Stuffed Baked Potatoes

One of the most regular – and most filling – dinners around our house is Stuffed Baked Potatoes.

And they come with one of my favorite stories about when Coach and I were just starting out…

I come from a very close-knit family. I was blessed to have my mom’s side of the family right there in my home town, so I grew up gathering with my extended family on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis.

I loved it!

Between sporting events, birthdays, holidays, lake trips, and marathon Monopoly games, we were together all the time. And, of course, all that togetherness included lots of great food. Cookouts on the grill, homemade enchiladas, chicken fried steak…the list goes on and on. Suffice it to say that we never, ever went hungry.

But this one time, early on in the days of “me and Coach” he was not a believer in the menu.

The One

They say some people just know when they meet The One.

Me and Coach? We are those people.

We met on April 21, 1995. If you haven’t heard the story, it’s a great one, but I will resist the temptation to go down that tangent today. Let’s just say that from that day – April 21, 1995 – to today – April 21, 2021 – we’ve been pretty inseparable.

And since we met during college in my home town, it didn’t take long for Coach to be indoctrinated into our family tradition of togetherness.

Philip and I had been dating a few weeks. We (meaning Coach, myself, my mom, my stepdad, my brother, my Grandma Syble, my aunt, my uncles, my cousins, and a few close family friends, aka: the usual crew) were having dinner at my aunt and uncle’s house for some reason that I can’t even remember. Probably just because.

On the way over to their house, Coach asked me what we were having to eat.

“Stuffed potatoes,” I answered, assuming that everyone in every family grew up having our style of stuffed baked potatoes.

“Hmm,” under his breath was his only response. Followed by something along the lines of “I guess we can run by McDonald’s if we’re still hungry.”

Bless His Heart

In Texas – and all throughout the South, I believe – we say that phrase when some poor soul doesn’t know what they’re talking about. Coach rarely, if ever, earns a “bless his heart” but that one time, he did.

He was still new to my family scene, and he had not yet realized that we don’t believe in going home hungry. We don’t believe that you have be too fancy nor too highfalutin.

Instead we believe in big, huge spreads of food. We believe in open doors, and kids running in and out of them. We believe that everyone is welcome. And we believe in the love language of food.

We do not believe in running by McDonald’s on the way home.

1995

Now, I need to point out that my family was ahead of the stuffed potato trend.

Back in 1995, loaded French fries were just starting out, and filled potatoes were not yet on every restaurant’s menu. So, in his defense, Coach did not know what to expect.

What he found was a new favorite dinner.

In our family, stuffed potatoes began with big, jumbo, humungous potatoes.

They are then coated with Crisco and baked for a few hours to make them very hot and very soft.

Next, they are the base foundation for butter. Enough butter to turn the potato a nice soft, buttery yellow.

Add to that a generous portion of spicy taco meat.

Follow with a few heaping dollops of sour cream or an icing of Ranch dressing.

Bacon bits are spread across the top.

A handful of grated cheddar finishes it off.

A Mountain of Goodness

Thinking that we were going to let him go hungry – and being a 23-year old college athlete – Coach had picked out the largest potato in the stack. Easily 9 -10 inches, and not a skinny potato, at that.

By the time I’d walked him through the construction process, he’d built a mountain of stuffed potato on his dinner plate. It was truly impressive, and a lot of food!

We found a place to sit at one of the tables, and he dug in with gusto.

He ate.

And he ate.

And he ate.

And then he started slowing down.

But, as I said, he was a young man with a hearty appetite and a warp-speed metabolism, so he could eat a lot in those days.

So he kept eating.

And eventually he started to see the plate under the potato.

By this time he was shoveling at a snail’s pace. Taking very deep breaths between bites.

But he would not be defeated.

He would not be beat by the monster he’d created.

The Final Bite

He scraped his plate. He took his last bite.

And then he simply sat back and made a “whewww” sound on a deep sigh.

I know it’s silly and provincial, some will probably condemn me for being sexist, but I am a woman who loves to see her man filled to the gills on a great meal. It makes me happy when Coach loves what I’ve cooked so much that he can’t stop eating. I pat myself on the back when he leaves the table completely miserable – I like to call that feeling “fat and happy” and it’s a source of pride in my book.

After that potato, Coach sat in that chair for a decent amount of time, enjoying a few glasses of sweet tea to wash it all down.

Understandably, he declined the boys’ request to play basketball in the driveway before we left.

And on the way through town, I simply and sweetly asked, “Do we need to run by McDonald’s?”

We did not.

Ingredients:

• 4 Large Baking Potatoes (Russet or Sweet)
• Foil
• Vegetable Shortening
• Garlic Salt
• Mrs. Dash
• 2 lb. Ground Beef
• 2 envelopes Taco Seasoning
• Butter
• 2 cups Grated Cheese
• Ranch Dressing or Sour Cream
• Bacon Bits
• Salt and Pepper

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400º
2. Wash and scrub potatoes.
3. Tear a medium-sized square of foil for each potato.
4. Scoop a dollop of vegetable shortening into your hands and rub onto each potato, setting it on a square of foil when well coated.
5. Sprinkle each potato with garlic salt and Mrs. Dash.
6. Starting at a corner of the foil, wrap and roll each potato.

7. Bake potatoes at 400º for 2 hours.
8. About 10 minutes before potatoes are finished cooking, brown the ground beef.
9. Add taco seasoning packets per instructions.
10. When oven is finished, roll each baked potato in your hands to soften the insides. They are VERY HOT, so be sure to use hot pads!
11. Serve with remaining toppings. Additional toppings might include lettuce, tomato, onions, guacamole, shredded chicken, dried cranberries, etc…

Twenty-six years later, Stuffed Baked Potatoes are still a monthly staple at our house. They are really easy to make; the ingredients are things that I always have on hand. And if you’ve ever witnessed Coach’s creation after building his potato, it is still quite a sight to see!

Enjoy!!

With love and hugs,

Ashli