Double Stuffed Baked Potatoes

399. A hot baked potato filled with oozing melted butter, sour cream and melted cheddar cheese is a very welcome favorite of mine.  Although, it seems everyone should know how to make a baked potato... I wonder, how many know how to double stuff a potato?  

I know every microwave has a "potato" setting.  You place the cleaned, skin-on potato in the microwave and just push the button.  When your potato is "baked", the beep is sounded.  Only takes about 5-8 minutes, depending on the size or amount of potatoes you are cooking.  A much better alternative is to actually "BAKE" the potato, you know, like our grandmothers did, before microwaves were around.  

Scrub your potatoes and poke them with a point of a knife about 3 times around each spud.  Place them in a hot 350 degree oven and bake about 1 hour.  You will know they are soft when you squeeze them to test.

Remove the potatoes and let them sit about 10 minutes to cool.  Cut each lengthwise carefully and open them up.  This also allows them to cool quicker.  Have a bowl prepared to mix the filling.  Scrape out of the skins the soft potato into the prepared bowl.  Continue with each potato till you have only potato skins left.

Mix the cheese, butter, sour cream and seasonings into the potato filling.  Blend well but not too smooth.  Chunks of potato are fine.  By the spoonful, transfer the filling back into the skin shells mounding up the filling.  

Top with cheese and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or till cheese is melted on top

I like to finish off the top with a dollop of sour cream and a healthy sprinkling of fresh garden chives.  Of course you can add bacon, fried sausage bits, pepperoni, parmesan cheese...and the list trails on.  Make it to your own taste and liking.

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This would be a great recipe to make for Thanksgiving or Christmas.  And, you can use sweet potatoes or yams as well to substitute.  Enjoy this simply wonderful recipe...a great recipe to make with a kitchen helper.

"I do not believe that you have to spend a lot of money to eat well:  it is hard to beat a plain old baked potato."

~ Laurie Colwin

Sourdough Bread

398.  Sourdough Bread!  Crunchy crust, airy texture, tangy flavor and the perfect bread when toasted.  

Though I had never tried making sourdough bread, a new challenge presented itself with a sourdough starter.  Every day you must "feed" the starter to keep it alive as well as working more air in by stirring.  I was up for the challenge and am enjoying the outcome.  My starter is a small batch for one loaf of bread a week.

Here is a great link to watch another process of a starter how-to HERE.

When you are ready to bake a loaf of bread, here is my recipe:

Autolyse flour and water stage.  It is very good to have a digital scale for acuracy.

Adding the salt and starter.

The stretch and fold process adds air into the dough and develops the gluten in the dough.

 The final shaping and proofing in a floured proofing basket called a Banneton or in a heavily floured kitchen towel placed in a bowl.

It is a beautiful bread...and if you take the time, you will be so happy with the fulfilling process.

"The baker's skill in managing fermentation, not the type of oven used, is what makes good bread. "

~ Chad Robertson, Tartine Bread

Chocolate Cheesecake Keto Style

397.  This is a dessert to savor and have a second piece.  Its chocolaty and not too sweet but very rich in flavor.  It is beautiful as well.  Here is my recipe:

 This cheesecake freezes very well and puts on quite a show for your guests.

"If there is a cheesecake in the house, I'll have some!"

~ Kelly Ripa

"When you've been on a low-carb diet for 5 years and you realize it has only been 5 minutes."

~  Hilarious Meme

Plum Sauce

396.  Summer bbq is a favorite for our family and ribs on the grill tops the list.  Last year I ventured into creating a blackberry bbq sauce for ribs and we loved it.  So, last week when plums began to come into harvest in California, I was fortunate to be the receiver of several pounds of fresh picked plums.  Several cups of small wild plums and several pounds of red plums.  Ribs were on the menu for Father's Day and a Plum BBQ Sauce was in the works.  Here is my process and recipe...

The consistency of the sauce will thicken the longer you simmer it.  You want it to be thick enough to stick to the ribs.  

The flavor was tangy, fruity and savory and complemented the ribs very well.  Serving this sauce with goat cheese or blue cheese on a salad or stuffed in a mushroom was perfect.  This experiment payed off so well.  Thanks Teri for the plums!!

"When the old plum tree blooms, the entire world blooms."

~ Ancient Proverb

"The rose is a rose, and was always a rose. But the theory now goes that the apple's a rose, and the pear is, and so's the plum, I suppose.  The dear only knows what will next prove a rose.  You, of course, are a rose - but were always a rose."

~ Robert Frost

Strawberry Mascarpone Tart

395.  Prepare yourself for a mouthwatering treat with this strawberry tart.  With strawberries plentiful and picnics around the corner, you will love this recipe!  Feel free to add blueberries or blackberries as well.

Enjoy!!!

"I think baking is rewarding.  If you follow a good recipe, you will get success."

~ Mary Berry

Vegetable Chicken Bake

394.  This recipe is a Keto friendly version of lasagna, though, without the noodles.

 It is layered with vegetables and meat of your choice.
 I have used chicken, ground beef and Italian sausage crumbled and adapted them to the recipe.

And if pasta is welcome, it pairs perfectly with any type of pasta noodle.

"Italian food is all about ingredients and it's not fussy and it's not fancy."

~  Wolfgang Puck

Zucchini Noodles with Pesto

393.  While cutting back on bread intake, I'm adjusting and adapting recipes.  As the saying goes, "Necessity is the mother of invention", and it was necessary to find a replacement for pasta.  

So with all the recipes using squash as a replacement, I wanted to spiralize but due to this quarantine  in place, I can't go to the store.  So, how to create noodles from zucchini?  

The idea to use my hand lemon zester came to mind...and it was genius!  Because the zucchini is softer squash, I had to be careful to go slowly with gentle pressure to make long strips.

I sautéd a quarter of a red onion in a pat of butter, then added the zucchini just to heat it up but not to cook it because the noodles would wilt.

I then heated up a bit of pesto recipe here, and pan seared salmon.

I plated the gently warmed zucchini, spooned pesto over the noodles and then place the seared salmon and topped with pesto.  I don't have to say how flavorful and the textures were so very similar to pasta noodles.

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The recipe is so delightful, light and satisfying.  

"Necessity is the mother of invention."

~Anonymous

The author of this proverb is unknown. It is commonly misattributed to Plato to Benjamin Jowett's popular idiomatic 1871 translation of Plato's Republic, where in Book II, 369c, his translation reads: "The true creator is necessity, who is the mother of our invention."