Roasted Garlic Chunky Mashed Potatoes

Last Wednesday, I didn't know what to cook for the longest time. And Diwata gave me a genius idea that I had never heard about: bacon-wrapped scallops! What the hell is that? I think anything bacon-wrapped sounds hella good. I thought I'd try it out and I found a great recipe that offered a spicy mayo recipe as well. It was more of an appetizer dish, so I decided to add some mashed potatoes and roasted veges. Oh man, was I super excited for this dish. When I went to Safeway to get the scallops, I was sad to find out that they didn't have large scallops! Bah, I had to settle for the smaller ones, so I figured I would just stack them to compensate. And since I was planning on feeding Aaron and Larsen, I decided to wrap some shrimp as well to see how that would turn out:

Ingredients

• 6 red potatoes, not skinned
• 1/3 stick of butter
• 1/2 cup of whole milk
• 1 cup of Monterrey jack cheese (I like to use pepper jack)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of Rosemary
• 5 large garlic cloves
• Salt and pepper

Directions

First, preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Make a bowl out of aluminum foil, throw in 5 garlic cloves and drizzle with olive oil. Roast the garlic for about 40 minutes, or until a nice golden brown.

Fill a large pot with water and sprinkle with some salt, bring to a boil. Chop up the potatoes into roughly 1-2 inch cubes. Throw them into the pot and let them boil for about 20 minutes, or until soft. Once they are done, drain the water. Mash the potatoes in the pot with the roaster garlic and turn the stove again to a low flame once that is done. Since I like the chunkiness, instead of using a masher I just use a wooden spoon to lightly mash the potatoes against the walls of the pot but allowing for some potato chunks to remain. Toss in the milk, butter, pepper jack cheese, and rosemary. Continue mixing until butter is melted and season with salt and pepper until beautifully tasteful. Oh yeah, by the way I kind of estimated the proportions. I just usually go by eye. Feel free to accommodate to your taste buds (I usually put more cheese, haha).

Review

Every time I make these mashed potatoes, they never come out the same. Not because I have a problem with replicating the same recipe but because I always try something different. Sometimes I don't use rosemary. Sometimes I used buttermilk, heavy cream, or sour cream instead of whole milk. Sometimes I get lazy to roast the garlic since I don't have a toaster oven at home. But in any case, this is the general formula I use and I love it