Whipped Potatoes...The way potatoes were meant to be eaten...take 2

*I must apologize.  Something went wrong with my pictures from the original post.  Hopefully it will work this time.*

Start with baked potatoes.

 How many you use will depend on how many people you want to feed. Each potato will make 2 whipped potatoes.

Cut the potatoes in half lengthwise, like so:

I forgot to mention that it is best to let the potatoes cool a bit so you don't burn your hands while you're handling them.

Now, scoop out their guts and put them in a bowl. A regular spoon works very well for this.

Melt a stick of butter or margarine...

and dip the empty potato shells into the butter.

 Be generous.  Make sure that whole thing is covered, dripping even, with butter.

Place the butter covered shells skin side up on a baking sheet.  (I cover mine with aluminum foil to help with clean up.)

If so desired, now is a good time to season them with a bit of salt or garlic powder or both.

Place the skins under the broiler for 5 to 10 minutes, until they are crispy enough for you.

Mmmm..... perfect.

In the meantime, take the potato guts and mash them up.

Stir in (or mash in) some sour cream--probably about a cup.  This is, once again, based on how many potatoes you use and how much you like sour cream.

Add some ranch dressing mix (I used about 2 tablespoons).

And top it all off with some cheese. 

(Stir the cheese in.  I don't know why I only took a picture of the cheese on top!)

Now, take your crispy broiled shells and fill them up with the mashed potato mixture and place those back on the baking sheet.

Top them all with a heap of cheese.  

 Don't worry if some of the cheese falls off of the potatoes and on to the baking sheet.  In fact, I even put some there on purpose.  

Because, when you bake them at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes, they come out like this:

And that wayward cheese turns into crispy little bites like this:

So good!

P.S.  I forgot to mention that this recipe is my dad's.  He's a potato genius.

*Linking up*

How to host a fruit fly party

Do you have a problem with fruit flies in the summer?

I do.  They are all over and they drive me ca-ra-zy!

I can't remember where I first saw the idea (I'm thinking it was on The Idea Room somewhere, but I couldn't for the life of me find it).  Get an old jar (cleaned out), put some fruit in it, and roll a piece of paper into a funnel. (I'm sure you could use a real funnel too.  I'll have to try that.)  Place the paper in the jar and watch the flies come flocking to the party!  For some reason, they can get in, but not out.  Silly bugs.

That doesn't sound too hard, right?  So, I decided to try.

Then, Mister came home and was super impressed with the idea, but wanted to experiment with it a bit.  I had an apple in mine, he used a banana and some canned fruit.  He also used a shorter tube.

We set out both jars in the same place to see who threw the best fruit fly party.

It's kind of hard to see in this picture (because they are so itty bitty!) but there are hundreds of flies in this jar.

My jar has maybe 20 flies in it.  

Now we know.  They like bananas (they rot faster) and fruit cocktail and the shorter the journey to the party, the better.  Also, we've learned that it can be productive to let the husband build on our ideas.  =)

P.S.  I read recently that it works to put plastic wrap on top of the jar, secured with a rubber band, with holes poked in the plastic wrap.  Maybe we'll try both and see who wins that party.