Today’s recipe is from the kitchen of Detroit’s own Amy Ruud – comedienne extraordinaire.  When she’s not in the kitchen whipping up delicious recipes, you can find her in comedy clubs preforming stand-up.  While you are waiting for your potatoes to bake check out her act here:

Hickory Maple Twice Baked Potatoes

Ingredients

• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of Beyond the Shaker Hickory Maple salt
• 6 Idaho potatoes
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup milk
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese, divided
• 8 green onions, sliced, divided
• Bacon crumbles

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

2. Bake potatoes in preheated oven for 1 hour.

3. When potatoes are done allow them to cool for 10 minutes.

4. Slice potatoes in half lengthwise and scoop the flesh into a large bowl; save skins. To the potato flesh add sour cream, milk, butter, salt, 1/2 cup cheese and 1/2 the green onions. Mix with a hand mixer until well blended and creamy.

5. Spoon the mixture into the potato skins.

6. Top each with remaining cheese, green onions and bacon.

7. Bake for another 15 minutes.

This is a dish guaranteed to get you invited back but sadly, you won’t have any leftovers to take home.  To see Amy’s creation from the Beyond the Shaker Challenge check out our Facebook page.

Beyond the Shaker and FIG Catering’s Carrot Soup with Savory Salted Marshmallows

Check out this amazing photo of our winning Odd Pairs dish taken by Chicago photographer, Douglas Bening! As a follow-up on this incredible event, there was an article in the April 2010 issue of Chicago Magazine highlighting the various Odd Pairs with a reference to the dish created by FIG Cateringand Beyond the Shaker. Unfortunately, the actual article from Chicago Magazine is not available online, so grab the issue from your favorite magazine stand before it disappears.

There also was an article in the Chicagoist blog describing the Odd Pairs event in detail including the other competitors. As a bonus, in the Chicagoist blog entry there is a photo of Molly Schemper from FIG and Chris McVety from Beyond the Shaker cheering on the crowd that had assembled to try the various Odd Pairs. All-in-all, a very exciting evening.

We are pleased to announce the addition of a fantastic retail location to purchase Beyond the Shaker salts in Denver, Colorado – R&R Modern Leisure. Proprietor, Hamilton Cowie, is a professional chef with fifteen years of experience. The store offers a wide variety of unique products with the goal to be a ‘one-stop’ shop for the discerning culinary customer.

Hamilton has been a pleasure to work with and we are confident that he will have tremendous success in this fantastic pursuit as we salute a fellow entrepreneur. If you are in the Denver area (or tremendously wealthy and can jet-set on a whim to Colorado), you owe it to yourself to stop by R&R Modern Leisure at 1238 Colfax Avenue to check out Hamilton’s store. Tell him Beyond the Shaker sent you!