Herb Seasoned Smashed Potatoes

OK friends, this is just one of those recipes that is super easy, and absolutely delicious. The kind where you proclaim, “That’s it?!” after taking your baking sheet out of the oven. The type where once all the food has been eaten, you want to make it again the next night. It’s just that easy and good!

Before I did the blogging thing, I was addicted to Pinterest. Let’s be honest here, I had a few friends that had dabbled in blogging, but I just didn’t know what it really was, and didn’t know how to subscribe to emails of their feed, and it seemed like a lot of work to go to their blog daily. I GET IT. A while back I discovered Pinterest, and you see all these amazing recipes and delicious food photos that look like they belong in a magazine. And you go pin-crazy. Yep, that was me! I pinned way more recipes than I could ever possibly cook! I also learned just because it looks good in the photo doesn’t mean your mouth will be bored when you’re eating it.

Fast forward, now I’m a blogger myself. Sometimes I look back on all those pins I re-pinned and posted and I get inspired to try something. I may follow it exactly as written and sometimes I may just use a few basic ideas to inspire me for something completely different. In the beginning I had pinned this recipe from The Pioneer Woman. I had heard about her, but wasn’t an avid reader on the blogging scene. So I didn’t even know it was her recipe until a few weeks ago I had a bag of small potatoes and wanted to make something with them. That’s when I remembered that pin with the little smashed potatoes. Opened it up and discovered it was a recipe by Ree Drummond! I mentioned a few weeks ago that I’m attending the BlogHer Food conference, and the closing party will be co-hosted by Ree Drummond herself. Fun times!

Anyhow, I decided to make these little gems. They were so good! Good as in, my family requested I make them again the next night. And also serve them with eggs for breakfast, and we started planning tons of other meals and food they would be great with! I’d love them with a fried egg on top, pop the yolk and dribbles down in the seasoned potatoes. Mmmmm!

Anyway, I used round yellow potatoes instead of the red ones, and seasoned them just a little differently but it’s one of those recipes that would probably be great with whatever seasonings you choose!

Ingredients:

• A pot full (Ree says 12, but I have a larger family so I added some extra!) of small round potatoes (red, yellow, doesn’t matter!)
• A few tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• salt and pepper (I used my Spicy Sea Salt and Pepper Seasoning)
• Herbs of choice (the first time I used Rosemary, second time used Marjoram and Thyme)

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Start by boiling the potatoes in salted water until they begin to soften.

Once tender, drizzle the olive oil all over the pan (I lined mine in foil because, let’s face it, I need new baking sheets). Be heavy-handed with the olive oil, we don’t want potatoes sticking! Now lay out all the potatoes, leaving room for them to spread.

Now get your masher and press down on each potato till it flattens a bit.

Brush each smashed potato with more olive oil, be generous!

Add your salt, pepper and herbs. Place them in the preheated oven and set your timer for 20-25 minutes.

Your kitchen will smell so good, and these little beauties will be golden with crispy edges. If you like them a little crisper you can add a few minutes to the cooking time.

The night of these photos we served these potatoes with my pulled pork sliders. It was a great alternative to fries! You should make these tonight with dinner! Enjoy!