'Tater Skins.

I tend to spend a good bit of time browsing the interwebs looking for good recipes, and while looking around this weekend, one recipe kept popping up. Perhaps it is because of the impending Super Bowl thingie... but a recipe for Potato Skins stuffed with Beef, Bacon, and Blue Cheese kept popping up... So.. I figured I'd give it a shot.

First off, you need some potatoes. About 4 of them should be good. Stab them repeatedly with a fork and put them on a cookie sheet.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, then toss the taters in for about an hour.

 

When they're done, let them cool down for a little bit, then cut them in half. Remember, you're making 'tater skins...  so I picked potatoes that were a bit of a flattened circle, rather than really round. If you have potatoes that are large and round, you may have to cut a section of potato out of the center to leave "canoes" of potato about 1/2" high on either side.

 

 Now, grab a spoon and scoop out the guts, leaving about 1/4" of potato in the skins...

After you've got them scooped out, save the innards for use later.....in another recipe.

Now, brush the skins inside and out with some softened butter... and toss them in the oven under the broilerjust to get things browned up a little bit..

Also, toss 1/4 pound of ground beef in a pan and cook 6 slices of bacon.

And... chop up about a half cup of blue cheese...

Here's the browned skins....

and the stuff that will go inside.

This is pretty much common sense.. drop the beef, bacon and cheese in the tater skins, then toss under the broiler until the cheese gets melty.

Top with whatever you like, and you're done.

And there it is.

It was.... meh. ... Really nothing to write home about. They weren't bad... but they're tater skins... it's really not something I crave, so I'm not sure why I went through the trouble of making them. All things considered, the time that goes into them and the buying of blue cheese... ehhh... I'm not going to make them again. Now, they're not as big of a failure as say the Cincinnati Chili Lasagna I made a couple of years ago... but, they're tater skins. They are inherently dry and leathery.

The good that will come out of this is that I'll take the guts leftover from hollowing out the potatoes and make some awesome smashed potatoes with the remaining blue cheese and maybe some sour cream and bacon... and some green onions... and garlic. ... now that will be awesome. Much better than stupid potato skins.