TWICE BAKED POTATOES

In my house, my husband and son always want mashed potatoes. I had decided to make my own twist on mashed potatoes and came up with my version of twice baked potatoes. My my husband loves them! He asks me to make them often. Although my son is a huge mashed potato person, he likes them and says they’re very good leftover the next day. I have another son but he lives 2 hours away.

INGREDIENTS:

Serves 6.

6 large red or russet potatoes

Olive oil

Kosher salt

3 tbsp flavored cream cheese such as Onion & Chives

1/4 cup milk

2 tbsp butter

1 cup shredded Mexican or Cheddar cheese

Salt & pepper

DIRECTIONS:

Heat oven to 400°.

Place potatoes in a large bowl. Lightly pour olive oil over potatoes. Rub each potato around in the olive oil. Lightly sprinkle each potato with the Kosher salt.

Wrap each potato in aluminum foil and place in a pan.

Place in oven and bake for 1 hour.

Remove from oven. Remove from foil and place on cutting board. Cut each potato in half. Let cool 5 minutes. Scoop out each potato into a bowl, leaving some potato intact. Lay the hollowed out potatoes in a baking pan or sheet pan.

As you see, some of the potatoes fell apart but that’s okay. The filling will stay in. This happens with red potatoes but that’s the only potato I buy. It should work great with russet potatoes.

To the potatoes in the bowl, add 2 tbsp butter, salt, pepper, 3 tbsp flavored cream cheese, 1/4 cup milk, dried chives (you can use fresh!) and cheese. Mash the mixture with an old-fashioned hand masher. Scoop some mixture into each potato. You can add a few strands of cheese on top if you’d like.