Find good, freshly dug potatoes. If they are nice, don't peel them, just scrub and dig out any weird eyes. Cover (just barely cover!) with *cold, (sea)salted* water. I cannot stress the cold and the salt enough. Cold water means the potatoes will take a bit longer to cook and more flavor will be coaxed out of them. Salt means they will taste like potatoes.

Lift the cooked poatoes out of the water and mash with a masher. If you want to be fancy, mash them in your lovely Kitchenaid mixer. Add a few good glugs of good olive oil, sea salt, and more pepper.

Be like your old-world grandma and save the potato-cooking water -- use it to thin out the gravy, below.

If you have little bits of veggies (broccoli, carrots, onions, cabbage, garlic, greens, parsley, sage, thyme) or tempeh lying around, cut them into small bits and saute the hell out of them in olive oil until they are nicely browned at the edges and add them to the taters. kale is especially nice.

When you have your gravy and your taters but the taters are a bit cold because you made them first so you could use the water in the gravy, spread them onto a Pyrex pie plate and spread the gravy over them. Heat in a 375°F oven for 20 or so minutes, covered with foil.

Miso-shiitake-beer gravy (adapted from Bloodroot)
This makes about 1 1/2 quarts gravy.

Place 6 dried shiitake mushrooms (or just use fresh shiitakes, in that case, skip the soaking step), 1 seeded dried ancho chile pepper, and 2 sundried tomatoes in a bowl. Cover with boiling water and set aside.

Mince 1 small onion and slice  1-2 cloves garlic. When shiitakes have softened, squeeze liquid back into bowl and slice mushrooms thinly. Sauté shiitakes, onion, and garlic in 1/3 c grapeseed oil. When onions are pretty dark brown, add  1/3 c flour and 1⁄4 c nutritional yeast.

Use a blender to puree ancho chile, sundried tomatoes, and liquid in bowl. Add to pot together with 1 1⁄2 c water, 1 bottle of a honey brown ale, 1⁄2 ts. dried thyme, 1⁄2 ts. dried basil, 2 bay leaves, 2 Tb. tamari, 1⁄4 c miso (brown or red), and 2-3 Tb. tomato paste.

Simmer 15 minutes or so, taste, and add adjust seasonings. You might want to add water if it is too strong.
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