Twice Baked Potato Casserole

Are you guys anything like me? When it comes to a holiday or family-style dinner I want to try something new and fun. I want the 'wow' factor when I put it on the table and this Easter Day Dinner was no exception.

In my family we love a family style dinner and we were going out of the traditional Easter Ham Dinner. This year we did salmon and steak and then brought on the side dishes. I took on a new fun one: Twice Baked Potato Casserole. My inspiration was of course, my hero, the infamous Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond, herself.

The concept is simple: take the amazing twice baked potato and make it more family-style instead of putting it back into the skins. Honestly .... I don't know if I'll do individual twice baked potatoes ever again. This was so delicious, so yummy, so amazing - I will be making this for many more family gatherings.

What all do you need to make enough for 8-10 people:

14-16 russet potatoes, (I bought a 5 lb bag at the store)
3 sticks butter
2 cups sour cream
3-4 heads of garlic diced
1 package bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1/4 cup milk
2 cups shredded cheese
Garlic Salt, to taste
Paprika, to taste
Salt & Pepper, to taste

First up, let's get the potatoes cooking! Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees. Scrub your potatoes and lay out on a cookie sheet. Spray with Olive Oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Once oven is pre-heated, bake your potatoes for one hour.

While the baked potatoes are cooking, let's get everything else ready. I take a short cut when I need to crumble my bacon for a recipe. I take about 4 strips of bacon at a time and cut into pieces. Then I cook them like this to basically take out the hassle of cooking the bacon and cutting up afterwards. Just something I do and have done for many years .... not sure why, but it's habit now.

Here's my bacon in the skillet. MMMMMMMM. Simply cook until crispy stirring occasionally.

Next I take about 3-4 heads of garlic and dice up. Once the bacon is cooked we are going to quickly cook up our garlic. What two better things are there?

So what I do is take out the bacon once it's cooked and leave the grease. I add in my garlic and quickly cook it right in the bacon juices. This is garlic kicked up 50 notches. Oh. Yes.

Line a plate with paper towels and allow your bacon and your yummy garlic to sit so the grease drains from them.

Finally, the last bit of prep is to cut up the green onions - just dice up and set aside.

When your potatoes are done we want to get ready to roll with this casseROLE. Take your 3 sticks of butter and add in a large mixing bowl. Then, add in your sour cream right on top.

Bring on the potatoes! Take a kitchen towel so you can handle your hot potatoes. (Feel free to play a round of Hot Potato with the kids at this point as well)

Slice in half and hold your potato with your kitchen towel and scoop out the insides with a spoon and put into the bowl on top of the butter and sour cream. It's perfectly fine to add in some of the skins with this - in fact, I suggest it. I love some of the skins in this because it gives a little more flavor and a rustic dish.

Keep on scooping until you have scooped out all your potatoes. Now we need to add in our mixings!

Add in your bacon and garlic, then season with some Garlic Salt, to your taste.

Add in your Paprika and salt and pepper to taste. A good alternative would be to add in Smoked Paprika as well!

Then your milk can be poured in to add to the creamy texture.

Sprinkle in about half of your shredded cheese and mix everything together. And then TASTE IT! This is where you can adjust your seasonings - and dream of it all being cooked to perfection. It's tempting to just eat this large bowl .... but you must resist!

Spray a large casserole dish lightly with cooking spray and then spoon in your delicious potato mixture.

Finally we want to add the last of our cheese to the top. I added about 6 thin slices of Mozzarella to the top because I had it on hand in the fridge, but it's completely optional. Want a spicier version? Add Pepper Jack cheese!

Turn your oven down to 350 degrees and cook for 25 minutes. Then, change your oven to BROIL and cook for an additional 5 minutes to get some bubbly cheese on top.

Here is our final look. OMG. The cheesy top, the yummy potato and bacon and goodness inside! It literally took everything I had to not put a spoon in and taste it right then and there, but I had to wait until Easter Dinner!!

You can see from the 5 minutes on broil, I got some nice coloring on the top to make the presentation just perfect at dinner. So here are some of my memories of our Easter Day.