Perfect Mashed Potatoes

The classic mashed potato recipe! Cooking tips: If you leave the skin on the potatoes, mash them with a potato masher rather than an electric mixer (because the skin will get caught in the beaters). If you want to use a potato ricer, wait to add the butter until after you've passed the potatoes through the ricer.

Cheesy Potato Soup

Potato, bacon and cheese--all the flavors you love in a bowl of soup! The American cheese keeps the soup from curdling while it slow cooks. Mashing cooked potatoes a bit gives the soup some body, while the bacon adds a smoky-salty taste.

Grilled Sweet Potato Wedges with Dipping Sauces

Use either unpeeled sweet potatoes or russet potatoes for these easy grilled potato wedges. Cook wedges in boiling water first to shorten grill time. Serve with Creamy Chive Sauce or Honey Sesame Sauce.

Smoked Turkey and Sweet Potato Hash

This colorful one-skillet meal lends itself to improvisation; you could trade the red sweet peppers for green, the spinach for kale, the turkey for ham or the fried eggs for scrambled. Of course, we think the original recipe is pretty darn perfect, with a blend of potatoes and tasty browned onions whose caramelly flavor ties the dish together.

Herbed Egg-Potato Bake

Potato Bacon Skillet

People love the sounds of food cooking in iron skillets. The irresistible combination of Cajun andouille sausage and bacon bump up the flavor of this home-style breakfast dish. A cast-iron skillet browns it best.

Fingerling Potato Salad with Honey-Thyme Vinaigrette

You'll have more Honey-Thyme Vinaigrette than you need for this fresh-tasting potato salad; keep the extra dressing on hand for another potato or pasta salad. The recipe is from Chicago chef Myk Banas.

Pick the right potato

Starchy potatoes mash, bake, fry and roast well, while waxy ones work best in casseroles and salads because they hold their shape. Look for smooth, firm spuds without cracks or soft spots. Whether you peel is your choice.

New potatoes (pictured): Young potatoes, any variety, have very thin skins, less starch and a waxy texture. Best for boiling, grilling and roasting.Russets: Also called Idaho or baking potatoes, these thick-skinned tan spuds are mealy with lots of eyes and a high starch content. Best for baking, grilling, mashing, frying.Round white potatoes: With light beige skin and white flesh, these medium-starch, waxy-textured potatoes work for boiling and frying.Long white potatoes: The thin-skinned oval spuds' firm, waxy texture and tiny eyes make them an all-purpose choice.Round red potatoes: Thin-skinned, these rosy-colored potatoes have a firm, waxy texture. Use in dishes where shape is important.Yellow potatoes: These thin-skinned beauties come in varieties such as Yukon gold and Finnish yellow. They're smooth-textured and buttery--good for any dish.Sweet potatoes: These spuds fall into two categories: orange, moist and sweet, or yellow, dry and unsweet. Either kind is good for baking, grilling, roasting and boiling.