When i was a kid i wouldn’t eat mashed potatoes. Now i do. And if they have enough stuff in them to be tasty, i guess i sometimes even enjoy them. But they really aren’t anything like a comfort food.
I love mashed potatoes, or I should say I love mine. Anything else and I’m very wary of them.
I’ve never heard of doing pepper in a meatloaf, I’m not sure how I feel about that.
The last time I made meatloaf, I did mini ones. I think I like it because I make it so rarely that when we have it, it’s something different. I really feel as though we get into ruts around my house with what we eat a lot of the time.
Garlic in a good mashed potato is nice.
Not “creamed potatoes”! Hate those.
I want some body to the tater. (No skins, tho’. It’s a Me thang)
My sister puts a small curd cottage cheese in hers. Those are good.
That’s how my brother-in-law made his “mashed medley.” I loved it. Very tasty and a perfect comfort food.
There was a place in Santa Monica called Chez Jay (don’t know if it’s still there). It was more of a bar, but they had good food, too. Their “speciality” was mashed potatoes with banana. Oddly, it wasn’t disgusting. The banana flavor did not predominate.
On edit: They’re still around (established in 1959), but I didn’t see the mashed potatoes on their current menu. Sad.
Colcannon is okay, but I prefer clapshot.
I had never heard of clapshot, but it sounds delicious. And served with haggis would be even better.
Soup is supposed to be a comfort food, but to me it seems like a hot beverage, not a food. If the tiny bits of meat become big enough that it’s no longer soup and is now a stew–then I am interested. (That being said, I prefer my stew to be in a sauce rather than a broth.)
Mom’s baked Mac n’ Cheese was equal parts pasta and sharp cheese, random amounts of butter and milk, probably an egg or two, with crumbled Ritz crackers on top - baked in a loaf pan until firm enough to slice. Leftovers were slices heated in a skillet until just a bit crunchy on one side. I need to lose the damn microwave and get back to my roots…
I read through the whole thread and I think the only ones for me that are meh are pancakes (though I suspect I would like @Chefguy ‘s cornmealed version) and baked mac and cheese (stovetop is good, and Kraft was nostalgia-in-a-box for us expats when I I lived abroad.)
As for meatloaf, I like it fine and it typically wasn’t made with peppers when I had it growing up (and when I make it.) I’ve certainly had that version, but I don’t consider it part of the archetypal meatloaf. I love capsicums of any sort so they don’t bother me. (This spring and summer I’ve been making loads of ajvar, a roasted red pepper and eggplant spread from the Balkans and can’t get enough of the stuff. That’s a comfort food for me, when served with cevapi—skinless meat sausages with garlic—and lepinja/somun, a regional flatbread.)
Garlic is very good in mashed potatoes. As far as the texture, it often depends what I’m having them with. I do enjoy them very creamy, but sometimes they need to have a bit more lumps if you will.
When I say I like “creamy” mashed potatoes, I don’t mean “runny” or “near liquified.” They should be thick and starchy without lumps, like little white mounds of buttery goodness.
If I liked mac & cheese, I would definitely try making this if for no other reason than to crunch up those leftover slices.