Twice baked sweet potato with maple sausage

Once upon a time (1995), a little girl (yours truly), took a home-ec class in a land far far away (Maryland).  And... she learned how to make twice baked potatoes!  Outside of toad-in-a-hole, twice baked potatoes are one of the very first things I remember learning how to cook.  This is a new and improved version.  How's that for applied learning? :)

What's in the fridge:

- 2 sweet potatoes

- 1/4 cup sour cream

- 6 maple pork sausages

- 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella

- Spinach for side salad

- Balsamic glaze

Directions:

- Bake the sweet potatoes at 350 for about an hour, until you can easily pierce them with a fork.

- Once ready, remove from the oven and cut in half length-wise.  Let cool.

- Meanwhile, remove pork sausage from casing and cook on medium heat, breaking up the meat into crumble size pieces.  Cook until fully browned.

Sausage removed from casing

Much more appetizing once cooked!

- Once sweet potatoes have cooled, gently remove the meat of the potato, keeping the potato skin intact.  Put the sweet potato meat in a mixing bowl.

Action shot

Sweet potato skins waiting to be filled

- Mix together the sweet potato meat, sausage, 1/4 cup cheese and sour cream.

You want the mixture to be an almost creamy texture.

Filling for the sweet potatoes

- Stuff the mixture into the sweet potato skins and top with remaining cheese

- Put the potatoes back in the oven for about 10 minutes at 350 to get them warmed up and for the cheese to melt.
- Plate and serve!  Here, I served the potato with a side of spinach with balsamic vinaigrette and got fancy decorating the plate with balsamic glaze.

Bon appetit!