Whether you call it filling, dressing, or stuffing (and whether you know that, to some, there is a distinction between each); whether you make it from sourdough, cornbread, or white bread (or spelt if you're sensitive to wheat or are Ancient Roman); whether you embellish it with chestnuts, oysters, cranberries or chorizo; no Thanksgiving table is complete without stuffing.

It plumps up in the roasting turkey's cavity and then cozies up to the finished product on your plate -- and both benefit, as your taste buds do (though your waistline doesn't), from a generous dousing of gravy. Like meatloaf, there are as many recipes for it as there are cooks to prepare it, and, also like meatloaf, nearly every cook thinks theirs is definitive. To its fans, the reason we call it stuffing is not the technical definition -- a working understanding of which could be "any food that fills, at least theoretically, a cavity in another food" -- but the obvious fact that you "stuff" it into "your face."

• Saute sausage until crispy, drain, then rinse with water. (I usually leave out the rinse.)
• Saute the onions and celery, then mix with the sausage and add Bell's.
• Mix together the parsley and bread, add the saute mix, then the egg.
• Squeeze and mix the stuffing with your hands until it sticks together. If it looks too dry, add some broth or water.
• Cover and refrigerate until ready to stuff turkey.

• add a variety of mushrooms to the mix
• use a mix of sausages -- Mennonite, elk, etc.
• use a gourmet bread and approximate the same amount

.

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.