Bacon Ranch Potatoes

These are my husband's almost favorite way to eat potatoes. it is very yummy! This is just a guide, not a real recipe. If you don't like the Ranch flavor (not strong in this dish, it is just that extra little 'sumpin') feel free to leave it out and just use sour cream only.

grease a baking dish and preheat oven to 375

peel and slice as many potatoes as you need for your family. I think i used about 8 or 9 smallish ones. Slice in 1/4 inch slices, or thereabouts.

Dice up as much onion as you like. i used about half of a red onion, but you can use white, yellow also, i have used it all, whatever i have on hand. sprinkle onion over the sliced potatoes.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper

Pat on lots of butter, for this sized dish, i used a half stick of butter.

Cover with foil and bake until fork tender, usually at least an hour, depending on how "thick" you have it in the pan. So, if you need it to cook faster, use a bigger pan and make the layer thinner.

When fork tender, here is where the fun starts. You plop in a big scoop of sour cream, at least 1/2 cup, if not 3/4 of a cup. and then squirt all over the top some Ranch dressing, again, at least a half cup. Sprinkle over it all 1 cup of shredded cheese (can use more) and 3/4 of a bottle of Baco's bacon bits. Take a big spoon and stir up the entire thing. The potatoes will break apart into slightly smaller peices, which is what you want, but don't stir so hard that it turns to mashed potatoes, use a light hand when stirring this up. When it is well mixed, taste test it....does it need more Ranch for flavor, more salt, more pepper? now is the time to get it to taste perfect! Smooth out of the top and sprinkle all over the top more cheese, covering the entire top. Sprinking on the remaining bacon bits left in the bottle and for looks you can either sprinkle on some italian seasoning or do like i did, and go out to your italian parsley plant and sprinkle fresh chopped parsley on top.

Stick the pan back in the oven now to melt the cheese and slightly brown.......