Potatoes. Part 2. An Idaho Sunrise.

So, Part 2 of our fun potatoes series.  Because, I seriously love potatoes, and seriously, they are super versatile.  And it's $2.99 for a 5 lb. bag at my local grocery store.  I go through at least a bag a week lately.

I came across this particular recipe by accident.  Usually I'll have a craving for something or want to use up something I found in the kitchen/pantry and start using Google to find recipes, but this time I was merely browsing through one of my favorite cooking blogs (Our Best Bites) when I came across... drum roll dum dum dum... An Idaho Sunrise: Egg-Stuffed Baked Potatoes (if you're really gonna make these, go consult their recipe, because I'm leaving out a bunch of little steps below).  I think she used much bigger potatoes, the ones I had were pretty small and I'm definitely going to use large-ish potatoes the next time I make these (the bigger they are the more STUFF you can put inside!).

Without further ado, here we go.  Bake some potatoes.  I actually baked them the night before I planned on making these for brunch (because you need them to cool down enough to handle.  Ooh, quick note.  If you like potato skins and getting every last bit of potato mush, then DO wash your potatoes before making these.  I'm not a huge potato skin person, and didn't wash the outsides, but my sister IS a potato skin person and got very mad at me after she ate her potato skin and got sick after eating too much dirt.  Oops.

So, bake the potatoes, and when they've cooled enough for you to handle, start lobbing off tops.  Like this:

Then, use a spoon to scoop out the innards (set aside to make mashed potatoes, or gnocchi! - recipe tomorrow!).  Don't go all the way through like I did on my first attempt here (you can see the bottom skin where I actually broke through) because all your delicious innards will leak out onto the pan.

DON'T DO THIS!  You should NOT see brown at the bottom!

 Fill in the emptied out potato shells about 3/4 full with your choice of toppings.  This really is versatile - I went with some sausage and shredded cheddar in mine because I eat like a little kid and only like meat and cheese.  My mom and sister also got a bit of diced onion and scallions because they like a little zing.  And actually I put in less than half the cheese into my mom's because she's not that partial to it.  I think I could see myself doing some sauteed mushrooms and truffle salt in one and eating it all sophisticated-like wearing a breakfast hat (think this, not this or this).  Then, crack in an egg right on top and go ahead and throw some more toppings on (like I said, use MUCH bigger potatoes than I did).  You still want to be able to see the yolks so you can tell when they're done.

Top right is pre-egg.

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 15-20 minutes.  Just enough for the egg to set...

My sister already stole one off the pan before I could get a picture.

Unless you have a strong preference for well-done yolk, you want to get these out JUUUUUST as the yolk starts to set so that you can have this beautiful runny deliciousness as you cut in...

OurBestBites has much more appetizing pics!

Actually, the yolk looks pretty set in the original recipe.  But we all like runny gooey yolk in my family, so ours are a little underdone (you DO want the whites to be cooked though - the first time I popped these out to see if they were ready the whites were still clear and that was pretty grosseriffic).

All mixed up!

Seriously, these are SO easy to make and the payoff is AMAAAAAAZING.  You can probably even make these pre-coffee and let the coffee drip as you're waiting for these to come out of the oven.  (I don't drink coffee so I wouldn't know, but they were seriously SUPER easy to make).  Can't wait to try them again with BIGGER potatoes and MORE stuffing!!!