Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Potato Skins -- Thrifty Thursdays

Today's Thrifty Thursdays post is reprinted with permission from the terrific book Teens Cook -- How to Cook the Food You Want to Eat by Megan and Jill Carle with Judi Carle. It makes a wonderful ways to use extra baked potatoes (you may even want to make extras while you're making tonight's dinner), as well as a thrifty snack or main course when paired with a salad.
Makes 12 Potato Skins

Ingredients
6 medium potatoes
6 slices thick-sliced bacon
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons chopped chives

Preheat the oven to 375° F.

Wash the potatoes and poke each one several times with a fork. Bake the potatoes for 45 minutes, or until they are fairly soft when squeezed. Remove the Potatoes from the oven and cool slightly.

Meanwhile, cut the bacon slices into 1/8 to 1/4 inch strips. Cook the bacon in a small sauté pan over medium heat for 15 minutes or until crisp. Transfer the bacon to paper towels to drain.

Preheat the broiler and adjust the oven rack to 4 to 5 inches away from the broiler. (if the rack is any closer, the Potato skins will get too dark before they get crispy.)

Cut each potato in half lengthwise and scoop out most of the potato with a large spoon. (The insides can be used to make Baked potato soup, see page 51 of the book). Brush the potato skins inside and out with the oil and place them upside down on a baking sheet. Place under the broiler for 5 minutes. Turn the potato skins over and broil for 5 to 6 minutes, or until the potato skins are crispy. Remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle some of the cheese and bacon bits into each Potato skin. Return the pan to the broiler for 2 minutes, or until the cheese is melted.

Combine the sour cream, milk, and chives in a small bowl. Place the bowl of sour cream in the center of a large plate and arrange the Potato skins around the bowl.

More about the Book
Teens Cook -- How to Cook the Food You Want to Eat by Megan and Jill Carle with Judi Carle

Even though this book was written by teens, for teens, it really deserves a wider audience. No doubt teens will love the cooking tips, full color photos, and recipes for favorite foods. But this book has recipes that everyone loves to eat, and especially if you are a beginner cook, the recipes contain detailed instructions that make it simple for anyone to get great results. In between the recipes you'll find lots of cooking tips, shortcut tricks, and information that will help cooks of all ages improve their techniques and speed in the kitchen.

The book was penned by sisters Megan and Jill Carle, who have both been cooking since they were three. What probably makes these teens even more knowledgeable than other cooks of their tender years is the fact that their mother Judi Carle (who helped with the book) is a chef and cookbook writer and editor who has worked on over 20 cookbooks, including the best selling Charlie Trotter series.

The result of this family collaboration is a useful book for anyone learning to cook and/or looking for tasty recipes that will please the entire family. It's also handy for anyone who lives alone as there is an entire chapter devoted to meals for one.

Chapters include: Breakfast; Snacks; Soups/Salad; Dinner for One; Family Meals; Desserts.

Click here for more information about Teens Cook or to order at a discount through Amazon.com.

Thrifty Thursdays is a blog event created by my fried Amanda Formaro from Amanda's Cookin' blog. I've agreed to participate, so look for a frugal themed post here each Thursday. In addition to reading my posts, be sure to visit Amanda's blog for a round-up of all the thrifty home and cooking tips and recipes that came in this week from folks around the blogosphere.

1 comment:

Amanda said...

Yum, those look delcious!

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