Homemade Tater Tots with Honey Mustard Dip

Mmkay, so, I actually got this recipe from Melissa D'Arabian's show, $10 dinners, and kind of adapted it a little to suit my family more. In her recipe she uses just sweet potato, and fries them. I use a combination of sweet and russet potatoes, and I bake them...

Also, I would like to admit I'm a moron, and forgot to take the pictures of the ingredients before I used them.

Sooo, For the tots, you will need:

3 good sized potatoes, whole
2 sweet potatoes, whole
2 slices of bacon
1, maybe 2 tablespoons flour
Salt & Pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil

Preheat oven to 400°. Par-boil your potatoes. Par-boiling is just part-cooking your potatoes. Place your potatoes in a big pot, cover with water, add about a tablespoon of salt. Bring to a boil. Let boil for about 15 minutes, then drain and let cool. While your potatoes are boiling, brown your bacon. Cut your bacon into little chunks and brown in a small pan over medium heat. This only takes a few minutes. Be sure to stir it, as you don't want it to burn.  Drain bacon. You don't need all the grease, drain it on a paper towel, once it's cooled, chop the crispy bacon into smaller pieces, like bacon bits for a salad. Grate potatoes.  Once your potatoes have cooled enough to hold, use a box grater to grate them up, skins and all. I grated mine directly on top of a clean tea towel, so I could fold it over and press out any excess water from the shredded potato. Like this:

Combine. Combine all of your potatoes with the bacon in a large bowl, add salt and pepper. [Remember what I said about seasoning your food!] Start by adding just a tablespoon of the flour and see how it comes together, you can always add more if you need it, but you can't take it out if you put too much. Same with the olive oil. The mixture will be sticky until the flour and olive oil are added, then it should be easier to work with. Mix the ingredients with your hands, you don't want to mix them with a spoon and make them into mush. You want to keep the shreds in tact as much as possible. Shape. Start making your tot shapes. I used a rectangular length of tin foil, as I was out of saran wrap [cling film] but I would advise using that, over tin foil, if you have some. I placed the mixture to start forming a log...

Then, used the tin foil to help roll it into a log shape...

Then, I just unwrap it carefully, and cut the logs into smaller logs. Add a small amount of olive oil to the bottom of a sheet pan, and then place your tots in the pan. Bake for 20 minutes.

This recipe is a little long with the different steps, but it's totally worth it, and it's fun to do!

Now, for the dipping sauce. It's REALLY easy, especially if you're like me and have all of these ingredients on hand at all times anyway...

You will need:

3tbs Mayo, 1 tbs Dijon Mustard, 1tbs Honey

Combine in a bowl, and Voi La!

Here is a picture of a picky [yet cute] 4-year-old, unknowingly eating something healthy for him...

God, he's cute. :]

Thank you, Melissa D'Arabian! And happy cooking, everyone! :]

Roasted Veggies, etc.

Sooo, I've been pretty slack the past week, and have only cooked once since the brat pizza. Well, twice if you count tonight. In my defense, I work four nights a week.

Anyway, today I wanted to talk about making a side dish that's low maintenance, cheap, delish, and pretty fast, too.

We are talking about a full tray of roasted vegetables! [Yum!] The great thing about this recipe, is not only that I remember seeing my grandmothers cooking in this very same way, and my mother for that matter-- But it's versatile. You can add or subtract to any ingredients that I have used on this particular night. So, here's what you'll need:

Onion, Cauliflower, Celery, Broccoli, Cilantro

PLEASE keep in mind that these are just veggies that I happened to have on hand at the time. I'm stealing a quote from Rachael Ray here, but, I don't think she'll mind... I'm just trying to teach you a method with these ingredients, you can use the same ones as me if you want to, you can use whatever ones look good that day.

Okay... For my family I serve one potato per person, and kind of work the other vegetables around that.
So, here I have,

7 potatoes, chopped [peeled first if desired]
1onion, SLICED [NOT chopped]
3 stalks celery, cut into sticks
1/2 head cauliflower, cut into florets
1 broccoli crown, cut into florets
Couple tablespoons olive oil
Salt and Pepper

I used some fresh cilantro in mine, but if you don't like it, don't use it. If you like rosemary, or dill, or thyme, or parsley, or nothing that's fine, too.

Mmkay,

Preheat your oven to 450°. Prep all your vegetables. If you're not too sharp with your knife skills, it'll take a little while, maybe 10 or 15 minutes. It just so happens that chopping is one of my favorite parts about cooking, so I don't mind the prep time. Your main goal in this step is to just chop everything around the same size, so that everything cooks at the same time. Don't forget to take into account how thick or thin some of them are, the celery, for instance.

 Throw all of your veggies into a bowl, or on a sheet pan. Cover in the olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Now, please, let me take a minute to talk about seasoning. You need to season your food. Don't put a tiny pinch of salt on alllll of those vegetables. There's no point. You won't taste it. I think I used around a tablespoon of salt, and about half that amount of pepper on my veggies. Mix. Make sure all your veggies have olive oil, s&p covering them. Put in oven. Cook for 20-30 minutes. You can open it up and turn them around half way through, if you like. If you forget, no big deal.

I made mine with cilantro marinated pork chops. And I was going to share my recipe for Yorkshire puddings this week, but I'm an idiot and mixed up my flours, using self rising flour instead of AP, and they turned out more like muffins, LOL. :] I made a gravy, too, but I'll save all of those for a different blog.


REMEMBER: You don't have to use what I used. If you like rutabaga, or jalapenos, or carrots or turnips use them!.. Whatever you like!

Happy cooking! :]