Twice Baked Potatoes

I LOVE twice baked potatoes. I think I have my mom to thank for that (thanks!!). This is a great recipe because you can make it as simple or as complicated as you like. You can do basic with just a little cheese, butter, and sour cream, or you can add all kinds of fancy stuff like bacon (yumm...), green onions, whatever you like! As much as I love bacon, it's such a pain to cook, so I've been keeping it pretty simple. I keep meaning to cook a whole bunch of bacon, crumble it, and stick it in the fridge to add to things, but I have never gotten around to it - probably keeping us a little healthier though! Also, I've read that green onions don't freeze well, so if you're thinking of doing that you probably just want to use them to garnish.

Photo from sweetandsaucy.wordpress.com.

Twice Baked Potatoes

INGREDIENTS

• baking potatoes
• milk
• butter
• sour cream
• cheddar cheese (prep day and serving day for garnish)
  
• bacon (optional)
  

*The reason I don't give specifics is because it really is just to taste gradually add a little milk, a few TBS of butter, a handful of cheddar cheese, and a scoop or two of sour cream until it tastes good! I like them best when they are the consistency of lumpy mashed potatoes.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Wash and dry potatoes, and bake at 350 degrees for about and hour.
   
2. If you're using bacon, use this time to cook and crumble it.
   
3. Once potatoes are done, remove from oven and let them cool until they are cool enough to touch. (It's easier to scoop the insides out when they are hotter, so I hold them in a dish towel so I can get started sooner [plus, I'm impatient and don't want to wait!].) If your potatoes are large, cut them in half, lengthwise. If they are smaller cut off just the top 1/4 of the potato. If you're using larger potatoes and cut them in half you'll get twice as many potatoes.
   
4. Scoop out the inside of the potato into large mixing bowl, being careful not to tear the skin.
   
5. Using a potato masher, stand mixer, hand mixer, whatever you have, mix the potato with other ingredients until it tastes good (I'm a big fan of taste testing so much while cooking that I'm not hungry when the meal's ready!).
   
6. Spoon the mixture back into the skins.
   
7. To eat immediately bake, loosely covered with foil, for another 15 minutes, and serve garnish with remaining toppings such as sour cream, bacon, green onions, etc.

TO FREEZE

Individually wrap potatoes in plastic wrap and place in labeled gallon size bag to freeze. To serve, thaw potatoes and bake, loosely covered with foil, at 350 degrees for about an hour (how long they take to reheat will depend on how large your potatoes are). If you want to melt cheese on top, sprinkle it on in the last few minutes of cooking.