Trailer Park (Tater Tot) Casserole

Hubby loves casseroles, probably because his mom is the Casserole Queen. (great name for a blog, huh?) So being raised on them, he thinks they make the best dinners, and I won't argue since they are easy to make! A few months ago I was trying to figure out what to make for dinner and the tater tots in the freezer reminded me of this casserole that I hadn't made in years.

We started calling it Trailer Park Casserole due to an incident that happened to hubby at work. He was eating some of the leftover casserole and someone asked him what it was. He started saying some of the ingredients and thought how funny they sounded, then started laughing and said, "it's trailer park casserole!" When I asked him why, he said he could see Joy from My Name Is Earl making this, it's definitely something he'd imagine Donald Trump asking for!

Whatever, you want to call it, it's an easy, tasty dinner. One warning though, there's nothing low-fat or low-calorie about it. If you're dieting, forget it!


Ingredients
1 1/2 - 2 lbs. ground beef
1/2 large onion diced
1 pkg tater tots (32 oz)
2 cans Cream of Mushroom soup
3/4 empty soup can of milk
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
salt
pepper
season salt
garlic salt


Brown ground beef and diced onions, adding salt, pepper, seasoning salt and garlic salt to taste. Drain.
Pour ground beef & onion mixture into the bottom of a 9 x 13 casserole dish.



On top of the ground beef layer spread the tater tots.
In a seperate bowl (or the pan you browned the beef in if you don't want to dirty any more dishes) mix together the soup and milk.
Pour the soup mixture over the tater tots, spreading it evenly, trying to cover them all.



Sprinkle the grated cheese over the entire casserole.


Cover with aluminum foil and bake in a 375 degree oven for 30 minutes, remove the foil and bake 10 more minutes until the casserole is bubbly and cheese is completely melted.

Chocolate Nutty Potato Chip Candy

Don't let the potato chips throw you off and pass by on making this. My aunt brought some of these for dessert the other night and we couldn't get enough! So I made a batch a couple of days later and my son, while on his third one, says they are great!

When I first tried them, I couldn't put my finger on what was in them. I knew there was something that gave them a little crunch, but never would have guessed that crunch came from potato chips. They are very sweet, with just a little saltiness... and I apologize that all my recipes seem to leave you looking for Lipovox diet pills afterward! lol! (I keep the healthy recipes to my other blog!)

It's a super easy recipe, so just give it a try. You'll want to add this to your holiday gift tins!

Chocolate Nutty Potato Chip Candy

Ingredients

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 cup dry peanuts (I used dry roasted)
6 oz crushed plain potato chips

Melt both types of chips in a microwave safe bowl for 1 1/2 minutes on high. Stir. Place back in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring each time, until completely melted.


Add the peanuts and potato chips to the melted chocolate mixture and cover thoroughly. Spoon onto wax paper. Let set until hard.



To speed the hardening process I placed the sheets of wax paper on a cookie sheet and then put them in the freezer for about a half hour.

How To Dice A Pineapple

I used to think I didn't like pineapple. That was because I had only had it from a can! Once I tasted fresh pineapple, I realized I loved it! It's sweet and tart at the same, a delight for my taste buds!

I found the containers of pineapple that are already peeled and cored are convenient, but I can usually get a whole pineapple much cheaper. So, here's how you can easily dice a whole pineapple to get all that delicious goodness!

1. Cut pineapple in half, lengthwise (from top to bottom).


2. Cut off top on each half.


3. Cut halves in half. (quarter your pineapple)


4. Cut the core off of each quarter. Don't go too deep, you're just getting the hard core off.


5. Fillet the outer husk off each quarter as close to the skin as possible, without going through it. (Fillet it just like you would a fish!)


6. Now dice your quarters up and enjoy!

5 Useful Cookiing Tips

Here are a few cooking tips I found and liked and thought you might too.

• For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in a double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.
• Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.
• Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm!
• Easy Deviled Eggs. Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly. Cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done, easy clean up.
  
• Reheating refrigerated bread. To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in the microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

5 Helpful Household/Cooking Tips

I received an email with some very useful cooking/home tips the other day. Here's a few that you might want to try:

• Peel a banana from the bottom and you won't have to pick the little 'stringy things' off of it. That's how the primates do it. (My brother taught me to do it this way a few years ago. It's actually easier to get it started too!)
• Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.
• Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold. (I thought about Velveeta when I read this... it comes in foil. Maybe they know something we didn't?)
• Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.
• Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.