Everytime I read about stuffing, they are always warning about making sure the interior of the turkey has reached a certain temperature or you should throw the stuffing out. Well if you're going to throw it out, why spend any time on it?
I do a mushy cornbread dressing. My Mama always baked hers so it was stiff and she served giblet gravy with it to soften it. Sir SuziQ's mom cooked hers on top of the stove so it was mushy. I started doing it like my MIL, but cook it in a crock pot to keep it from burning on the bottom, so it is a wonderful flavor and texture; smooth from the mushy cornbread and a little bit crunchy from the onions and celery. A perfect complement to the slightly fruit tinged flavor of the turkey. I made some dressing last week with an oven stuffer roaster. Our oldest was home from college for the weekend, and it is his favorite food!
That's why we never did it inside the turkey. Mom was always paranoid about foods being done enough...
We have a constant debate over dry vs mushy dressing / stuffing. (Of course, ours is the proper breadcrumb dressing rather than cornbread...;-) Some of my more vocal brothers like it mushy...some like it dryish. That comes up EVERY SINGLE YEAR now. Dad usually makes it...that was always his part of the meal, that and loading the turkey into the oven and carving it when it was done.
Here it is not even the end of September, and I'm already starting Thanksgiving discussions! Shame on me!