Garlic Roasted Potatoes!

Sometimes after a long day's work, all you want to do is come home and do NOTHING... unfortunately not an option of adulthood without starving yourself or going out to eat (which I've always try to keep down to a minimum). That being the case, cooking doesn't have to be so daunting either.

Potatoes are so easy. You can boil, broil, bake, mash, roast, grill, or a combination of, the list goes on. I'm sure you get the point. Anyhow, this recipe stemmed from several evolution of other recipes and the results are quite similar in the end (another great thing about potatoes, so forgiving!). 

Originally this recipe came from the back of a bag of potatoes a coworker and I had purchased for our company Brunch Extravaganza that we hold every Friday during grape harvesting season. Both of us love to cook and play around with recipes, so instinctively we took the recipe apart and built a new one, keeping things we like and building on extra ingredients. They were a hit! I could've ate a whole tray of them myself if they'd fit. Downfall, they took sooo long! We decided to bake the potatoes which is fine... but we all know baking takes a bit of time so instead, for my tweak of the recipe, I decided to boil the potatoes first and then finish by baking them. Cuts the time in half and they are just as yummy as the first time around.

Garlic Roasted Potatoes
Ingredients:

• 1-2lbs of small red or Yukon gold potatoes
• 5-6 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped or slightly smashed whole cloves
• 3 tbsp butter
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp thyme (fresh is better)
• salt/pepper
• grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tbsp chopped green onions
• bacon bits
• cayenne pepper (optional)
• paprika (optional)

Procedures:

1. Melt butter/oil together with thyme, garlic, other spices, and a little bit of Parmesan cheese in a microwave until the butter is fully melted (about 30 seconds). Stir to mix
2. Bring a pot of water to boil and cook the potatoes until just tender (about 10 minutes on simmer). Drain potatoes.
3. In a separate large mixing bowl, coat potatoes with butter/oil mixture. Transfer onto a baking sheet. Spread out the potatoes and using a fork or potato masher, gently press each potato so that it breaks open. Sprinkle about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of Parmesan on top and top with bacon bits and green onions
4. Bake at 400 F for about 10-15 minutes or until cheese is golden brown