Twice baked Potato’s= Potato Casserole

The back story to this blog, is when I was in college I studied abroad in Germany for a year. Something I really loved about Germany (despite loving everything!!) was how they did a baked potato.  There was a beergarten in the town located by the Neckar River. They LOADED their potato! It was always delicious! They would load it up with meats, veggies and cheeses… much more than just shredded cheese and bacon bits.  The second part of this back story resides when I came back from Germany and the Presbyterian Campus Ministries was holding a fundraising dinner for some of the students to go on a pilgrimage to Ionna Abby. So they had a twiced baked potato dinner, which was the first time I had ever had a twice backed potato.  It was awesome!!  So genius me thought it would be a great idea to combine the two ideas.

Never making a twice baked potato, of course I looked up a recipe, looked simple enough and off I went to the grocery store to make this upgraded twiced baked potato.  So the things that were going to go into the potato- onions, chicken, garlic, broccoli, mushrooms, cheese, sour cream and salt/pepper. They were going to be EPIC!! Got the two potato’s and everything else on the list and I started cooking.

I put the potato’s in the oven, started to sauté’ everything in a pan. First the onions, than garlic and then the mushrooms, meanwhile the broccoli was boiling. I put everything in to a bowl, which included the sour cream, cheese and a couple of tbsp of cream cheese. Who doesn’t love a cheesy potato??  What I have failed to learn is that it takes FOREVER to bake a potato!!! After an hour and a half of baking these huge potatoes, they were not even close to being cooked. So thinking that they could’ve been feasible to be scooped out and the fact that we were STARVING, I pulled them out to cut the potatoes in half and attempt to scoop them.

It seems that the joke was on me, because we couldn’t get the potatoes scooped and the “shell” portion ended up cracking and breaking up. At this point my hopes of producing a decent dinner was little to none…so there was a cast iron pan available, so I chopped up the uncooked potato’s combined all the “innards” with the potato’s and placed it all inside the cast iron pan. Placed a nice layer of cheese on top and put it back in the oven for 30 minutes…checked it and the potato’s are STILL NOT DONE!!!! At this point, Steve and I have gotten to a point where we are “hangry” (this is a term I heard a friend use and have fallen in love with it. It is when you are so hungry, you are angry).  So we pull out this now casserole, place a helping on the plate and nuke it in the microwave.  It turns out pretty ok… could’ve been so much better had the potato’s actually been cooked all the way. But with most things, if you add more cheese and sour cream it gets better.

So the moral of this story is…POTATOS TAKE FOREVER TO COOK!! Here is the twice baked potato recipe that I was attempting to try. I recommend smaller potatoes, and microwaving the potatoes instead of baking them. No picture this time, sorry!

Twice Baked Potato’s  

4 large russet potatoes, each about 3/4 pound each, scrubbed and dried

2 to 4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/3 cup sour cream

1 scallion, finely chopped

Freshly grated nutmeg, optional

1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

 

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Place the potatoes directly on the rack in the center of the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Pierce each potato in a couple spots with a fork and continue to bake until tender, about 30 minutes more. Remove potatoes from the oven, and turn the heat down to 375 degrees F.

Hold the potato with an oven-mit or towel, trim off the top of the potatoes to make a canoe-like shape. Reserve the tops. Carefully scoop out most of the potato into a bowl. Take care to leave enough potato in the skin so the shells stay together. Mash the potato lightly with fork along with 2 to 3 tablespoons of the butter and sour cream. Stir in the scallion, nutmeg, and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Season the skins with salt and pepper. Refill the shells with the potato mixture mounding it slightly. Sprinkle the cheese on top of the potato filling. Brush the reserved top with the remaining butter and season with salt and pepper.

Set the potatoes and lids on a baking sheet, and bake until heated through, about 20 minutes. Serve immediately.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/twice-baked-potatoes-recipe/index.html