I LOVE STUFFING!! It's my favorite side dish!! I haven't had it in over 2 yrs. since my lifestyle change and since losing 124 lbs. I think this season I will make some. Unfortunatly, there is no way to make this without a lot of calories. I'll have to just step up the workouts so I can eat my stuffing.

There's always the risk with stuffing of not cooking it well enough inside the bird.  I personally don't like to over-roast my turkey, so we don't do stuffing.  

Don't really see the point in stuffing myself with mushy bread / veggie filling when they're quality meat to be had.  Stuffing's really a poor mans way to get the calories in....

This recipe for stuffed acorn squash is the best and gluten free
http://www.chooseveg.com/stuffed-acorn-squash.asp

And this is an awesome recipe for gravy which could be made gluten free if you substitute 2 TB of arrow root for the flour
http://www.theppk.com/2010/10/savory-mushroom-gravy/

I love that the gravy can be made even lower in calories if you skip the oil. Then we also mash cauliflower, potatoes and carrots together to make a lower cal version of mashed potatoes.  Chef Chloes Maple roasted brussels sprouts are a family favorite.
http://chefchloe.com/on-the-side/maple-roasted-brussels-spro uts-with-toasted-hazelnuts.html
And I just found this recipe for individual cranberry sauce servings:
http://veganyumyum.com/2007/10/jellied-cranberry-sauce/

 

 

Hey... anyone have a recipe for quinoa dressing... sounds interesting... and YUMMY!! ; )

I remember my (English) Mom referring to the term both stuffing and dressing.  One could "stuff" or "dress" a turkey. 

Dressing a turkey meant dressing it up by stuffing it and tieing the legs and stitching shut the back end (also full of stuffing) with metal scewers. 

And I heard things like the bird is dressed. (addressed--the bird has been addressed? (dawling....)).

Once on the table, I call it dressing to my guests.  Maybe it's a little more refined a word like the difference between supper and dinner. Dawling.....:)

P.S. The Oxford English Dictionary says that the word stuffing dates back to 1538 and is defined as “forcemeat or other seasoned mixture used to fill the body of a fowl, a hollow in a joint of meat, etc., before cooking.” The OED entry for dressing is less specific and states that it is “the seasoning substance used in cooking; stuffing; the sauce, etc.” The Joy of Cooking differentiates between the two by saying it’s stuffing if you put it in the bird, and dressing if you serve it on the side, but the National Turkey Federation says that “both terms are used interchangeably.”

Bottom line: Call it whatever you feel comfortable saying, and enjoy.  Apparently this comes up every year:  Stuffing v/s Dressing

We always called it stuffing, both the stuff in the bird, and i the separate pan. 

I don't stuff it into the bird anymore, but it's still stuffing :)

We always have dressing and I always allow myself to have a little.  I have never liked it cooked in the bird, so we always cook it seperately.  Yes it has a lot of calories, but a holiday dinner without it just wouldn't be the same for me.  Portion control (1/2 cup at most) is how I handle the situation.

We do a traditional bread dressing with lots of celery and onions.  We dice the veggies very fine, cover them with water and simmer for several hours with the giblets from the bird.  We then remove the giblets, add croutons, and season it with drippings from the pan the bird is cooking in.  We put it in a glass cake pan and bake it.  This ensures that it is fully cooked.  Undercooked stuffing is one of the dangers of cooking it inside the bird.  By using the drippings from the bird, our dressing still tastes yummy but we don't risk food poisoning.

Dressing/stuffing is my favorite dish at Thanksgiving. I would be happy if it was the only dish.  Even before we became vegetarians, we never actually stuffed it into the bird though due to the potential health hazards.  Now, it is one of many vegetarian sides that we bring to our family's Thanksgiving Day celebrations. I always insist on making the stuffing as I'm afraid that, if left to someone else, they will slip in chicken broth or other animal products into it.

Stuffing is all we call it up here in the North East! I love it and my sister and I usually make a home made corn bread stuffing and we all love it. Just eat a small protion of stuffing and I am sure you won't undo your day. Or like the poster said it's a holiday why be uptight that day? It's only one day you arent going to gain 5-10 lbs from one big meal. Plus on Thanksgiving that one meal is usually my biggest meal. I start the day with a small 200-250 calorie breakfast then the big meal and maybe some pie or crisp after. I drink water all day as well no alcohol or egg nog at all! We put a lot of veggies into the stuffing as well. I love the holidays and I'm not going to let my calories stress me out at all!

Being notherners, I call it stuffing.  But we've never actually stuffed it inside a piece of meat.  :) 

It's not always easy to mess with a beloved family recipe.  You run the risk of being accused of sacrilege.  Also, you can't always "just add extra vegetables" if the vegetables in question are aromatic, like celery and/or onion.      . . . speaking from personal experience, you also need to take into account your company's preferences and potential allergies.  My mother the onion-hater did not take kindly to my adding extra onion to the recipe, and my systemic system would not appreciate nuts being added!

BUT, I think it is possible to improve on a family tradition.  This year I'm going to try making my grandma's sausage stuffing with turkey sausage and (shh, don't tell anyone!) try including a small zucchini.  Hopefully it'll be bland enough and chopped small enough that nobody will notice. 

