I suggest putting onion, red bell pepper, and celery in the stuffing. This is a good time to include garlic, too!
If you want your turkey to be garlic-flavored, you could rub the inside cavity with garlic powder or roasted garlic. You don’t want to cook your stuffing in the turkey - salmonella is no fun - but in a casserole dish.
My family likes sweet potato pie with turkey. Boil and mash the sweet potatoes. Add butter, honey, and cinnamon. Bake in graham-cracker pie crusts, covered with mini-marshmallows.
One important point - get your turkeys on *early*, and don’t get into the wine too much before you have food ready!
Garlic and turkey don’t do well together in the flavor dept in my opine. Try the savory herbs, Rosemary, thyme, things for poultry etc.
You can quite safely stuff your bird, just assure the stuffing temp reaches 165F or so. The stuffing can absorb more juices too, so leave it a bit dry...I don’t generally stuff the bird any more these days, it’s just too much trouble to scoop it all out!!
Olive oil? Nah, BUTTER!! One trick I use is...put a 1/4 stick of butter into the cavity and let it melt and mix with the juices while cooking. Use your baster/brush to suck the juices out and baste every 30 45 mins...a perfect brown bird!!
SNOWY MASHED POTATOES
Potatoes - enough to feed the whole gang
Sour Cream - a tub of it
Philly Cream Cheeze - a package
CHIVES
Garlic
Cream or milk and BUTTAH!!
Peel and Boil taters, smash whip or otherwise mash them up.
Mix in enough sour cream, PhillyCheeze, Chives etc to suit your taste...
Put all back into a casserole dish with some fancy swirls on top, more buttah and some sprinkle cheddar cheeze on top, bake for 15 mins until top is all browned and bubbly cheeze ...
Serve, make sure YOU get some first.
But wouldn't I miss out on a lot of that great turkey juice flavor in the stuffing?