Side Quests: Twice Baked Potatoes, VF Style

I demand that you don't just walk, or mosey, or saunter to the kitchen to make these. RUN, dammit. These tatos are gold. Er, if you could eat gold, I guess. The key to their crack-like deliciousness is my lil twist on the recipe, and my secret . Well, I'm sharing it with you now so guess not so secret, huh?

Ingredients:
4 large russet or Yukon Gold potatoes (Russet safe choice, but Yukons reallly elevate this recipe.)
1/2 brick cream cheese (4 ounces I think?)
1/2 stick butter, softened (yes, butter. Don't even consider margarine. Heathen.)
3 generous T. sour cream
1/2 cup grated extra sharp cheddar, plus more to top
1/4 tsp. poultry seasoning (wow, I sure use that a lot, huh?)
1/4 tsp. garlic salt, plus 1 sprinkle regular salt
2 T. fresh parsley, minced (please use fresh. It truly makes a difference.)
plenty shakes of black pepper
paprika, to taste (I go heavy.)

Out of my fave sour cream, boo :(

Scrub your tatos, poke 'em a few times wif knife/ fork/ your teeth and bake in the oven or microwave til tender. I prefer the microwave, because it's so easy, but be sure to check 'em by stabbing to make sure they're done all the way through. Microwave takes 15 minutes vs. the oven, which clocks in at like, an hour. Once they're cool, slice the tops off and hollow them out with a spoon-transferring the tato innards into a mixing bowl. Try to keep the potato shape intact.

Shallow husks lol.

To the bowl of tatos add the poultry season, butter, sour cream, garlic salt/salt sprinkle, pepper, 1/2 cup cheddar, and parsley. Blend thoroughly:

Fill  the shallow husks  with the mixture about halfway. NOW. Here is my secret. Cut off a good piece (bout thumb size chunk) of the cream cheese and nestle it into the filling like so:

Delicious results await you.

Really mold the chunks into the base filling. And then top wif more filling, sealing the cream chz in:

Almost there!

Lastly, top wif sprinkle cheddar an the (generous) paprika:

Or even sprinkle of red pepper, if you feelin froggy lol.

Pop into 375 oven an bake until tops of tatos browned, (about 35 minutes).

Well hot damn.

The implementation of the secret tip means you get tatos with their centers full of warm, gooey goodness.... Lord these are tasty. Might as well make a double batch because you'll WISH you had more the next day.