Comfort Food at its Best

• Cheesy Tomato Casserole
• Chicken-and-Cornbread Casserole
• John's Creole Red Beans
• Boarding House Meat Loaf
• Meat Loaf Sauce

Don't miss this tempting collection of recipes gathered from some of the South's most famous family style eateries. We adapted timeless favorites from The Dinner Bell in McComb, Mississippi; The Jarrett House in Dillsboro, North Carolina; and Miss Mary Bobo's Boarding House in Lynchburg, Tennessee. All are made with familiar ingredients, many of which are probably already in your pantry.

 John's Creole Red Beans and Boarding House Meat Loaf are sure crowd-pleasers and the leftovers are freezer friendly. We suggest making Cheesy Tomato Casserole and Chicken-and-Cornbread Casserole the day before you plan to serve them because they don't freeze well. Cheesy Tomato Casserole begins with canned whole tomatoes and has a prep time of only 15 minutes before you put it in the oven, so it's a snap to pull together for dinner.

"Comfort Food at its Best" is from the March 2006 issue of Southern Living.