Twice Baked Potatoes

You girls always love these and they really are so easy. The great thing about twice baked potatoes is, precise measurements really aren’t necessary. Basically, what you do is you bake some potatoes, scrape out the insides, then add a bunch of yummy stuff and mix it together. Then you fill the scraped-out potato shells with the new potato mixture, top with cheese, and bake again, just to warm it up.   I follow the basic steps from Pioneer Woman but I don’t use lawreys seasoning salt like she does. 



FIRST THINGS FIRST: Wash, then place eight baking potatoes on a cookie sheet. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 1 hour, 15 minutes, making sure they’re sufficiently cooked through.  Now begin slicing two sticks of butter into pats until they’re all sliced.  Place them into a large mixing bowl, add 1 cup of crumbled bacon,  1
Cup sour cream and mix this all up.

Within a few minutes after you remove the baked potatoes from the oven, you need to begin scraping them out.
With a sharp serrated knife…Cut each potato in half lengthwise.  Now, with a large spoon, begin scraping out the insides into the bowl.

Lay the hollowed out potato shells on a cookie sheet. Begin smashing the potatoes with the other ingredients. Now, some folks like to get the potato texture totally smooth, but I actually like to keep it a little bit lumpy - it’s up to you.

Now add about 1 cup of grated cheddar/jack cheese and mix it in well.

Add a few shakes of pepper, and garlic salt and parsley.   Adjust seasonings as necessary.

Now, at this point, you could go ahead and stuff the potato shells. Or, if you like a little more flavor…Cut the end off of one green onion…And slice about 2/3 of it.  Throw ’em into the bowl…And mix them in. (IMPORTANT: If you plan to freeze the twice baked potatoes, do NOT add green onion. 

Scoop out some of the yummy potato filling and begin filling the shells.Keep going until the filling’s all gone. You might have a shell or two left over, and that’s okay. I like to fill the shells so they look abundant and heaping.

Now top each potato with more grated cheddar/jack cheese and pop ’em in a 350-degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the potato is warmed through. 

Or, you could refrigerate them for up to three days until you wanted to serve, OR you could freeze them in Ziploc bags, just as long as you skipped the green onion step.

* you can make these more of a “meal by adding a slice of ham into the bottom of the shell then scoop the potatoe over top and carry on OR ground up some beef and make taco meat and mix into the potatoe mixture.