For many, comfort food doesn’t get much better than pot roast with mashed potatoes and gravy. Cooked stovetop, it won’t take long for the aroma of pot roast to waft through the house. For those coming past the front door, a pot roast supper speaks, “Welcome home,” like nothing else.

When pot roast is cooking covered on top of the stove, it is always wise to leave a potholder closeby. Predictably, someone feels compelled to sneak an enthusiastic peak (and taste) at what smells so good and forgets that lids tend to be very hot. Burned or not, nobody has ever complained, though. After all, this is comfort food.

Should your loved ones be in need of extra comforting, dessert in the form of a Bundt cake will leave them deliriously comfortable. Although the taste of Almond Bundt Cake may be familiar to some (the recipe has appeared on the back of the Solo Almond Cake and Pastry Filling can for decades), the shape of the cake, baked in Nordic Ware’s 10-cup capacity 70th Anniversary Crown Bundt Pan, will be a surprise. Debuting just this past March, the pan combines form with function. With its elegant gold metallic finish and nonstick, easy-release interior, it already comes to us gift-wrapped for the upcoming holidays.

It is hard to fathom that we are near the end of October, with just weeks to go before the busiest and most hectic time of the year is upon us. Time for comfort may soon be hard to come by, so make it and bake it while you can.

Sue Ade is a syndicated food writer with broad experience and interest in the culinary arts. She has worked and resided in the Lowcountry of South Carolina since 1985 and may be reached at kitchenade@yahoo.com.