Weekend

This weekend was very pleasant, as long as you stayed indoors. We had people see the house both Saturday and Sunday. We went out to dinner on Saturday and our neighbor invited us to dinner on Sunday. I offered to bring a potato dish and for that I chose Stuffed Baked Potatoes from James McNair’s Potato Cookbook. They were very good and a good accompaniment to grilled steak. Serves 4
4 large baking potatoes
¼ C (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
6 oz cream cheese, softened
½ C crème fraiche
½ C freshly grated Parmesan cheese
½ C fresh chives, oregano, parsley or combination of your choice, minced
Salt, pepper and additional melted butter for brushing top
Scrub and bake the potatoes. I used my Advantium Speed Cook Oven and had baked potatoes in 20 minutes. Slice off the top about a quarter of the way down lengthwise. Make sure you make this cut where the bottom will lay flat without rolling. Carefully scoop out the pulp from the bottom and the tops and put in a bowl. Leave about an 1/8 “around the bottom shell. This is difficult, but don’t worry you can hide mistakes.
The directions say to press through a ricer. I skipped this step and just put all ingredients in a bowl and used my electric mixer to make it smooth. I then put the mixture in a disposable pastry bag with a star tip and filled the shells, making a decorative swirl on the top. I actually increased the recipe as I was serving 6. After they were filled I put them in a 9x12 Pyrex dish and took them next door. I had sprayed the top with butter. Brushing would have deleted my ridges from the star tip.
We placed them in the oven while the rolls were baking and then finished with about 4 minutes under the broiler to brown the tops. They looked gorgeous and tasted divine.
We had a big storm late Sunday that has cooled things off a little.