It’s Greek To Me Twice Baked Potato….At Least It’s Over

See that red casserole dish up there? Yes, the one above this text? That was the color of my face one fateful day.

The day I am speaking was a longgg few years ago while I was in graduate school. I was mid-way through my Masters’ research program (this is not the hiccup story again) and so it was time to pony up and make a presentation. After all, the department wants to make sure that the pitance assistant-ship they are giving you is resulting in some good data.

So, I polished up my slides, ironed my one decent outfit and held firmly onto my index cards as the presentation began. For confidence, I had my best friend sitting in the front row for support and as I began, the sweat began it’s familiar path from my temple down my cheek. I felt my mind go blank so I placed my index cards on the podium and began to stare at them. Before I knew it, there was a quiet applause and the lights were brightened.

I looked up and fear struck. I realized I had never looked up, never interacted with a slides and don’t even remember flipping through the slides. I looked at my friend and she was looking at her shoes. Uh-Oh.

I answered some questions and once the audience left, I took a deep breath. I looked at my friend and all she said was ‘At least It Is Over.’ My horrible performance was confirmed.

Greek Twice-Baked Potato (4 servings)
4 large russet potatoes
~ 1 teaspoon olive oil
2 Tablespoons 1% Milk
1/2 cup reduced fat Feta cheese, crumbled
1/3 cup pepperoncini/Hot Pepper Rings, chopped
1/3 cup olives, sliced
1 teaspoon Greek seasonings (I used Penzey’s)
salt and black pepper

Directions:
1. Turn the oven to 400 degrees and head on over to the sink to give the potatoes a good scrubbing.

2. Poke several holes in each potato with a fork, rub them with a thin coat of olive oil and place them on a baking sheet.  Bake them for at least an hour (I did not write down the exact amount of time but not too much more than an hour) until they are easily pierced with a fork.

3. Set them aside to cool until easy to hold. Slice of the top third of the potato lengthwise and set the top aside. Scoop out most of the potato flesh out, leaving an thin but even amount of potato on all sides and the bottom.

4. Mix milk through black pepper with the scooped out potato flesh and mash well. Scoop the mixture back into the potatoes, top with more feta, peppers and olives and bake for another 15 minutes.

p.s. Yes, I have only done potato recipes lately but since I was trying to come up with recipes for a contest, I had lots of potato cooking going on.