Baked Potatoes

My kids always get to have their pick of a meal on their birthday.  It's something my mom started a long time ago with my sister and I.  The last few years my kids have really lucked out, because we have a big family dinner with my parents and my sister's family, but it hardly ever falls on their actual birthday.  So they get to pick the main course that we will have at my mom's, and then of course on the day of their birthday I want it to be special for them, so I let them pick the meal that day, too.  This year Sam picked chicken pot pie to have at my mom's (for the second year in a row) and baked potatoes to have on his birthday.  But yesterday was Mother's Day.  We like to spread out the holiday cheer here, so we had these tonight, when our Guinea Pig family was here as well.  I looked up a recipe, because I knew vaguely what to do, like "throw the potatoes in the oven for a really long time" but I have had baked potatoes at restaurants that were SO good that had salt on the skin and I wanted to do that.  So I went to the internet and found a website called (and I am not making this up) howtobakeapotato.com.  So this is what I did, according to their instructions.  The website has nice pictures if you want to go see their illustrations.

Baked Potatoes
baking potatoes
olive or canola oil
sea salt (you could use regular salt I bet, if you don't have any from the sea)

Preheat oven to 350.  Scrub potatoes with a scrub brush.  Pierce each potato 6-12 times (depending on the size), deeply with a standard fork.  Put a small amount of oil in a bowl (1-2 tbsp).  Get a little bit of oil on a potato and then rub it in with your hands (yes, I did feel weird massaging potatoes...one slipped right out of my hands just like what happened to Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman when she was trying to eat escargot: "Slippery little suckers").  Sprinkle generously with sea salt.  Place directly on oven rack and bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours depending on the size.

These came out PERFECT!  We had a potato bar, with toppings to choose from: butter, chives, sour cream (for Melissa and crew, none of us like that, blech), chili, cheese, bacon, and french fried onions.  Very very good.  The skins were great (I will not say that I didn't lick mine).  Definitely the way to bake potatoes.