Homey dinner on a snowy day - Tator Tot hotdish

Tator Tot Hotdish is a family favorite.

Grandma used to make it all the time.  Now my dad does.  He modified Grandma's Recipe to be healthier (and tastier).  Now I too am making it, and modifying it!

Grandma's receipe has about 3 lbs of burger (and onions), 1 frozen bag of mixed veggies and 3 cans of "Cream of XXX soup", then 1 bag of tator tots.  And oodles of salt :)


Here's the Recipe I made and photos as I made it (My dad's is super similar):

Preheat oven to 325ºF.  Put a few tator tots on the bottom of the roaster:

To soak up some juice and give you some spuds on the bottom

Brown one pound hamburger with one diced onion. (MY ADDITION: add one 8oz pack of mushrooms, sliced).  SEASON YOUR MEAT with lots of salt and pepper.  (MY ADDITION: a few glugs of Balsami Vinegar too)

1 pound burger, 1 onion, 1 -8oz sliced mushrooms, salt, pepper, balsmic vinegar...MMMM

In a separate kettle,boil some carrots to soften them a bit. add frozen corn (1 bag) and frozen green beans(1 bag).  MY ADDITION:  Add some smoked paprika to the veggies.

veggies, as they begin to thaw, that's why they are segmented

Veggies all stirred up so you can see the ratios

Then stir in one can of cream of mushroom soup into the veggies.  Make sure you keep all the liquid in the veggies, this keeps your Hotdish moist.  AND IS SUPER GOOD on Day #2

Then Layer into the roaster!

Veggies with Cream of Mushroom Soup  on top of base layer of tots

 NEXT, Add ground Beef mixture to the top

mmmm.  tasty.  Like I said Mushrooms are my addition along with Balsamic Vinegar

Cover with Tots

ALRIGHT, Using regular AND sweet potato tots were my experiment this time.  I will skip it next time, they get to soft and don't hold form.  BUT it makes for pretty hotdish and it wasn't horrible.

BAKE at 325 for like an hour.  Everything is cooked, but you gotta get everything to meld together!

I forgot a picture of the finished product, but believe me, it was good :)

Have fun making it!

9 week anniversary - Mushroom Risotto

Today is our 9 week anniversary!

We celebrated with Steak and Mushroom Risotto(and Strongbow!)

Here's the Recipe as close as I can get as I make Risotto from a feeling, not from a recipe!

Mushroom Risotto

Some Olive Oil (1-2 Tbsp)

1 onion diced

4 cloves of garlic

1 1/2 cups ARRBORIO Rice(this is important!)

1 cup white wine

 24 oz mushrooms (we used 16oz white button mushrooms sliced and 8oz baby bellas sliced)

4-5 cups Broth (Beef in this occasion)

1/4 parmesan cheese, shredded

- Get the pan hot(I used a Le Creuset pot)

- Add the oil

- Add the onions.  Cook until translucent

- Add the Garlic partially through

- DO NOT let Garlic and onions burn, try to get them to sweat and turn translucent

- add the rice.  You want to "Roast" the rice.  You'll see the hulls start to change color.

- Add the wine.  Cook til reduced by half

- Add the mushrooms and about half of the beef broth.  Stir

-  Keep stirring until most of the liquid is absorbed.  Then add more.

probably the first add of liquid

- Keep Stirring

-  After all liquid is added and almost all absorbed, taste the rice to see if it is 'soft' or still a dente.  If it is soft, you can be done, else find more water to add.

-  You want the Rice to be "a lungo" like the waves.  So it should be a bit saucy and form 'waves'.

-  Add the cheese at the end, stir in until melted. Then serve..

Mushrooming

Apparently after a 1 year hiatus, I decided today that I wanted to write an entry again. Who's reading this, probably no one....That's OK!

Yesterday was a really fun Saturday of Memorial Day. We went to Jon's parents' house to watch his brother and sister-in-law, drill holes into a stump and plug it with mushroom spores...Let me explain.

Last summer, it was decided that the old(only about 35 years) old Maple tree in the back yard had to come down. It had a split trunk and parts of the tree were leaning over the house, a big storm could bring it down. Also the root system was starting to move some of the basement foundation walls. The tree came down last fall.

From Gardening

Now there is the stump. It's very large. It would be extremely expensive to get ground out. So, Stephen found a possible solution, inject the trunk with mushroom spores. Essentially, Mushrooms love dead trees to gown on. They will help decompose the tree as they grow.

Three types of spores were purchased, Maitaki, Lion's Head and Shitaki mushrooms. The first step is to drill the hole.

Step 2 is Plugging the hole. Trick is finding the actual hole amidst the sawdust.

Step 3 is melting wax to pour over them.

Step 4 is pouring the wax over them to seal in moisture.

Step 5: Check back between August and November if any spores have sprouted :)