Whether you’re looking for a good make-ahead holiday side or you have a deep-seated fear of mashing taters, this is the recipe for you: Blue Willow Inn’s Holiday Mashed Potatoes.

Because, and I can’t stress this enough, there’s no room for error with mashed potatoes. They’re your fallback food, the one side everybody loves. The buoy they’ll reach for in a sea of cranberry-pear this and roasted squash that. We are hard-wired to love mashed potatoes.

In “A Christmas Story,” what does Randy stick his face into and snort at the dinner table? Mashed potatoes.

What does John Belushi stuff into his cheeks in “Animal House”? Mashed potatoes!

What tasty, delicious material does Richard Dreyfuss sculpt in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”? MASHED POTATOES!

Is there a dance called the Cranberry Sauce? Or the Green Bean Casserole? Nooooooo! I believe the only side dish to hold that honor is the Mashed Potato.

What I’m saying is, when it comes to making mashed potatoes for a holiday meal, you have to BRING IT.

I love the Blue Willow Inn’s Holiday Mashed Potatoes, because you can refrigerate them overnight before baking them – or you can freeze them. Plus, they taste like the filling of a twice-baked potato, with a nice golden crust that reveals a velvety mixture of cream cheese, butter, sour cream, a little onion and … potatoes. The perfect mashed potatoes for snorting, stuffing, sculpting and satisfying everyone at your holiday table.

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Kids put ketchup on everything: French fries, scrambled eggs, hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken fingers. I always wondered why until I read Malcolm Gladwell’s article, “The Ketchup Conundrum.” Basically, ketchup (specifically, Heinz) hits all of our fundamental tastes: sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami. It pushes our “primal buttons.” So, when a child is faced with something new to eat, very often he coats it in a food he trusts: ketchup.

When I’m making something new for dinner, I don’t slide a barrel of ketchup next to the table, but I do pair the unfamiliar with something everyone trusts: the infinitely versatile potato (aka “tater”).

I love these Lemon-Scented Potatoes, because the flavor is spicy and surprisingly bright, and they go with everything. No need for butter, cheese or sour cream when you’ve got a cinnamon stick, cumin, lemon juice and cilantro. Great with Indian and Mexican. Responsible for saving me from the Chinese mahogany chicken disaster of February ‘08.

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Last weekend, we helped my parents move furniture. Large furniture made of wood. Why? Because of the promise of Mom’s homemade chili with all the fixings: cheddar cheese, sour cream and – be still my heart – Fritos. She sent us home with a container of chili. I don’t know about you, but after two bowls of chili, I’m done with chili. So, we decided to use it up on Twice-Baked Potatoes with Chili and Cheese.

When I met Jeff, he was not a fan of the baked potato. Not until he tried my mom’s. Most artists work in oil or marble. She works in tater.

The secret to Mom’s twice-baked potatoes is that she rubs them with extra-virgin olive oil and pats on some Kosher salt before they go into the oven. The skin is so good, Jeff digs out the filling and eats the rest like a taco. No flavor wasted.

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