Two-Cheese, Two-Onion Twice Baked Potatoes

I was picking up my Bountiful Basket for the week, and I mentioned to someone that I had seen a recipe for twice-baked red potatoes. Her response? "Twice-Baked? Once you bake them once, do you need to bake them again?" Oh, dear. May God have mercy on her uninformed soul. Twice-Baked potatoes can be an amazing side dish. There are so many variations and different ingredients you can mix into the potatoes. Me? I think we all know that I love cheese. Oh, you didn't know? Well, I love cheese. I did cheddar cheese, green onion, red onion, and bacon on top- and cream cheese mixed into the potatoes. They turned out wonderfully.
Two-Cheese, Two-Onion Twice Baked Potatoes: source- me :)


4 large Russet potatoes
1/4 c butter (1/2 stick)
2 oz cream cheese
1/4 c heavy whipping cream
1 t freshly ground pepper
1/2 t salt
1 c cheddar cheese
1/4 c chopped green onion
1/4 c diced red onion
2 slices bacon, cooked and chopped


Bake the potatoes in a 400 degree oven for 1 hour. Remove them and allow them to cool slightly. You don't want to burn your hands, but you do want the warmth from the potatoes to melt the butter and cream cheese.


Cut the potatoes in half. Use a spoon to scoop out the interior but leave a thin shell of potato around the outside. Put the potato pulp in your mixing bowl with the cream cheese, butter, cream, salt, pepper, and cheese. Beat the potatoes until the are fluffy and smooth. Add the two kinds of onions and stir to combine.
Scoop the cheesy, oniony mixture in to the potato shells. At this point, they can be kept in the fridge for a day until you are ready to bake them. Once you're ready, brush them with butter. Bake them in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. You'll notice that the tops will start to brown. After the 30 minutes, take them out, and sprinkle the bacon on top. Turn the broiler on high and broil these bad boys for only a few minutes until the bacon crisps up a bit.
See? The bacon is glimmering. I'm sure there's a Christmas song somewhere in the world that sings of glimmering bacon. If it's out there and you know about it, please let me know.
I serve these with sour cream, but they are plenty good all by themselves. Lately, I have been serving plenty of heart-attack worthy dishes. Heart attack on a bun, and heart attack in a potato shell. Yum.