Previously, I asked for your comfort foods, and some of you provided some lovely, wonderful recipes, which I am popping up here so that you can all see and enjoy.

 






ETA:
And if there are more out there that people want to throw out for all of us to try, do!  Favorite recipes!  Comfort Foods!  Yummy drinks!

ETA:  And I forgot to mention that brad_beaulieu has just started a new cooking blog here.  He wants some feedback and some participation. Go check it out.

Every year at Thanksgiving we go to a potluck held by some friends of ours.  Many gather.  Early on, I made the mistake choice to bring garlic mashed potatoes.  Ever since, we've been told we won't be let in the door unless we bring them.  This is a recipe I made up on the fly, tossing in pretty much everything that sounded like comfort food.

Ingredients:
10lbs potatoes, peeled and boiled (okay, I've made them not peeled and boiled them in small chopped up bits and kept the skins, which is tasty, but you lose a lot of the starch of the potatoes and thus a lot of the creamy texture.

5 or six HEADS roasted garlic (roast them with some olive oil and squeeze them out while still warm--works better, and I usually do this the day before)  It usually ends up being about a cup (not packed down really) of roasted cloves.

package of bacon, cooked crispy

pound of SHARP cheddar cheese grated

sour cream--probably a couple of cups

A whole (large) onion, maybe a little more (use two if they're small and I like to use sweet onions)

Salt and pepper


Puree together the onion, garlic, bacon until it's as smooth as it can be.  Then take half the hot potatoes and put them in a deep pot (I use a big Les Crueset roaster/dutch oven).  Use a beater to start mashing them.  Add half the puree mix, half the sour cream, a couple handsfull of cheese and some salt (I sometimes use white pepper too).  Get that all mixed and then repeat with the second half of everything (it's really difficult to get it sufficiently unclumpy if you try to do it all at once.). I use a big flat scraper to fold it all together (and make sure it's mixed. 

That's it.  It's really garlicky.  It won't be completely smooth and creamy like traditional mashed potatoes because of the bacon.  And I don't care.  Luckily I don't end up bringing much (usually not any) home.  This is a once a year thing I make.  Good comfort food though.  I've thought it would be good with spinach and/or bell pepper, and perhaps other kinds of cheeses, but I didn't want a color change.  So I haven't tried it.

So what about you?  Do you have special Thanksgiving food you make?  Or maybe special comfort food?