Twice Baked Potatoes

I tried a new recipe on Sunday - instead of (relatively) boring mashed potatoes, I felt extra ambitious and went for twice baked potatoes. Here's what I did, modified slightly from the recipe on that link:

Twice Baked Potatoes

Ingredients

4 large baking potatoes
1/2 c bacon bits
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese, divided
1/4-1/3 c dried onion

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).  While it's preheating, scrub the potatoes and poke them with a fork.

2. Bake potatoes in preheated oven until a knife slides in easily and they are kind of squishy. This took about an hour and a half for me, though I bumped up the temperature for the last half hour to 400 degrees F. Leave the oven on at 350 F when you take out the potatoes.

3. When potatoes are done allow them to cool for 10 minutes. While they are cooling, measure out the bacon bits, sour cream, milk, butter, salt, pepper, 1/2 c shredded cheese, and dried onion into a medium-large bowl..

4. Slice potatoes in half lengthwise and scoop the flesh into the bowl with the other ingredients; save potato skins. Leave about 1/4 in of potato in the skins to make them a little sturdier.

5. Mix potato goop with a hand mixer until well blended and creamy.

6. Spoon the mixture into the potato skins. Top each with remaining cheese.

7. Bake for another 15 minutes, or until cheese is melted.

Makes 8 potato halves, which is about 8 servings if you serve it as a side dish. I hear you can easily modify the recipe to use with small potatoes if you want to serve them as appetizers, too.

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture before they were all consumed, but they were really good. I served them with pork roast (cooked in the crockpot with 1 can cream of mushroom soup, 1 packet of Liption onion soup mix, and 3/4 c water for about 6 hours on high for most of the time) and fresh pineapple, with homemade donuts for dessert. Which reminds me, I'll have to post about homemade donuts sometime too...