I cook stuffing in the turkey, and out of it. That way there's enough for everyone, and the vegetarians cant complain.

I do the same thing, Jars. I used to make one with mushrooms and one without, as well.

Who cooks stuffing in the turkey?

Raises hand

Or my family does. Granted, it's not bread stuffing, but pork stuffing (basically the same filling as for a pork pie, but with bread crumbs instead of potato as a binder). It's pre-cooked, but goes in cold. Never had a problem with food poisoning, probably because there's not much absorption room by the time the turkey gets stuffed.

I don't cook my stuffing in the turkey because I butterfly my turkies (ergo, no "inside' to stuff anything -- the stuffing goes in a disposable casserole pan underneath the turkey, which sits on a broiler pan or wire rack to let the drippings through).

[eta: And the vegetarian stuffing goes in a separate casserole pan cooked away from the drippings.]

That said, the whole food poisoning issue would be a lot more convincing to me if I'd ever met even one person who got sick from undercooked stuffing. (And I've had the Salmonella of Near-Death, so it's not like I take it lightly.)

Yeah, I cook the dressing outside, but because it takes forever and cooks unevenly if you stuff -- nsm because of the salmonella.

Gud, what your wife is doing sounds a lot like the way I've acted when I've been severely depressed.

I remember getting those thin envelopes from the bank knowing those were overdraft notices and throwing them away because it was too much to deal iwth. And then going and spending more money. I had a debit card and would say "it's not working right, can you run it like a credit card". I think I ended up over drawn by nearly $2000. My parents had to bail me out. I had a couple of bounced checks that went to the Attorney General that I had to take care of and I wasn't allowed to have a debit card for nearly a year.

Sleeping lots is also familiar. I would get overwhelmed or really numb and just try to sleep and think that I'd sleep until "things got better." Which is impossible but at the time I didn't care about that or much of anything. Just lots of numb.

ITA with Jess on the not afraid of stuffing salmonella.

Our practice is to jam as much stuffing as physically possible inside the bird, and then have a whole bunch of extra cooked alongside.

Gud, what your wife is doing sounds a lot like the way I've acted when I've been severely depressed.

Yeah, it really, really does.

ALWAYS the stuffing in the turkey.

I'm from a huge-ass family. In the course of my life I've been to, what, 35 thanksgivings? With a sum total of some six hundred PLUS guests? I've never seen a single case of salmonella from the damn stuffing.