Comfort food while sick (no Tuesday Tip this week)

As I mentioned the other day, I've been sick pretty much the whole past week.  It hasn't been as bad as it might be (knock on wood!) in that I haven't had a fever or many symptoms, but the ones I have had have been rather annoying and have prevented me from doing much.  We've been eating out, or leftovers, or frozen food, but Saturday night, I really wanted to actually make something. 

Because I had these dueling desires (make something vs. expend as little effort as possible), we decided that what we really wanted was a baked potato bar!  It was so easy, and it made me feel as if I actually produced food in some fashion beyond simple microwaving.  I mean, I even grated cheese and all! This is a very simple recipe and you can substitute whatever toppings you want.

Salt-crusted baked potato with toppings
Ingredients
Baking potato (or 2, in our case)
olive oil
salt
toppings (we used scallions, tomatoes, cheddar, cottage cheese, and butter)

Preheat oven to 425.  Wash potatoes really well.  Rub potatoes in enough olive oil for a thin coat (about a teaspoon each), then salt generously so that there's essentially a thin salt crust.  Pierce a few times with a fork or skewer.  Bake potatoes for about an hour, or until they're soft enough to pierce easily.

In the meantime, prepare your toppings.  Cut up whatever veggies you're using.  Grate cheese if you're using hard cheese.  When the potatoes are done, cut in half, add toppings, mash together if you'd like (we do), and eat!

Those teacups are deceptive -- they contain gin and tonic!

Recipe summary (I'm trying a slightly different format here):
Time: about an hour, largely unattended
Serves: As many people as you have potatoes
Highlights/thoughts: I love baked potatoes, they feel like comfort food.  This recipe gave the potato a lovely crust, so that was a nice bonus.  And we then sat down to watch Big Bang Theory and drink gin and tonics!  All-around success.
Would I make this again? Of course!  All this really requires is enough advance planning so that I can wait an hour without feeling super hungry.

Tomorrow, the other part of my comfort food meal: chocolate mug cake!