Twice Baked PotatoesSo for the big Christmas Party I am going to make twice baked potatoes to go with the prime rib(I'll talk about about Prime Rib tomorrow, but here's a heads up, kitchen tool of the week is a digital thermometer) . What is great about a twice baked potato is that first, it is fancier than a regular baked potato. Second, imagine for my sister-in-law Krista or my sister Lisa who both have a million children, them not having to help all of the children " fix" their potato because it is already done. Third, it can be done in advance, and that my friends is a great thing.
Step one: Bake the potatoes, but first do the math. For every 2 potatoes (I am talking the big bakers, costco style, because you know that's the only way I roll) , you will get 3 twice bakers. So you have twelve people coming to dinner? Ask your son to do the math for you. (Man, I had to pull out the pen and paper for this one, you have to do 8 potatoes) Scrub the potatoes good, and just place them right on the rack at 400 degrees till you can puncture them with a fork easily, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Step two: Pull them out of the oven, and while they are still hot, hold them with a hot pad and cut them in half
Step three: scoop out the insides carefully to leave a nice potato skin boat, and run the potatoes through your ricer (or you can just mash them if you don't have a ricer) and into a big mixing bowl.
Step four: Time to add more ingredients. Now the amounts of ingredients, depends on how many potatoes you are doing. Just imagine you are fixing a ginormous potato. The ingredients are, sour cream, cheese, season salt (I use lowrys) and course ground pepper, also a little milk. Be liberal on the cheese and sour cream, start conservative on the salt and pepper, mix, taste and decide if it needs more. When I made them the other night, I didn't have chives, but if I had them on hand I would add fresh chives as well. You could add other spices as well, but I don't think you need anything else, this way is simple and pleasing. You could add fresh garlic if you are a big garlic fan, but it would be easy to go over board. Don't want to screw anything up? Stick to the s and p. You want the consistency to be thick and drier than classic mashed potatoes, so keep that in mind when you are adding milk.
Step four: Time to add more ingredients. Now the amounts of ingredients, depends on how many potatoes you are doing. Just imagine you are fixing a ginormous potato. The ingredients are, sour cream, cheese, season salt (I use lowrys) and course ground pepper, also a little milk. Be liberal on the cheese and sour cream, start conservative on the salt and pepper, mix, taste and decide if it needs more. When I made them the other night, I didn't have chives, but if I had them on hand I would add fresh chives as well. You could add other spices as well, but I don't think you need anything else, this way is simple and pleasing. You could add fresh garlic if you are a big garlic fan, but it would be easy to go over board. Don't want to screw anything up? Stick to the s and p. You want the consistency to be thick and drier than classic mashed potatoes, so keep that in mind when you are adding milk.
Step five: Spoon the mixture back into the potato skins, like I said before, you will not use all of the skins, so you want to make your skins over flowing. Sprinkle a little paprika over the top.
Step six: Bake again at 350 degrees for about 20-30 minutes. They should be browned, but when you touch them you can tell that the insides are soft and creamy.
You can prep the potatoes up to a day before and keep them in the refrigerator until you are ready to bake them, if you put them straight in the oven from the fridge, they will take about 10-15 minutes longer to re-bake.
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