Fancy Baked Potatoes

Toddlerhood. I thought I understood what toddlerhood meant before Liam arrived at it and I did not, because the books describe behavior and not the specific physics of a thirteen-month-old who has concluded that speed is always preferable to caution. He runs everywhere now. Not fast by adult standards but fast by apartment standards, across the living room and into the kitchen and out again with the directional logic of someone testing the perimeter. He finds anything on the floor and puts it in his mouth for assessment. He has opinions about which items of clothing are acceptable to wear and expresses them clearly. He is a person, fully, in a way that each week makes more obvious.

Easter. We did the same circuit as last year—mass, my parents', lamb shoulder and the sweet potato casserole—but this year Liam could walk to the table and eat from his own plate with spoon and hands and say "more" with authority. My father watched him eat the lamb with the expression he reserves for things that are going as they should. Liam had three helpings of sweet potato. He is my father's grandchild in this particular way.

Priya and I went to dinner on Saturday—just the two of us, no kids, the place in Kendall Square that does the small plates. We ate until we were full and talked until we were ready to go and it was a completely ordinary adult evening and it was also wonderful in the way ordinary adult evenings are wonderful when you're a nurse with a toddler and ordinary adult evenings require scheduling three weeks in advance.

After watching Liam go back for a third scoop of sweet potato with the kind of focused enthusiasm my father usually reserves for the lamb, I realized the potato had quietly become the MVP of our Easter table. That stuck with me. So this year I’m leaning into it fully — because a really good, dressed-up baked potato doesn’t need a holiday to justify itself, but it also fits one perfectly.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 1 hr | Total Time: 1 hr 15 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

4 large russet potatoes, scrubbed
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sour cream
3/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided
4 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
3 green onions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup whole milk or cream
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Preheat oven to 400°F. Pierce each potato several times with a fork. Rub all over with olive oil and season generously with kosher salt and black pepper.
Bake the potatoes. Place potatoes directly on the oven rack and bake for 55–65 minutes, until the skin is crisp and a fork slides through the center with no resistance.
Scoop and mix the filling. Let potatoes cool for 5 minutes. Cut each potato in half lengthwise. Carefully scoop out the flesh into a bowl, leaving a 1/4-inch shell. Add butter, sour cream, milk, and half the cheddar to the bowl. Mash and stir until smooth and creamy. Season with salt and pepper.
Stuff and top. Spoon the filling back into the potato shells, mounding it slightly. Top each with the remaining cheddar, crumbled bacon, and green onions.
Return to oven. Place stuffed potatoes on a baking sheet and bake an additional 10–15 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the tops are lightly golden.
Serve. Serve hot with extra sour cream on the side if desired.

Nutrition (per serving)

Fancy Baked Potatoes — The Side Dish That Stole the Show at Our Easter Table