What’s the most inventive and fun way you could come up with for mashing potatoes?

For nine-year-old Faith Joiner of Twin Peaks, the answer was: Hippos!

Faith’s imagination garnered her the grand prize — $5,000 in cash — in the national Ore-Ida Steam n’ Mash “Mash Destruction” contest.

The contest was used to promote Ore-Ida’s new Steam n’ Mash frozen, pre-scrubbed, pre-peeled, diced potatoes, which are ready to microwave and mash in minutes.

Her winning entry, titled “The Hippo Smash”, shows hippos lining up to hop on a palm tree to catapult onto a pile of Steam n’ Mash potatoes to create mashed potatoes.

The five chosen first place entrants came up with other interesting methods of “Mash Destruction”:

• Emeryl Logan (Age 12) of Cameron Park:
  Came up with putting a bag of Steam n’ Mash potatoes on the tracks of
  your favorite amusement park’s roller coaster, ride it and enjoy the
  mashed potatoes.
• Nicholas Schneider (Age 10) of Lake Villa, Ill.: Thought of using the seats of a teeter totter to mash the potatoes.
• Jason Weis (Age 7) of Winter Springs, Fla.: Decided that putting an elephant on a motorbike and having him run over the potatoes was the most fun way to mash them.
• Alec Leschner (Age 7) of Denver, Pa:
  Wants to put a bag of Steam n’ Mash potatoes on train tracks and have
  the Mash Destruction Locomotive come through and mash them.
• Amiera Ford (Age 6) of Fernandina Beach, Fla.: Depicted an elephant sitting on a bag of Steam n’ Mash potatoes.

The five each won $1000.

To
enter the contest, parents submitted a drawing of their child’s fun
masher idea along with a description of 50 words or less. Online voters
picked the top 20 and a panel of Ore-Ida judges chose from the top 20
finalists and awarded the grand prize winner and five first place
runners-up.

Entries were judged on overall presentation and creativity, originality, and ability to capture the spirit of the contest.

Congratulations, Faith, and all the other winners!

Click here to see all the winners and their entries. For all entries, click here. For more information on Steam n’ Mash, click here.