I enjoy greeting guests with one easy-to-drink, warming, welcoming cocktail when they walk in the door. For my Comfort Food dinner party, I offered Old Fashioneds (because what's more comforting than a sturdy glass of good bourbon) and Snow Cosmos, which are fall-appropriate Cosmos with their white cocktail juice and cranberry garnish. Pre-mashing the sugar cube and bitters in rocks glasses for the Old Fashioneds and making a small pitcher of the Cosmos made it easier on me when it was time to serve.

On Tuesday, I posted about the Potatoskinadilla, which is my favorite appetizer and is filled with crucial Comfort Food ingredients: potatoes, bacon, cheese and butter. I highly recommend it for ANY party, I don't care if it's a Comfort Food party or a glucose-free, meat-free, lactose-free extravaganza. I also served BLT Bites and, as a way to offer up some veggies, Ina Garten's Herb Dip.

Making the filling and biscuits before guests arrived (I kept the filling on the stove and stored the biscuits on wax paper in the fridge), made these Biscuit-Topped Chicken Pot Pies a breeze to assemble and cook while guests were there. I served tater tots and a simple salad dotted with goat cheese on the side. If you would rather have a main dish that is complete before guests arrive, you could serve this Tuscan-Style Pot Roast over slices of grilled French bread.

One of my favorite developments in the Comfort Food movement is the boozy milkshake. Why should children have all the fat and fun? Most of the milkshakes I found require a certain level of work, like this Salted Bourbon Caramel Milkshake from Guy Fieri. But who has the time or interest in making a complicated dessert after a long, delicious, butter-rich meal? I put a gallon of good vanilla ice cream in the blender, added good caramel sauce and a bunch of bourbon, and served a cup of boozy milkshake and two good, bakery-bought cookies to eight guests.