Twice Baked Potatoes or Part II of the 10lb bag of Potatoes

The potatoes are back!!!!

I promise that my next post will not be potato related.

I hope.

Twice baked potatoes are a recipe I stumbled upon about a year or so ago. Yes, they are basically a baked potato, but with a little bit of extra goodness. I never make them the same way twice (because that would be booooring), but I will share with you how I made this batch.

The ingredients:
milk; cheddar cheese; green onions; sour cream; butter; potatoes; olive oil; salt and pepper, too.
(You could also use cream cheese, bacon or cream if you have it. I'll tell you when you can add them.)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

You certainly don't have to, but sometimes I drizzle olive oil over the freshly scrubbed potatoes.
And then I rub the olive oil all over the potato. It kind of gives the skin a crispier skin. Throw these potatoes in the oven for about an hour.
In a small bowl, we will be mixing ingredients. Now, you don't have to measure these if you don't want to, but remember that you'll be adding the cooked potatoes to the mix and you won't want it too sloshy. So, kind of eyeball it while you're mixing to make sure it's not to runny.

I started with 2 chopped green onions (you can add the bacon here if you have it)...
sour cream (I used 1/2 a cup)...
a little less than 1/4 C. of milk (or cream if you like)...
and one chopped up stick of butter (and/or cream cheese if you'd like).
This would be Julia saying, "Mommy, I eat? Juju eat?". It's a daily occurrence while I cook.
The potatoes are done!! Now, slice them down the middle.
And using a towel, because those buggers are going to be H O T, take each half...
and scoop out the innards and toss them into the bowl with the other ingredients. Leave enough of the potato in the skin as a kind of wall.
Oops. I attacked this potato and ruined it's wall. No worries, it'll be fine.
Now, take your fabulous potato masher your husband bought you because he loves you and would like you to make mashed potatoes often,
and mash everything together in the bowl. Of course, I had mine a bit too runny, so I added some cheese to the mixture to thicken it up. Next time, I will eyeball it better. I promise.
Because I had company over while I was finishing these up and because I can't do more than one thing at a time, I did not take pictures of the next few steps. But, you will take the mixture in the bowl and put them back into the potato skins. They might be wobbly, but it's okay. You can top them with cheese and bacon if you so desire. Then, put them carefully back into the oven and cook them again for another 15-20 minutes. Mine kind of spilled a bit, but I just scooped the spilled parts and put them back into the potato skins when I served them.

We ate ours with beef brisket and salad. My family loves these potatoes and ate them even before the beef! They also reheat nicely in the microwave as leftovers. But, what I love, is that you can add whatever you want to these to make them your own!

Enjoy!