I’m not much of a cook. My specialties include dumping whatever I can find in my kitchen in a giant frying pan (I sauté onions and garlic first, of course), and pouring milk on a bowl of Cheerios. But for the last few years now, on Thanksgiving, I’ve tried flexing my puny cooking muscles. Since the holiday is based around food, it seemed like a logical time to give it a go. 

Once I decided I’d put on the proverbial chef’s hat, the question became: What dish should I tackle? What did I most like consuming? Naturally, I turned to beer. But instead of just drinking beer on Thanksgiving, maybe I could cook with it, I thought.

After five minutes of Googling, I learned the bitterness of India Pale Ales is considered a nice compliment to the flavors in roasted garlic mashed potatoes. I even found a recipe that called for Avery’s India Pale Ale, one of my favorite local IPAs. The dish was a big hit last year, and I plan to serve it up again this Thanksgiving. Try this recipe, or, if you already have a favorite roasted garlic mashed potato recipe, just add a few glugs of your favorite Colorado IPA. Go ahead and drink the rest. Cheers.

—Image courtesy of averybrewing.com