When potatoes get too simple, smash them

Meat and potatoes seems pretty simple until that's what it is, too simple. Sometimes boiled and baked potatoes get boring. We were planning steak for dinner and since we have no fresh chives yet, I wanted to try something different. We saw similar potatoes on a food show so I went hunting for a recipe. I opted to change things a little, I dumped a bunch of minced garlic in the olive oil - because why not? I also skipped the cheese, but I think that would be a great addition. These potatoes turned out crunchy and really good. They were a welcome change in the potato world. Even my kids ate them, skin and all! They are fun to mash with a masher, but don’t get too crazy or you’ll just have flat mashed potatoes on a pan. We also roasted asparagus for dinner too since we had the oven to the right temp - that went over well with our asparagus lovers (of which I am not).

Crash Hot Potatoes

Ingredients
12 whole new potatoes (or other small round potatoes)
3 tbsp. olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
Kosher salt, to taste
Black pepper, to taste
Rosemary (or other herbs of choice), to taste
Parmesan, finely grated

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add in as many potatoes as you wish to make and cook them until they are fork-tender.
Drizzle a sheet pan with olive oil. Place tender potatoes on the sheet pan, leaving plenty of room between each potato.
With a potato masher, gently press down each potato until it slightly mashes, then push the excess out of the masher back on top of the potatoes. Rotate the potato masher 90 degrees and mash again, pushing out the excess. Drizzle the tops of each crushed potato generously with more olive oil mixed with garlic.
Sprinkle potatoes with kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper and fresh chopped rosemary (or chives or thyme or whatever herb you have available.) Add grated Parmesan.
Bake in a 450 degree oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and sizzling.