This past weekend was another gaming weekend for me. My friends and I get together around noon and game until late night - usually wrapping up around 10:30 or 11:00 pm. For us, this means that for every game session, we need to plan 2 meals, plus snacks. We usually start the day with lunch, almost as soon as my friend walk through my door. This gives us a chance to chat and visit before getting into game mode. Luckily we like food, and we like to cook. We handle the meals in a variety of ways sometimes potluck (with or without an overall theme or plan), more often than not I prepare one meal and they prepare the other. Everyone provides their own snacks and drinks (for the most part) for munching throughout the day.
This game session we decided to go with a Baked Potato Bar for lunch (we both wanted photos from the potato bar for our blogs) and sandwiches for dinner. Bars like this are really ideal for casual entertaining. They set a festive atmosphere, while providing plenty of options to meat a wide variety of dietary needs and, bonus, they are a great way to deal with picky eaters - letting them choose what they want. We generally handle sandwiches in this way too, everyone makes their own. We've done taco bars as well with options to make crunchy or soft tacos, nachos, taco salad or a taco style rice bowl and they've all been a big hit.
This time, I was in charge of baking the potatoes and we each provided a few of our favorite toppings to fill out the bar. I planned one large russet baking potato per person (I knew we would have more than enough additional food choices to appease anyone with a larger appetite), which I washed...
... Then I poked each one with a fork. This allows the potatoes to vent as they cook and prevents them from splitting open...
...Next, I rubbed butter all over them. This allows them to develop a crispy skin so they hold together when you split them open...
... I placed them in a pan, rather than wrapping them in foil. This also helps the potatoes to become crispy on the outside. I baked them for an hour at 425 degrees, adding the pulled pork to the oven to reheat 30 minutes into the baking process,..
... Altogether we had chili, pulled pork, bacon, cheese, BBQ sauce, scallions and sour cream for toppings.
Each of us topped our potatoes with the toppings we wanted and we all enjoyed a delicious...
satisfying...
and hearty lunch to get our Gaming Day off to a great start - YUM!
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