This is my first culinary creation by myself with no help from Mom.
Sick of my failed Chicken Tetrazzini (which was more like flavorless chicken noodle mushroom soup) I decided to try a five layer tater-tot casserole I found online thanks to recipes4living. I grabbed the first recipe I saw, instantly sold by the fact that I like casseroles, beans, hamburger, cheese, and most of all…tater tots.
http://www.recipe4living.com/recipes/5_layer_casserole.htm
Here’s the recipe that sold me, except I noticed something rather quickly that was a problem, for me at least:
1) The recipe does not tell you how much hamburger to make
2) It doesn’t tell you how big of a pan to cook it in
Since I am not a “let’s go ahead and wing it” kind of person when it comes to cooking, I found these missing pieces critical to my cooking. Luckily I found another recipe that I ultimately followed.
http://www.recipe4living.com/recipes/tater_tot_casserole_with_burger_and…
One thing this recipe doesn’t have that the first recipe does is cheese on the top, and since everything is better with at least some cheese, of course I decided to add some.
I started out making this kind of blindly. The recipe calls for 1.5lbs of hamburger. But when I went to the store all they had was 1 lb packages. I decided, “meh, close enough,” and ended up getting like 1.1lbs of hamburger.
Honestly, as it turned out, that was plenty of hamburger, but we’ll get to that later. So I threw the hamburger in the pan and started chopping onions. I had learned a little trick about having a bowl of water out next to the onions when chopping and your eyes will water less. I was then told that if I still continued to cry it meant I was “a little b*tch.” I totally am one, because not only did I cry, but my tear ducts caught fire. OH GOD THE STINGING!!!!
You know when they say things like “prep time” or prepare these things ahead of time? Yeah, I decided to chop and brown the hamburger at the same time. As a result, I was chopping really fast and throwing it in the pan very fast. I don’t think I used half the onion, but I think I used enough.
I would recommend peeling the onion better than I did because as I ate the casserole, I spit out little pieces of skin.
Ok, remember recipe number one and how I didn’t know how big of a pan to put it in? Now I had assumed a 9×13 pan. But you know what happens when you assume… The second recipe calls for a 2qt casserole dish.
I had to stop and think if we had one of those. Thanks to a quick google search, I learned there are 2 pints in 1 qt. (I probably knew this from way back in middle school, but who remembers that stuff?) So, desperately (because my hamburger was done and I wasn’t sure if it had to be hot when I put it in the oven) I pulled out three different sized casserole dishes and started pouring water in them. Luckily, my first one held 2 pints.
The rest was pretty cut and dry. Now, I am one to stick my finger in the batter to just taste what it’s like. I’ve never made anything with cream of mushroom soup, but unless you love cream of mushroom soup, I would not recommend sneaking a taste. Blah!
The first recipe calls for 2 cups of cheese. At this point, the casserole dish was full, so I probably sprinkled about a cup of cheese on top. I threw it in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes and covered it with tin foil. I was so excited – I had my oven mitts on and started dancing by the oven.
The recipe says to leave in for 5-10 more minutes if needed to be browned, but it looked pretty decent to me. When I took off the foil, most of the cheese had stuck to it, so most of my cheese had gone to waste.
I was eager; I took out a big spoonful and bit into a tater tot. Unfortunately, the tater tots were uncooked. Just the tater tots. Sadness. As you can see, I took a big chunk out of it. So my plate in the microwave for 30 seconds and it was fine. After 10 minutes my tater tots were cooked and the world was good.
So if you love yourself some frozen tater tots, totally indulge. Casseroles are a great way to feed a bunch of people or feed you for a few days! Enjoy!