Day #4 - Tater Tot Casserole

Friday night my family "abandoned" me, as Sarah would say, Tom had to work and Sarah went to a party, I should have called my friends so we could go out and party like it was 1999, but I decided that I should stay home and clean the house because I had to pick up Sarah and her friend at 10:30pm (I was just hoping that I could stay awake that late).  Cleaning is kind of like therapy for me, it's a no brainer and I can turn on my music and rock out, so that's what I did, rocked out with my tunes and seranaded my dog, Bill.  I'm really not the crazy lady with the animals, but I do love my critters and Bill loves my singing.  Earlier in the week, I had asked a couple of friends to come over for dinner on Saturday so they could sample my cooking, my friend Tina and Auntie M(I am not sure if she wants me to use her name, but now she sounds like a character from the Wizard of Oz) were coming over and I needed to figure out what to cook.  The menu I came up with was Tater Tot Casserole, salad with homemade honey dressing, garlic bread and fruit salad.  Tater Tot Casserole was a dish from my childhood that my grandma gave my mom, it is probably the easiet casserole to make and almost impossible to mess up, here it is:

Tater Tot Casserole:
1 lb hamburger (I try to find the leanest)
1 can cream of chicken soup (I use the healthy request variety)
Tater Tots

Put the hamburger in the pan, sprinkle with a little salt and pepper

Next layer is the cream of chicken soup

Last layer are the tater tots

Bake at 375 for about 45 minutes

I needed a vegetable, so I decided on salad.  My grandma had a recipe for Honey Dressing, I think this must have been something she made for the school (she was a cook at the school) because there was a large portion recipe that was written on a menu for that day, Tuesday, Sept 17, 1968 and it was for Lunch #1, pork patty with cream gravy, whipped potatoes, buttered green beans, slaw, apple sauce, hot biscuit, butter and milk, can you imagine getting that for a hot lunch at school! Thank god she had written a "reduced" portion recipe on an old envelope.

Honey Dressing:
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp celery salt
1 tsp paprika
1/3 cup vinegar
3/4 cup honey
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp dry onion(I used onion powder)
1/2 cup catsup(ketchup)
1 cup olive oil

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and whisk together.

Everything turned out great! I have to let you know who Auntie M is, she is my aunt in law from marriage #1 (yes,  I was married before), she is a very dear friend and my friend Tina is actually a "new" friend.  I am very thankful these two people are in my life, they both make me laugh and I always have fun with them, I wanted to tell them that Sarah and I had fun with both of you and I think that "Date Night" was funnier the second time.

I am having a lot of fun with my blog and couldn't wait to post on Saturday, but my DSL/modem/router decided it was tired and it died.  I went and got a new one today and had my brother in law, B, install it (I don't do computer techie stuff).  Thanks B, I will be cooking you dinner next week!