Tipnique of the week, October 25, 2013

Earlier this week, I baked some potatoes
and later this week, I'll use the leftover baked potatoes for some potato soup.
But today....
today the leftovers from the leftover baked potatoes are turning into lunch.
While the leftover baked potatoes were still warmish, they were sliced and scooped.
Like this:

 Halved lengthwise, the potato innards get spooned straight into a zip bag, where they'll wait patiently to turn into soup.
Leave about 1/4 inch of starchy goodness around the shell. (Don't break out a ruler, just scoop out some potato, and leave some behind.)

Preheat your oven to something around 425. Lay the potato shells on a baking sheet (I like to put down some parchment paper first) and coat one side with some sort of oil. For this sort of thing, I like an olive oil spray.

Now flip em over and coat the other side, and add any seasoning you want. For today, simplicity triumphed (well, not entirely, as you shall see) and these received just a pinch of salt.

In the oven they go till they are just nearly as crispy as you like them. In my oven, on this day, that took about 15-20 minutes.

Pull them out and sprinkle them with cheese. At least cheese.
If you have any leftover chili, marinara sauce, sausage, taco meat, brisket, alfredo sauce, spinach or broccoli, think about tucking them in under the cheese. These happy little boats accommodate all sorts of passengers.
Pop the tray back in the oven for another 10 or 15.

And here they are. See those super wonderful crunchy shreds of cheese that fell off of the potatoes? Parchment paper makes it possible for me to snack those straight into my mouth instead of having to scrub them off of the baking sheet later.

And here they are again after I remembered that I had some gorgonzola and 2 slices of cooked bacon in the fridge. Simplicity surrenders to the power of bacon. Again.
I used large baking potatoes today, but this idea works just as well on those adorable little red or yukon gold potatoes. Using teeny potatoes means more work hollowing out all those little shells, but it gives you a tray full of one or two bite potato skins that are much easier to serve to a room of friends than the behemoths I used today.
If you're serving up a tray full, put out a bowl of warm marinara or meat sauce or ranch dressing for dipping and you're pretty much the superhero du jour. (Another bonus to using one bite size potatoes: you avoid either cringing or critiquing when those swarming the food trough double dip.)
And now you know one of my favorite leftover usage dilemmas.
Do I bake potatoes because we're in the mood for skins, and figure out what to do with the leftover insides,
or do I bake potatoes for a casserole or soup or baked potato salad, and consider the skins the leftovers?
What a puzzle. Pass me the ranch dressing while I figure it out, ok?