48% of those polled by the New York Times placed the Turkey as their favorite part of the holiday feast. The runner-up (with about 25% of the vote) was stuffing. I would've voted for the runner-up! Sure, turkey, mashed potatoes, glazed yams and all the rest are essential to the feast, but for my money, the dressing IS the meal (that and the gravy!). Everything else is just . . . dressing!

This isn't a fancy recipe, although it can easily be made into one. It's a basic formula that can be altered in many ways. No stuffing crumbs from the supermarket - just ordinary bread with better flavor, texture, and price. Simple ingredients and simple preparation.

Take this recipe and run with it; modify, add, and experiment to your heart's content and to the joy of those you love. I've included a few ideas to get you going . . .

The Basic Recipe

• 2 sticks (a half-pound) of butter
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 tbsp thyme
• 1 tsp sage
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 2-1/2 lbs of bread, cubed or torn
• 1 bunch celery, chopped
• 2 cups cold milk
• 2 cups cold broth

Melt butter in saucepan and saute onion, thyme, sage, salt and pepper until the onions are barely tender. Place celery (uncooked) and bread cubes in a very large bowl.

Remove onion/butter/herb blend from the heat and add broth and milk to it. Pour mixture over bread/celery mix, and blend thoroughly and gently with a wooden spoon or wooden spatula.

Stuff bird (rub the cavity with lemon first) and roast in a preheated oven (10-20 minutes per pound at 325^o for turkey, 10-30 minutes per pound for chicken; baste frequently in either case). Bake excess alone in foil or casserole for 30-45 minutes, depending on desired crust (alternately, the entire batch can be baked this way).

The recipe makes a gallon of stuffing, enough for a family of eight as part of a holiday feast. The basic recipe assumes canned chicken stock (Swanson's is good). However, fresh stock is much tastier (and cheaper!). If you've got fresh (unsalted) stock handy, add an extra teaspoon of salt. The ingredients for this recipe should cost less than $5.00, plus the price of the seasonings if the spice-rack needs replenishing.

Notes and Options

This is a basic ``two-loaf'' recipe; two loaves of most commercially-available breads total about 2.5 lbs (weight is given as a guideline to those using many different breads, or homemade bread). One large onion is good for about 2 cups chopped, and 1 bundle of celery makes 3 cups chopped. A turkey-sized roasting pan, devoid of poultry, can handle a heaped-up-piled-up double batch if you're seriously into your stuffing.

Don't use dried ``stuffing crumbs.'' It's needlessly expensive! However, the thyme/sage blend can be replaced with a quality brand of Poultry Seasoning with no loss in flavor. What's in ``poultry seasoning'' varies widely from brand to brand (some cheaper brands have a lot of cheap ``filler'' herbs). McCormick's is a very good blend which favors thyme.

Optional Seasonings: The addition of any or all of a pinch of marjoram, 4 tbsp lemon juice, 2 tsp celery seed, 1 1/2 cups parsely, 3/4 cups bacon bits, 1/4 tsp cayenne, 1/2 cup chopped leeks (replacing onion entirely), 1 tsp seasoning salt (replacing part of the plain salt), 1 tbsp Chinese Hot Oil, or 4 tbsp olive oil will certainly enhance it.

Further Additions: Putting a little extra substance in the stuffing is good. Try an egg, or 1 cup chopped mushrooms, 1 cup of diced ham, 1/2 cup of chopped nuts, or 3 slices of chopped, crisp bacon. Diced, cooked giblets work well, but they are better used in making gravy (see below). A half-cup of hot italian sausage (chopped as thoroughly as possible) does nice things, too.

Chilled Stuffing: Make the ``raw'' (unbaked) stuffing a day in advance, and keep chilled in the refrigerator overnight before stuffing the bird and/or baking the stuffing. This allows the flavors to blend.

Multi-Bread: Go crazy with bread! Stale biscuits (the unsweetened white-flour pastry-kind, for those of you outside the U.S.), bagels, soft pretzels, wheat, pumpernickel, rye, sourdough, saltines, and anything else even vaguely bread-like works. Clean out the fridge! Whether to toast the bread first is a matter of personal taste. If you enjoy home-baking, make the bread fresh; it will VASTLY improve the stuffing! A cornbread blend is best for chicken or pork.

Charlie Brown Stuffing: Don't knock this 'till you try it, and the kids will love you for it if you remember to tell them what they're eating: Add 1/2 cup crushed potato chips and 1/2 cup broken pretzel sticks to the sautee at the same time the broth is added. Add a little extra milk, too.

Stuffin Muffins: Instead of baking in casserole or bird, bake stuffing in muffin pans; one batch will make about 30 half-cup croquettes. Reduce baking time by 15 minutes.

Bachelor Stuffing

• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 stick of butter
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp salt
• Half-loaf of bread, cubed or torn
• 3 stalks of celery, chopped
• 1 cup cold milk or broth

No, not for stuffing dead bachelors; for feeding live ones. This is a variant of the main recipe scaled-down to one-fourth of the normal size, for bachelors, recluses, gamers, and other shut-ins. When scaled down to this level, the dressing can be prepared using a small saucepan and a two-quart mixing bowl, and baked in any small oven-safe pan.

Follow the instructions for the normal recipe. Makes a good dirt-cheap lunch if you toss on some leftover chicken meat and a little gravy, or a side dish in a holiday-dinner-for-two, or dinner-for-one with leftovers.

Perfect Giblet Gravy

• giblets and/or neck parts
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 tsp Thyme
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 cup turkey fat (from pan drippings)
• 1/2 cup flour

Place giblets and/or neck in a pot with onion, thyme and pepper. Add six cups cold water. Bring to a boil and skim, then simmer, covered, while the bird roasts.

When the bird is done, strain broth into a bowl and discard solids. Salt broth at this point if desired; 1.5 tsp is recommended (about half the salt of canned broth). Add drippings or milk to the giblet broth to bring it back up to 6 cups of fluid.

Collect 1/2 cup of pan-drippings from the bird and make a roux with the flour. Cook the roux lightly and add the broth (slowly, a half-cup at a time) to it to make gravy.

Serve immediately; giblet gravy is the essential accompaniment to dressing, sliced turkey, and mashed potatoes!

Happy Holidays to everybody . . . cook because you love to see them eat. Make them watch themselves because you love to see them healthy! Which, unfortunately, means going easy on things like stuffing . . . Ah, heck. It's just once a year . . !