Beautiful Brunch, Delicious Dinner
One recipe, 6 ingredients, ten minutes of prepping if you really take your time, the oven does the work. Then a crave worthy dish is ready to be served. What more could anyone want? Recently a group of friends were chatting about how boring it has gotten to plan menus and make dinner every night. We realized we have all begun to rely on set menus (grilled chicken anyone?) because it’s too hard to plan new ones – even when company is coming over. That’s when I remembered this very favorite dish I hadn’t made in the longest time.
Baked Potatoes with Sausage and Eggs. It’s literally the perfect recipe. You can play around with most of the ingredients, and it’s amazingly economical.
These lovely potatoes are simply washed, rolled in salt while still damp then baked in a hot oven for about an hour. You can do that! When they are cool enough to handle, scoop the insides into a bowl, mix with sausage, cheese, butter, and a little sour cream. You will find you don’t need much butter or cheese because in the end the egg provides the richness of the dish.
Stuff the potatoes shells with the potato mixture and make a little dent to crack an egg into and its back in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Although in the south hours can be wasted debating the merits of Jimmy Dean verses Bob Evans sausage, and both are good, but if you are not feeling like cooking sausage buy it pre-cooked – chopped turkey sausage is a nice choice.
This recipe is perfect. The potato is its own adorable serving vessel. All that can possibly be added to round out this menu is a very simple salad. We like spinach with apples and honey dressing (see blog). This recipe is almost like a quiche in that it’s perfect for brunch or dinner. It’s just different enough that people are charmed by how simply delicious and elegant a potato can be. Throw this one into your recipe repertoire and be delighted with this cozy little meal. Enjoy!
Ingredients
2 large baking potatoes (serves 4 – easy to adjust)
2 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp sour cream
1/3 cup grated cheese – love gruyere or Swiss, but use what you like
1/3 cup cooked sausage – breakfast sausage or pre-cooked turkey sausage crumbled
1/2 tsp each salt and pepper
4 eggs
Directions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Wash 2 baking potatoes and pat salt onto the outside.
Bake for an hour until fork tender.
Cut in half, cool slightly, and carefully scoop out insides.
Mix with butter, sour cream, and cheese – fold in sausage – salt to taste.
Place potato skins on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray and spoon the mixture back into the potato halves, creating a hollow in each center.
Break 1 egg into each hollow arrange on a baking sheet and cook until set, about 15 minutes.
Broil the top for a minute if for a more well done egg.
