Get this deliciousness in your mouth. Like right now.

So first off, I wanted to apologize for being so absent the last little bit! You see, it was my birthday recently, and I got a bit selfish. I didn't want to cook dinner, I wanted to go out to dinner! And the birthday boy gets what he wants! Also, JP gave me a bouquet of spatulas. Love that man!

So, on to food! The other day, while tuning out some conversation or another, I inevitably started to daydream about food. More specifically, while I was off in my own little world and not paying attention to whomever was babbling on about something, I was thinking about something that Ina Garten said in one of her shows. She claims that roasting shrimp for shrimp cocktails is the single best way to add huge volumes of flavor to something that is otherwise rather bland. Somehow, my mind made the jump over to mashed potatoes. I'm guessing it's because of the similar preparation methods of boiling the crap out of the main ingredient, but I can't be sure. So, I started to think about how I make my roasted potatoes; lots of garlic and rosemary, some olive oil, salt and pepper. That sounds like way more flavor to me than what you get out of normal mashed potatoes. Hmm... The gears started turning. So, I'll tell you what I did. Cue theme music, and grab some potatoes! And garlic!

Then, rosemary! We need rosemary! 

Pretty, huh? So, I chopped it all up and tossed it together in a bowl. Added the necessary olive oil, salt and pepper that is pretty ubiquitous throughout all of my cooking.

Take a second to notice that I left the garlic cloves whole. There is reason for this: when you roast whole garlic cloves, something magical happens. The garlic turns all buttery and nutty and delicious and amazing and... excuse me, I'm starting to drool a bit. The thing is, I roasted this on pretty high heat. If I had chopped up the garlic, it would have just burned, and that doesn't make things taste very nice, does it?

So, into a roasting pan (of sorts. I have a small oven. Small pans are needed. Please don't laugh!)

Roast for a while, until the potatoes turn this amazing golden brown, and your house starts smelling of pure deliciousness. It will look amazing when you are done. I promise. Unless you burn it. Don't burn it. If you don't burn it, it will look like this:

So, into a big bowl everything goes. Potatoes, garlic cloves, leftover oil in the bottom. All of it. Then, add some butter.

And some buttermilk. This brings a fantastic tanginess to the potatoes that I just love. Also, it is low in fat. Not that it matters that much on something like this, but hey. Anything to help rationalize the portion sizes you will consume once you try these.

Mash it all together until you get to a consistency that you like. For me and JP, we like or potatoes more on the roughly smashed side. Just look at that wonderful flavor in there! You can see the roasted crust from the outside of the potatoes, and the wonderful rosemary! And, if the lighting weren't so terrible in my kitchen, you could also see the bits of roasted garlic too. But the lighting is pretty terrible, so you will just have to use your imagination for that. Sorry.

Finally, pile it high on a plate and start digging in. That is, if you can manage to stop eating it straight from the bowl. JP and I had a hard time with this step. Serve these potatoes with things that make you feel healthy, so you can justify the massive quantities that you will inevitably eat.

This really might be the cure to boring mashed potatoes. They were truly amazing. The flavor of the potato was so concentrated, and then the garlic just added this extra dimension that was out of this world! The rosemary brought wonderful balance to it as well. All of the flavors were just so dang vivid! Trust me, you really need to try this. I am so serious, these are hands down the best mashed potatoes I have ever made. And then eaten. And then gone back for seconds of. And then thirds. And I may have just barley restrained myself from licking the bowl clean.

xoxo Craig

Keep reading for the recipe

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

What you need:

• 4 large new potaotes
• 1 large stem of rosemary, finely chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, peeled
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 - 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 2-3 pad os unsalted butter
• salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 400ºF (200ºC). While the oven is heating up, chop the potatoes into large chunks and place into a medium sized mixing bowl. Add the chopped rosemary, olive oil, garlic cloves, and some salt & pepper. Mix to distribute evenly. Place onto a baking sheet and roast for 30-45 minutes (until golden brown).

After baking, pour the entire contents of the baking sheet into a large mashing bowl, and start to break it up with a fork. Add the butter and the buttermilk (1/4 cup at a time), until your desired consistency is reached. Taste for seasoning, and add more salt & pepper if needed.