We keep cooking the stuffing inside the bird--the unsafe part is when you leave it in the bird after you take it out of the oven. So we remove it right away, and in my mumblety years of having turkey stuffing, nobody in my family's ever gotten sick from it. And stuffing cooked in the bird is far better than stuffing cooked in a pan, because the turkey juices flavor it so wonderfully.

I doubt I will ever use dressing, even though it's been a side for years.

And this is more what I was talking about, not a cooking definition of the two. Regardless of how you cook it*, there are regions of the country where, if you ask "what do you have for Thanksgiving", people will say "turkey and dressing" and parts where they say "turkey and stuffing" -- it's actually one of the questions that's asked in dialect surveys for mapping projects like this: [link]

* Although now I seriously want to overlay the dialect map with a map of the predominant cooking method to see where and whether they overlap. OMG I AM DORK.

Oh, and I cook it in the pan, but not because of safety -- I like my studressffing* with lots of brown crusty bits, and I like way more of it than would ever fit in the appropriate-sized bird.

* Fake Virginian. So sue me.

Although now I seriously want to overlay the dialect map with a map of the predominant cooking method to see where and whether they overlap. OMG I AM DORK.

I was thinking it would be cool to find the same data....so I think dork is out and perfect conversation here is in.

It's not like we are discussing font types or anything. Chocolate Box font FTW!

I wonder if they get a difference within the same area when they ask the cooks vs. when they ask the non-cooks.

Now I desperately want to watch the West Wing episode when President Bartlett calls the Butterball hotline.

I wonder if they get a difference within the same area when they ask the cooks vs. when they ask the non-cooks.

Probably. S and I were talking this morning (while making dressing, in fact) about how, in contrast to Christmas, the traditional Thanksgiving meal was very much based on everyday food -- some kind of bread dressing could be found with any Sunday roast, so it was something everyone knew how to do -- but now it's become once-a-year stuff that you never see outside of the holidays. The linguistic distinction might just vanish in favor of whatever it says on the packaged stuff (even for those of us who keep making it from scratch).

Just finished making the pumpkin pie. I missed the timer, and it baked for almost twenty minutes longer than I'd intended before I remembered, but it looks perfect.

Now, waiting for a free burner to make my cornbread chestnut stuffing (that stuffing is going in the squash -- my mom's more traditional Jewish New England stuffing is going in the turkey, plus some baked separately, too.) My sister's making spinach and my mom's making soup right now, so no free burners at the moment. I'm watching Prairie Home Companion on TV.

Although now I seriously want to overlay the dialect map with a map of the predominant cooking method to see where and whether they overlap. OMG I AM DORK.

I'm pretty sure Google is working on this kind of map overlay at this very minute.

They are nothing if not dork-enabling.

Happy Thanksgiving, those who celebrate! Happy random day otherwise!

Today's adventure is: will the turkey finish defrosting in time? I started too late with the fridge defrost, so I'm going to switch over to cold water here shortly. Meanwhile, I've gotten the spousal approval to make the sweet rolls actually sweet bread in the bread machine, which would deeply horrify my grandmother, were she alive to be horrified, but is much much much easier, especially on a day like today. I prefer it as rolls, but I can just throw everything in the machine and let it go whilst I do the rest of the cooking.

But like David, I don't have that much left to do today. Several things need finishing today, but the tasks other than the turkey (cranberry sauce, stuffing, corn pudding) are all very simple.

Day of Pie is the day that's fraught, but that's all good already, and our guests last night didn't eat that much of it (we were missing the teenage guests, so not surprising) so we've already tossed some in the freezer for later.

Wishing now I had managed to finish up the cranberry bread, because it sounds good now, but oh well. Breakfast is cafe con leche and irish butter on sourdough bread.