karen wrote on 31 Oct 2005 in rec.food.cooking
I bake the forked twice (so they won't explode), oiled and lightly salted spuds at 400F (without using foil) for 1 hour plus. At 1 hour I test the crispness of the potato skin by feeling it with my hand...I'm looking for a russling sound and a very dry feeling skin. Once the skins are crisp enough I remove them from the oven and slice them in half the longest way and scoop out most of the potato innards into a bowl. I mash the potato up with some butter, a dash of cream, salt, lots of fresh ground black pepper and other stuff...such as celery seeds, cheddar cheese, roasted garlic, diced mushroom, diced green bell pepper and crumbled cooked bacon (whatever turns your crank basically). I don't like the potato too be too mashed so I stop at a kinda crumbled appearance. I scoop everything back in the skins...sprinkle on some additional cheddar cheese and return them to the oven for the cheese to melt. Then serve
Note...use a towel to hold the extremely hot potato halves while you use a tablespoon to remove their innards. So you don't burn your little fingers.
Oh I forgot to mention... scrub the spuds really clean before you start.
-- The eyes are the mirrors.... But the ears...Ah the ears. The ears keep the hat up.