Yummmmmmmmmm.... Stuffing! Growing up, it was called stuffing because it was always, always stuffed into something. Then we moved to the US and there was suddenly this extra dish on the table. It kinda looked like stuffing. It kinda tasted like stuffing. Was it stuffing? According to my mom, the stuffing that came in the box did not all fit in the turkey. And the instructions on the box said that we could cook it outside the turkey. And so that is exactly what she did. And it was waaaaaay better than any stuffing cooked in a turkey! So... we now cook our stuffing outside the turkey... and we dress our turkey with a mixture of chopped onion, chopped apple, and garlic. The flavors infuse the turkey more than the traditional stuffing did and the stuffing gets nice and crispy on top for extra deliciousness!!

I use fat free or low fat broth to give stuffing moisture and as it is cooked outside the bird (recommended for food safety) it doesn't absorb any fat. It turns out very well with little or no butter added. The gravy doesn't have to be fatty either. You can refrigerate the pan juices after roasting the bird and remove the solidified fat from the top when completely cooled. It's still delicious.

As a Southener transplanted to the west coast, I've found myself explaining to e eryone what dressing is! Additionally I've had to explain that it's grits (not a singular "grit"), that okra should be covered in cornmeal and fried, and the southern pronunciation of the word "pecan". I use all the drippings from the bird for my dressing so it is extremely high in calories! Hence my weight issues I reckon!

As iamsoonline stated, the term "stuffing" dates from the 16th century and means basically the same as it does today.  The word "dressing" (alternate name for the same food) first came into usage in Victorian England because the term "stuffing" was seen to be at best impolite and at worst downright vulgar.  "Dressing" is probably more commonly used in the south because of the greater cultural ties the south had with England during the Victorian era than did the north where the older pre-Victorian "stuffing" is still used.  

I always get raves on my stufffing and besides some sausage it is healthier than the norm.  I use light Jimmy Dean sausage crumbled and use 2 tablespoons of butter.  I also add about 1 cup mushrooms, 3 carrots shredded, 2 to 3 times the usual amount of celery and onions, chopped nuts and an apple diced. I tear up the bread myself and let it air dry for a day or two, use poultry seasoning to taste, and use chicken or vegetable stock to moisten. 

And I have always called it stuffing even if it is cooked outside the bird.

I have and always will call it stuffing even though we do not actually put it into anything. Our stuffing is made as a side dish in a casserole dish. My mother makes the best stuffing I have ever tasted (A basic cubed bread stuffing with vegetables and herbs), and I have always only liked hers (I hated my grandmother's sausage stuffing. eww).

Anyway, This will be my first Thanksgiving having to eat Gluten Free. It will be a challenge since stuffing was my favorite Thanksgiving food. I have 3 options. Not eat any stuffing at all, eat a bread-free stuffing (made with grains like rice or quinoa), or have a gluten free bread stuffing and risk it not tasting exactly right.

I already planned making gluten free pumpkin pie, and I bought Gluten free turkey gravy. I won't miss eating the dinner rolls, since I haven't eaten them the past few Thanksgivings since trying to lose weight. Luckily the squash, potatoes, and vegetables do not have any gluten, so no problems there.

I always knew it as dressing until I tried to find it in CC! Making the dressing was my specialty by adding a # of cooked chicken gizzards to any of the above recipes. Wish I could convince my niece's friend to let me make it each year but I can only make pies anymore.

my mom puts gizards in her stuffing

 

is that normal? lol

No matter what it is called, I love it!! I am still alive and stuff my turkey and love the flavor and the moistness when done that way.  I have done it many different ways, from my mom's oyster stuffing, to adding nuts and raisins, apples ect, it matters not to me, It is definately a once a year (or twice if made at christmas) dish, so I don't let it stress me.  I pick up day old bread , wheat, rye, whatever and use it and my kids love it.

yes, I have used gizzards also:)

Great blog post Jannid... you rock!  Great comments, too..as a stuffing lover.. dressing too.. I agree that it is best made outside the bird.. HOWEVER... I usually put a combination of halved lemons, oranges, whole garlic, raisins, fresh sage, in the cavity of the bird which produces a FABULOUS flavor for the juices that run from the bird, add a bit of low sodium, non fat organic chicx broth, and some masala, and wow... that be gravy...

Also, I have made tons of different recipes for dressing over the years.. one of my favs is a corn bread base.. cooked up, cubed and then mixed with masala wine, raisins, chipolte or other chilis.. fresh sage, thyme and other spices... oooooweeee that be good stuffin'

This article made me laugh because growing my my entire family always called it stuffing then when I got married my husband's family calls it dressing.  He and I always get in a light-hearted argument over whether it's called stuffing or dressing!  I still maintain that it's stuffing!  ;) 

Original Post by: itsmeeeeeliz

my mom puts gizards in her stuffing

 

is that normal? lol

Not normal for me...I boil the gizzards, neck, heart and liver and eat them while the bird is roasting. That keeps me from noshing while waiting for the turkey. Very delicious!

As I have lived in the south for my entire life, most of the people around me say "dressing", but my family is from PA, so I was brought up with "stuffing". We called it stuffing though we never cooked it inside the bird because my grandma didn't like it that way. Also, gizzards in stuffing are completely normal (I prefer to use them for the gravy, however). My family doesn't eat stuffing regularly, though I could because it's so delicious! It's my favorite Thanksgiving food. When I was younger, I would fill my plate with a mound of stuffing and a little bit of sweet potato, and would  have to be made to eat the turkey and veggies.