i caught lightning in a bottle tonight. yes, indeed, a new way to cook a potato, and the ideas were just spewing out. by combining a few cooking theories with a few popular potato-related items, my dinner became a true culinary concoction.

what was combined:

1) the twice-baked potato (inspiration)
2) the classic 'stuffed baked potato'
3) today's obsession with putting ranch dressing on everything
4) buffalo wings (accent)

to create:

place two potatoes in the oven, at 400 degrees. while they're cooking, dice up celery, red pepper and onion. after about 75 minutes, remove the potatoes from the oven. using a spoon, scoop out the potato-y part from the skin. throw in a bowl with diced vegetables, a three-second squeeze worth of fat free ranch dressing, and two solid whacks on the bottom of a bottle of frank's red hot sauce. using a spoon, a spatula, or perhaps your hands, mix all that crap together. scoop back into potato skins. return potato skins to oven for about 15 more minutes. enjoy.

in other news, i didn't see much of the sox tonight (in what has become a horrible, horrible tradition, i was watching espn's playmakers - this time recorded due to prior commitments - with a co-worker), but when i did turn it on (sox trailing 4-2 in the 7th), one of those cosmic moments resulted.

the hawkeroo said "in case you're just joining us..." - I gasped! - "kenny rogers and jon garland got very different strike zones to work with tonight."

i've grown to appreciate the nuance of a hawk-and-dj broadcast, but that probably crossed the line.