Sarasota's Five Minute Microwaved Mashed Potatoes

I have been doing this for years and I love it. Five minutes in the micro, then add your favorite toppings or ingredients and you have mashed spuds. I like to add some butter, maybe a little chicken broth, you can do sour cream, chives, herbs, cheese, bacon, cream or milk. Pretty much anything you want. I am listing my basic recipe, but use your imagination. You can add anything you want to these. Nothing like mashed potatoes in 5-8 minutes without the boiling water, peeling or the time involved.

• Ready In: 10 mins
• Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 8  red potatoes, cut into bite size pieces (you can use yukon gold too which work great, and if you want peel the potatoes, I just like skins on)
• 2  tablespoons water
• 1⁄2 cup  liquid (you can use cream, milk, broth, or a mix of both)
• 1  tablespoon butter
•  salt
•  ground black pepper

• Options

•  that is the base recipe now ... you don't want to add butter, just add more broth or   you can throw some sour cream in. health conscious use all broth. you can also add bacon, grated onion or  cheese, etc

Directions

1. Potatoes -- prepare your spuds. Just wash good and cut in bite size pieces. Place in a microwavable bowl, one that you will be serving in and add the water and cover with plastic wrap.
2. Cook -- Cook on high for 3-5 minutes, remove plastic wrap and stir. Put the saran wrap back on and cook another 2-3 minutes until the spuds are soft.
3. Dress -- Now, the spuds are done. What do you with them is up to you. Butter to me is a must to me and you can go lighter if you want. Add some liquid the 1/2 cup -- either broth, cream, milk, and of course salt and pepper. Then use a fork or potato masher to smash them up.
4. Now they are done -- NOW WHAT? -- Sour Cream? Bacon? Cheese? Scallions? Herbs? Onion? Anything you want.
5. Finish -- After adding all your flavors, you can return return to the microwave covered in the plastic wrap for just 1 minute until heated and serve. But many times the potatoes are hot enough and any extras will heat up with any additional cooking time.
6. 1 pot clean up, easy and quick.