I haven't had a baked potato since I was a kid. Recently I found myself feeling drawn to the idea of making one.  Perhaps my subconscious is grasping for comforts of a simpler time? A returning to roots of sorts?

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Sweet potatoes. We dig them up from the earth. Scrub the dirt from their tough skin.  We store them for stretches of time until the day we are ready to break through their rough exterior and consume the tender starch, nourishing our cells with an abundance of energy, fiber, and vitamins.

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There are many ways to prepare a sweet potato. Mashed, candied, scalloped, fried, baked...  Baked felt like the way to go. You get to build a thing with a baked potato. While this dish reminds me of childhood it also asks for a creativity that connects me to perhaps my strongest root, my mother.

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My mom is a magical, creative human whose artfulness flows into most everything she does, including her cooking. A dash of this here, a splash of that there. Whatever is at hand, she makes things work with little worry of following any recipe too closely. 

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I've found myself employing this approach to cooking as the shelter in place ordinance has altered the frequency of grocery store visits. The toppings heaped upon the potato for this meal were largely dictated by what things we had. I like cooking like this. Less exactness, more play and openness. Let things happen.

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Baking the potato and coconut bacon (which I highly recommend if you desire a crunchy, flavorful vegetarian topping) are the steps of this recipe where following rules (specifically paying attention to temperature and time) would be advised. Otherwise, I say dress up your potato to your heart's delight!

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Making this recipe for this post was nice for many reasons including that it encouraged me to be intentional with my choices. What would I share with you? Why? In addition to the toppings, another choice that I made for this meal was the dishes upon which to serve it. They are my very favorite plates. And I'd like to show them to you.