Jan D'Atri

Jan D'Atri > diced green chiles

diced green chiles

Twice Baked Potato Casserole

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Fly-fishing and baked potatoes. That’s what I’ve been thinking a lot about this week. I just got back from one of my very favorite fly-fishing spots, the Owyhee River, a tributary of the Snake River located in three states including Idaho, where I love to cast my line in search of gorgeous German Browns and Rainbows. Driving to the river, you’ll pass acres of farmland where the state’s rich volcanic soil and extensive irrigation systems make it ideal for growing its famous high-quality potatoes. In fact, 320,000 acres in Idaho are dedicated to growing more than 30 varieties of potatoes. There’s even an Idaho Potato Museum in Blackfoot, Idaho, known as the Potato Capitol of the World. For me, fishing is always catch and release, so I can’t really share a trout recipe with you. But seeing miles and miles of potatoes being harvested reminded me of a favorite dish I’d love to share with you!

This recipe for Twice Baked Potato Casserole is fully loaded with all of your favorite fixings, and let me tell you, it takes baked potatoes up a couple of notches! The minute you start building this sassy side, you can see why it gets devoured by all! It starts with the sweetness of cubed red potatoes and then layered with chopped crisp bacon, sour cream, mozzarella and cheddar cheese and green chiles with a burst of colorful scallions. I find this recipe is so much easier to make than traditional stuffed baked potatoes, and it certainly feeds a crowd! It can be made ahead and frozen (baked or unbaked) and re-heated when ready to enjoy. Twice Baked Potato Casserole is super simple—unlike hooking and netting the Big One!

Sheepherder’s Breakfast for Dinner

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Sometimes there’s nothing like breakfast for dinner. Once in a while, it just hits the spot. When I came across a recipe for Sheepherder’s Breakfast in the cookbook Taste of Home’s Contest Winning Annual Recipes for 2006, it brought back my “breakfast for dinner” memories of powering through college homework late into the night at the University of Nevada, Reno. Sometimes before the all-night cramming sessions, a group of us would head to Gardnerville–about an hour south of Reno–to fortify ourselves at a Basque restaurant on a meal of baked eggs, chorizo and potatoes. It was very similar to the Taste of Home award winning recipe except that the Basque dish was baked in the oven in a cast iron skillet and Basque chorizo (or sometimes cured ham) replaced the bacon. It was soulful and comforting and satisfying and filling. Could you ask for anything more if you’re hungering for hearty meal? Sheepherder’s Breakfast, with all of its variations, is a popular dish here in the Southwest, too. Of course, fresh roasted or canned chiles are often added to a skillet dish like this one. Now with so many popular varieties of bacon on the market like peppered bacon, apple wood smoked bacon and the thicker sliced slab type, this variation on the Sheepherder’s Breakfast for Dinner will be tastier than ever morning or night. If you choose breakfast in bed for Dad, this might just be the perfectly delicious kick start to Father’s Day!