbread Stuffing from Something in Season.
• Gluten Free Girl has a recipe for gluten free stuffing, which is perfect for wheat-sensitive dinner guests.
• Four Directions Dressing from Tigers & Strawberries has a bit of just about every stuffing recipe you can think of.
• If you want to learn how to make deep fried turkey, check out the guide from the National Turkey Federation. They offer suggestions for adding additional flavorings, too.

As a bonus, here are some vegetarian "turkey" or turkey-substitute ideas to try out, all of which are nice options to keep non-turkey eaters from feeling limited to side dishes when dinner is being served. Speaking of side dishes, that's what's coming up next in this series.

Frozen turkey thawing timetable
Weight In refrigerator In cold water
4 to 12 pounds 1 to 3 days 2 to 6 hours
12 to 16 pounds 3 to 4 days 6 to 8 hours
16 to 20 pounds 4 to 5 days 8 to 10 hours
20 to 24 pounds 5 to 6 days 10 to 12 hours

There is no doubt that America's Test Kitchen takes Thanksgiving seriously. Not only is it the biggest food holiday of the year, so they have a sort of professional obligation to at least mention it, but they decided to tackle the biggest of all Thanksgiving challenges: Turducken.

Ok, so they didn't make the Turducken - a Turkey stuffed with a duck, stuffed with a chicken - themselves, but they did test out several different suppliers, which is where most of us would turn if we wanted to put one of these creations on our holiday table. They ordered birds from Cajun Specialty Meats, Cajun Creations, and Cajun Grocer, then defrosted and roasted them. Unfortunately, none of the birds turned out well, as all required longer cooking time than indicated on the packaging and, consequently, ended up dry and flavorless. The ATK team also reported that the stuffings and overall presentation were disappointing in general. If you're willing to devote the 12-or-so hours needed to make the real thing, that is the only way to go if you want to serve one to friends and family. You can find a good how-to at Paul Prudhomme's site, as well as here .

The only thing more impressive than a turducken is stuffing even more birds into one giant one. But perhaps ATK will tackle that next year.