Twice Baked Potatoes

Now that I'm detoxing from my detox, it's time for a cheese smorgasbord! This recipe for extra cheesy twice baked potatoes is perfect for watching sports if you're into that sort of thing or awards shows if you are me and my sous chef and our motley crew of friends.  I whipped these babies up for the golden globes along with some pretty darn delicious hot wings. I'm still tweaking that recipe but this one is ready for action. I use neufchatel cheese because it has less fat but when you're eating carb blobs laden with butter and cheese, I doubt it makes much of a dent healthwise. Still, I can't tell the difference between full-fat cream cheese and this stuff and that means one less sit up I have to do (ha!)

These are so good and they travel well. You can make the up to a day ahead and all you have to do is bake them for the second time when you're ready to eat!

Ingredients:
- 5 lbs Russet Potatoes
- Olive Oil
- Kosher Salt

Filling:
- 8 oz Neufchatel or cream cheese, softened
- 1 stick softened or melted butter
- 8 oz shredded sharp cheddar cheese, reserve 1/2 cup to sprinkle on top of the potatoes before they bake a second time
- sea salt and cracked black pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- Potato innards once they've been baked once

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Wash and dry potatoes and pierce each one a few times with a fork. Place potatoes in roasting pan and drizzle with olive oil then sprinkle liberally with kosher salt. Roll the potatoes around and make sure they are nicely coated with olive oil and salt. Bake for 1 hour - 1 1/2 hours, remove from oven and cool for 10-15 minutes.

Cut the top 1/4 of the potatoes off, scoop the potato off the skin tops into a large bowl and discard the skins. Scoop out the rest of the potato leaving a 1/4 inch of potato on the skin so you have a substantial enough potato skin "bowl" that will hold up when you fill it.

Once all the potatoes are hollowed out, add the butter, cream cheese and shredded cheese to the bowl of potato innards.  Mash until the mixture is thoroughly combined and not too lumpy. Add up to 1/4 cup cream to smooth mixture. Taste and add salt and cracked black pepper as needed.

Fill the potato shells with the mixture and top with a sprinkle of cheese.

Increase heat to 475 and put the stuffed potatoes back in the oven. Bake until cheese is melted and potatoes are heated through.

You can also add some crumbled bacon or cooked chorizo to the mixture for more pop. This recipe is a huge crowd pleaser.

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Herbed Roasted Lamb Shank

An old friend of mine was given a gorgeous lamb shank and had no idea what to do with it. I looked around for some good recipes and then messed them about to come up with this. This old friend also has a nice camera and some major photog skillz, hence the pretty pictures for this installment.

This recipe takes for ever but the results are so worth the long wait. Be patient and don't give in to the temptation to peek.

- Lamb Shank (you can do this with more than one, we just had one)
- Sea Salt
- Black Pepper
- Olive Oil
- Fresh Herbs (we used Rosemary and Thyme and a few sprigs of fresh Sage)
- Garlic cloves, peeled and crushed (we used about 10. You could always use more)

Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees

Line your roasting pan with foil, put the shank in and drizzle it with olive oil. Sprinkle both sides of the shank liberally with sea salt and black pepper. Pop the pan in the oven for 25-30 minutes, you are just browning the shank at this point. It will look delish but don't eat it yet. The best is yet to come.

Turn the oven down to 200, YES 200 degrees.

Crush the garlic with the flat of a chef's knife then sprinkle it all over the shank. Place your herbs on and around the shank then wrap the shank in the foil that was under it. Pull out another swath of foil and wrap it the shank up completely, no holes. You are more or less going to steam the meat that's already brown and crisp so that it will be literally fall-off-the-bone tender.

Once your bundle of joy is all wrapped, put it back in the 200 degree oven for 3 hours. 3 whole hours. Wait. When it's ready, take it out, let it cool a few minutes and open it up. Warning, your house will smell amazing and you will want to yank the lamb out of the oven and devour it with your hands. Don't do this.

For an easy side dish we used ready made mashed potatoes, heated them up with a pat of butter and tossed in the roasted garlic cloves from inside the lamb shank bundle. It was perfect with the herbed, tender lamb.



Bon Apetit!

P.S. Here is my Frenchie Violet enjoying the bone as much as we enjoyed the lamb!

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