Here's the blow-by-blow of how it worked out for me:
- I was afraid it was going to be a lot harder to cut than it actually was, so that was good. The only difficulty was knowing how far down to cut, and in retrospect, I could have cut deeper, which I ended up doing toward the end. I also cut several of them so thin that the slice broke off halfway down or so. I just left those "loose" pieces right where they would have been had they stayed intact. Here's what it looked like when I was done cutting it:
- And here's what it looked like after I drizzled the olive oil on, smeared the butter on, and salted (I used regular salt, since I didn't have any sea salt) and peppered it:
- At about the 30-minute mark, of the 40-minute cooking time, I took this snapshot of the progress: [Note: Yes, I know the oven's dirty. Reason #567 to live alone—not being nagged.]
- And, finally, here's what it looked like after 40 minutes:
So, my thoughts and observations:
- As these things usually go, it looked better than it tasted. With that said, it was good enough that I'd do it again.
- Although it looks pretty crispy, the centers of the slices were still a little firm. I think the next time, assuming I use the same size potato, I might cook it at 400° instead of 425° and cook it for 50 or 60 minutes instead of 40.
- To that end, after eating about a third of it, I put it in the microwave for 1.5 minutes, and it was much betterafter that.
Over all, though, obviously, I liked it:
