Twice Baked Potatoes #98

My mom recently bought Trisha Yearwood's new cookbook, Home Cooking with Trisha Yearwood.  Up until this point, I had no desire to even look at a Trisha Yearwood cookbook. She made a spicy corn dip for her Bunco party from the book.  I just had to try it.  Needless to say, it was delicious, so I  picked up and thumbed through the rest of the cookbook.  I discovered recipe after recipe that I wanted to try.  I decided to finish my 100 recipes today with three recipes from Trisha's cookbook:  Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole, Twice Baked Potatoes, and Cheese Garlic Muffins. 





The case:
6 large baking potatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons butter
2 cups sour cream
10 ounces sharp Cheddar cheese, grated (about 2 1/2 cups)
1 tablespoon garlic salt
salt and pepper
6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

Diretions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 F.
2. Wash the potatoes and pierce them with a fork. Rub the potatoes with the olive oil and place them on a jellyroll pan or a large cookie sheet with a rim. Bake the potatoes for 45 minutes to an hour, or until done. Remove the potatoes from the oven and cut them in half lengthwise. Set aside. Reduce the temperature of the oven to 350 F.
3.  When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, scoop out the potato flesh into a large electric mixing bowl. Add the milk, butter, sour cream, cheese, garlic salt, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix until creamy.
4.  Divide the mixture evenly and spoon it back into potato shells. Return the potatoes to the oven for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and garnish with the bacon and green onion.

The ruling:
Michael says these are some of the best twice baked potatoes he's ever had.  I loved the bacon/cheese topping and the tangyness the sour cream added.  I used half and half instead of milk and actually used about twice as much as was called for.