Super Stuffed Potatoes

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6 large baking potatoes

one pound of bacon, fried crisp and crumbled

one stick of butter cut into chunks, plus more for rubbing

1 cup of cottage cheese, whirled in the blender to smoothness

2 cups grated sharp cheddar

up to 1 cup of milk

6 or so stalks of broccoli

seasoned salt to taste

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Wash the potatoes well and then cut a small, shallow  slit all the way around the long way. This is where you will halve the potatoes after you cook them. This is a Laurel trick, though no doubt, Laurel would be horrified by the bacon addition;-)

Rub the potatoes generously with butter.

Bake the potatoes at 400 degrees for about an hour, until they are very soft inside and the skins are crisp.

While the potatoes are baking, peel the broccoli stems and then steam the whole stalks until they are very tender.

Turn the oven down to 350.

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Carefully cut the potatoes in half and scoop the insides into a big bowl. Leave enough potato in the skin so that the skins don't fall apart.

Mash the broccoli (I pulse it in the food processor). Add the broccoli, the cottage cheese, the seasoned salt, the butter, the bacon, and a cup of the grated cheddar to the big bowl of potatoes and mix well, adding milk until the filling is smoothe.

Fill the potato skins with mixture and top with the rest of the cheese. Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes.

You can make these even less healthy by using sour cream instead of cottage cheese and leaving out the broccoli. You can make them healthier, by using up to a half cup of milk instead of butter and leaving out the bacon. Or you can throw it all in there and persuade yourself that you are getting the best of all worlds.

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Visit Faith and Family Live! for more Super Bowl Snack ideas.

Good Excuse for Cake

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By six or so this evening, it was becoming clear that the contractors weren't going to appear. To this fact, I add this update to my "numbers"

Number of flat tires today: 2

Number of additional inches added to the forecast: 18

Number of minutes my neighbor reports waiting to check out at the supermarket (a task which still awaits me, because I spent the day sitting here waiting for the contractor and I didn't want to miss him): 60

I was seriously craving chocolate. And seriously feeling sorry for my gluten-free self because I couldn't do what Ann said to do when it's a hard day. So this cake recipe definitely caught my eye.

Kim made hers with coconut flour, which really intrigues me, but I haven't any and there's that grocery line. It's fast becoming a what-the-heck kind of week, so, I figured I had absolutely nothing to lose and pulled the following substitutions from the pantry:

3/4 cup rice flour & 3/4 cup hazelnut flour instead of wheat flour

1 teaspoon expresso powder in 1 cup of water instead of coffee

1/2 cup  butter for the shortening

We made the recipe as written because I didn't have enough cocoa to double it and we baked it 38 minutes.

And I'm happy to report that we didn't have any disasters during cake making. This is how we kept 'em busy. Note: I do not need butter from the store; the co-op delivered yesterday.

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The cake was just what this day needed:-). I really liked the hazelnutty flavor.  And that makes twice this week I've baked a chocolate cake. Hmmm.

Running Numbers

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Number of days Mike has been gone: 9

Number of days until he comes home: 5

Number of days since the floor project began: 24

Number of days until it's finished: not many (at least that's what I'm told)

Number of Swiffer pads we've used so far in the clean up: 21

Number on the thermometer when I took Sarah's temperature this morning: 104

Number of children wheezing, sneezing and miserable: 4

Number of hours sleep total I've had since he left: about 40 maybe

Number of inches of snow fallen since he left: 6

Number of inches of snow predicted this weekend: about 15-20

Number of inches of snow predicted on Tuesday (when he's due to travel home): some

Number of times I have re-heated my tea this morning: 6

Number of people in this family eagerly awaiting the Super Bowl (in oh-so-many ways): 11

Number of graces bestowed on us: as many as we beg. And then some.