Sometimes it’s the little touches that can make a meal special, especially if the entrée is a simple piece of grilled or roasted food. These dishes are for small bites or accompaniments, from hors d’oeuvre to serve before dinner to all range of side dishes.

Also included are a few recipes for sausage stuffings, or dressings, depending on where you live. Stuffings are side dishes that shouldn’t be limited to Thanksgiving or the occasional chicken dinner, but should be served more frequently with any roasts or grilled meats and seafood.

If you do stuff a bird, never do so in advance of cooking. Warm, moist stuffing provides a great breeding ground for bacteria, especially nasty ones as such salmonella and E. coli. (That’s why I never buy one of the pre-stuffed chickens or chicken breasts in the supermarket.)

To stuff a roasting chicken or turkey, make the mixture just before putting the bird in the oven. The stuffing will be warm and pass through the danger zone of 40°F to 140°F as quickly as possible once it goes into the oven. If the stuffing was made in advance, reheat it in a microwave oven and then stuff the chicken. Make sure the stuffing reaches the same 165°F as the bird before it’s taken out of the oven. Also, use two to three fewer tablespoons of stock because juices are absorbed from the bird too.