Pictures from the Soup and Twice Baked Potatoes

I made the soup tonight just so you could have pictures of it! Oh - and because Marc's been sick and asked for it too.

So the pictures:

Butter in the sauce pan ready to go

Onions Chopped - Squash cubed

Sweating the onions

Adding the squash to let it glaze

Simmering

Post boiling

Preparing to be blending with the immersion blender (aka the stick)

Ta da!

It was super yummy! I really like it and it re-heats super well. Another perk - it's a one pot meal meaning clean up is easy. I didn't actually have to put the onion and squash into bowls, but it just felt cool.

Another fun little dish we did during our hiatus was marbled twice baked potatoes. They included a mixtures of sweet potatoes and regular russet potatoes. This was also from the Food Network Magazine. They were so yummy pre-2nd baking I ate the leftovers from the bowl with one of our roommates. The side dish is time consuming on the amount of bake time, but the "active" time of doing something is really short. 

Ingredients

4 large russet potatoes

1 large sweet potato

1/4 cup sour cream

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces and softened

2 scallions, thinly sliced

3/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Kosher Salt

Pepper

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Put the russet and sweet potatoes directly on the oven rack and bake 30 minutes.

3. Pierce each potato a few times with a fork and continue to bake until tender, 15 to 20 more minutes for the sweet potato and 20 to 25 more minutes for the russet potatoes. 

4. Let cool slightly.

5. Peel the sweet potato. (no need to be neat about it - your not saving the skin from this one)

6. Transfer to a bowl and mash lightly with a fork until almost smooth. 

7. Trim a thin slice off the top of each russet potato, cutting lengthwise. (This is to keep the potatoes standing easier, I skipped it and they stood up just fine)

8. Scoop most of the flesh into another bowl, leaving the shells intact. 

9. Add the sour cream and butter to the bowl and mash with a fork. 

10. Stir in the scallions, 1/2 cup cheese, 1 1/4 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste.

11. Gently fold in the sweet potato.

12. Generously fill with the marbled potato mixture and sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup cheese.

13. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees F.

14. Place the stuffed potatoes on a baking sheet and bake until the cheese melts, 25 to 30 minutes.

There were absolutely delicious. Quite possibly sinfully delicious. I took pictures of these too!

Mushing the sweet potato

Potato skins

Russet Potatos

Plus scallions & Sour cream

Plus everything!

Before baking

And after

We served these on the side of a pan seared pork chop with the bone still in. I don't like bones in my food so I made Marc have mine. I forget what I had with it, the potatoes were that awesome.

Tomorrow is tacos. I haven't told Marc yet because he always says no to them, but I really want them. If he /really/ doesn't want some, well there's leftover soup!