All measures are arbitrary and of course you can scale the 
recipe to suit.  Make substitutions, additions and deletions
as you wish.  If you use very large potatoes you can expect to
serve 2 people per potato.  Otherwise, expect to serve one 
potato per person.

6   med  baking potatoes (or 4 large or 8 small)
         salt
1   med  onion, sweet (Vidalia, Walla Walla, etc.)
4   TBS  butter, unsalted (1/2 stick)
3   oz   cream cheese, (1 small pkg) (let it come to room temp)
1/2 tsp  salt
1/2 tsp  pepper
1   tsp  hot sauce (or more if you like)
1   TBS  fish sauce (Vietnamese or Thai)
as reqd  cream, heavy whipping (about 1/4 cup)
1/4 lb   cheese, grated (cheddar, Swiss or whatever you like)

Scrub the potatoes well and while wet sprinkle generously
with salt.  Bake at 350-400F until done.  You can tell when
they are done by sticking a pointed knife into one.  Depending
on temperature and size, this should take 30-60 minutes.
Set the cooked potatoes aside to cool slightly.

While the potatoes cook, peel the onion and cut into very thin
slices.  Chop.  In a pot on low heat, melt the butter and
sweat the onions covered until soft and translucent, stirring
occasionally, about 15 minutes.  Remove the cover and increase
the heat to medium.  Sauté until golden, stirring often.

When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, cut them in half
lengthwise.  Scoop out the meat into the pot containing the
cooked onions the leaving about 1/4 inch of potato on the skin.
Mash the potatoes while still warm.  Mix in the cream cheese,
salt, pepper, hot sauce fish sauce and half of the grated 
cheese.  Mix well.  Mix in enough cream to get the correct 
consistency, about 1/4 cup.

Stuff the potato mixture into the potato shells.  Sprinkle the
remaining grated cheese over the potatoes.

If desired you can prepare potatoes in advance to this point
and refrigerate or freeze them.  Before serving, place the
thawed potatoes in a hot oven or microwave until the potatoes
are heated through and the cheese is melted.

Serves 6-8.

You can make these a meal by adding cooked meats (about 1/2
lb) such as sausage, hamburger, bacon, ham, whatever you like.
Some cooked vegetable also go well such as mushrooms, peppers, 
broccoli, etc.  Add them to the stuffing at the end just before
you stuff the potato skins.