Ok I have another Greek recipe, tastes great room temp and can be made a day or two in advance. I would recommend heating up morning of or maybe just pulling out of fridge till it reaches room temp before serving. This recipe I got from greek.food.com and I actually just made it two weeks ago for company. I made a few changes - parsley instead of cilantro, and I used zucchini plus eggplant. I also used two fresh tomatoes and one large can of san marzano whole peeled tomatoes. This was for about double the recipe below. The key to this is just making sure you cook it long enough. Other than that you can add as many veggies as you like in whatever combination you want. Just make sure you add enough seasoning and tomato to cover any extra veggies you add. This is for 6 servings - I doubled for about 12 ppl as a side and had maybe 2-3 servings leftover. 5 large zucchini, washed and scrubbed and cut crosswise into 1/4 inch thick slices 4 large potatoes, peeled and cut crosswise into 1/4 inch thick slices (I used red and russet both came out well) 3 -4 garlic cloves, sliced thin 1 large onion, peeled, cut in half, each half cut into thirds, large wedges (Spanish or Bermuda) 2 large tomatoes, peeled and quartered 1/4 lb hard cheese, cut into large chunks (I use 'kefalograviera or 'myzithra' which you may not have, something like Parmesan would be excellent) I have also made it with out any cheese, tastes just as good. 1/2 cup olive oil 1/4 cup water 1 tablespoon oregano 2 tablespoons fresh spearmint, minced (or 1 tsp dry) (Can be omitted) 2 tablespoons cut cilantro (optional) (I use Parsley) Salt and Pepper Preheat oven to 420 Mix all ingredients in a large roasting pan. Cook for approx 2 1/2 hours stirring about every 30 minutes or so. You really want everything to be kind of melted together. Melissa

Thanks all. Tib, I read that refrigerating the potatoes brings out the starch but it sounds like they are fine that way. If I could peel them the night before it would be a cinch to throw them together on Tday! Lvmadison, thank you for the recipe, they are very close to the ones I made last year. Ann, I was turned off by the cream cheese at first too but honestly they just taste like luscious creamy mashed. You would never know they were a casserole if you didn't see them in the casserole dish. Lars, I like the way you think using a pressure cooker, I don't have one but you are right about the peeling being the worst. The Ree Drumond potatoes do have cream cheese in them but my whole family said they were the best mashed potatoes they ever had so why mess with success? I will do the peeling tomorrow night stow them in the fridge and get them ready to bake.

I peel my sweet potatoes and russet potatoes with the apple peeler/corer manual crank machine without using the corer that was talked about recently. Slice them on a good mandoline that has an adjustable thickness dial or alternate thick blade. Note: I did not like the "caramelized" onions in the crock pot. They never caramelized, just sort of steamed and got limp but no browning after hours and hours. Stirring a bunch of onions every once in a while in a cast iron skillet with just 1 T of butter and some salt did the trick for me. I also added a dash of sugar near the end. The French onion soup it was made into was so well worth the time. I doubled everything and put the finished soup (not the bread or cheese) in freezer boxes for almost instant lunches later. Single serving sizes worked best for reheating. Nancy

We had really cheap potatoes here for about a week last summer. Don't know what got into me, but I ended up with 15 pounds of potatoes. I made up batches of scalloped potatoes (baked and froze them). But back to your question -- I peeled, cut, boiled and seasoned potatoes. Drained and cooled them - then packaged them and froze for future mashed potatoes. Just defrost, heat, mash and add your usual ingredients to finish up. Be sure to cook off the excess moisture after draining (that's something I always do anyway, but particularly important before freezing). I use a Food Saver vacuum sealer for freezing. If you have a vacuum sealer, you could prepare them to the mashing stage and seal and store in your refrigerator for a few days without a problem. I would reheat in a double boiler or in a bowl over hot water.