Prep the day before Thanksgiving for low stress cooking
Go to Costco and get
5 pounds of small potatoes
Costco bacon bits (2 cups)
Costco Mexican Style Cheese (2 cups)
Aluminum pan
ProBlend Traeger Pellets – good for everything (Home Depot)
Open the lid and turn on the Traeger to smoke until you get smoked produced
Close Lid, Turn it to 225 and let it preheat 15-20 minutes
2 hours at 225 in smoker with flipping them every 15 min
Make sure move them around on the grill, the right side is hotter for my Traeger
After 2 hours they potatoes should have softened up and you should be able to know they are done or perhaps a bit al dente
Remove the potatoes and put them in a pan and let cool til just warm.
Work with a handful at a time on a cutting boards, Cut with knife and mash on cutting board using the flat edge of the knife and potatoe masher.
As you smash the potatoes add them to large glass bowl.
Add lots of Costco bacon bits, Costco Mexican cheese. black pepper and 1 stick of melted salted stick butter.
After adding all the ingredients just mix by hand and put in foil pan, cover with aluminum foil and put in the fridge to finish cooking on Thanksgiving (essentially just get it hot so the cheese melts). Yum.
Update –
Smoke setting 30 min
225 for 2 hours, turn every 30 min (just roll them around)
350 for 1 hour, turn them every 30 min to get them crisp on all sides
Pull them, smash them in glass bowl, add bacon, cheese and butter, smash some more.
Put these in a foil pan – put some more cheese on top, cover with foils. Let cool.
About 30 min before you are ready to eat toss them in the oven for 30 min at 350 F.