German Style Tater Tot Salad

Potato salad is always a great accompaniment to many different dishes.  Likewise, tater tots just kick butt.  Why have they not been combined into a dish?  Good question.  I asked myself this and decided that I must find out.  I decided to make a German style salad which usually uses oil and vinegar instead of the usual mayo and is also served warm.  I will tackle the cold tater tot salad at some point but this was a great start.  Rage on!

Ingredients

1. 1/2 Bag of Tater Tots(16 oz.)
2. 5 Strips of Bacon, diced
3. 1/2 a Small Onion, diced
4. 1/4 C Sugar
5. 1/4 C Vinegar
6. 1/2 C Water
7. 2 Tbsp. Brown Mustard
8. 1 tsp. Salt and Pepper
9. Vegetable Oil

Quick Directions

1. Preheat oven according to directions on tater tot package.
2. Spread tater tots on a baking sheet.
3. Bake until about 5 minutes are left for tater tots.
4. Smash with fork and then finish baking them.
5. Pour a small amount of vegetable oil into a sauce pan.
6. Add bacon and cook on medium high stirring frequently.
7. When bacon is almost done, add diced onions and cook till translucent.
8. Add water, sugar, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper and mix well.
9. Bring to a boil and then simmer till begins to thicken.
10. Add tater tots and remove from heat.
11. Mix together.
12. Enjoy!

Detailed Directions

This dish is quick, easy, and delicious!  Start by spreading your tots onto a baking sheet and getting the oven preheated to the temp. the package calls for.  Toss them in and start dicing your bacon and onions.



Pour a little bit of vegetable oil into your sauce pan and add the bacon.  Cook on medium high heat for 5-8 minutes or until almost cooked through.  If you need to, add a little more oil to keep it from sticking.  Next, add the diced onions in and keep cooking till they begin to be translucent, about 5-8 more minutes.


Make sure to stir frequently.  This will help them to not stick and to make sure you don’t over cook them.



When there is about 5-8 minutes left for the tots, take them out of the oven and smash them with a fork.  You don’t need to do this step, but I felt it made for an interesting final product.  In other words, it is what I did so it is the rage style?


Good, you made the right choice when you smashed them too.  Stick them back in the oven and cook them till they begin  to brown and get crunchy.



When they are done, pull them out and set aside unless you have finished with the dressing steps already.


Once the onions are translucent, add the water, vinegar, sugar, mustard, salt and pepper.  Bring this to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.  Cook until it begins to thicken up which doesn’t take very long, about 3-6 minutes.  Make sure to stir often.


Remove from heat and toss those cooked tots in and stir well.  And that is pretty much it, go enjoy this tasty dish with whoever you choose to share the rage with.  Rage on!







This dish is designed to be easy and tasty.  Removing a few steps like using potatoes and replacing them with tots.  If you decide to, you can also do this same recipe with regular potatoes.  I would probably use Yukon Gold potatoes but russets would work great too.  Decide whether you want to remove the skin or not, then dice them into a fairly even medium dice.  Boil them until fork tender, then add them to the sauce and mix like the tots.

Granola

I’m still munching on this delicious treat so I’m going to make this post short and sweet!  Munch…I mean Rage on!

Ingredients

1. 2.5 Cups Rolled Oats(Sometimes called old fashioned oats)
2. 3/4 Cup Wheat Germ
3. 1 Cup Mixed Nuts(Any nut works here, but I like to use a mix)
4. 1/2 Cup Honey
5. 1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil
6. 1.5 tsp. Vanilla
7. 1.5 tsp. Cinnamon
8. 1/2 tsp. Salt
9. Brown Sugar(about 1/2 a cup)

Quick Directions

1. Rough chop, or pulse in food processer, the cup of mixed nuts.
2. Mix honey, vegetable oil, vanilla, cinnamon and salt in a mixing bowl.
3. Add rolled oats, wheat germ, and nuts to honey mixture.  Mix well.
4. Spread out evenly on a parchment lined cookie sheet.
5. Bake in oven at 225.  Stir every 15 minutes.
6. After first stir, sprinkle brown sugar over the top.  Cover well, then mix in.
7. Bake till oats are golden brown, about 60-75 minutes.  Don’t forget to stir every 15!
8. Remove from oven and stir every couple of minutes till cool.  Less stirring will leave bigger chunks as it will begin to stick as it cools.  Your choice on how much to stir here.
9. Enjoy!

Detailed Directions

Granola!  The base of a great trail mix or an awesome stand alone snack.  Throw a little milk on it and have cereal?  I haven’t tried that yet but just might!  Right, so lets get down to it.

Start by getting the nuts ready.  I use mixed nuts because it gives a good amount of choice to the granola, but use your favorite.  I think walnuts are the best in granola but the batch of mixed nuts I got this time didn’t have any.  Which…I didn’t realize when I bought them or I would have probably picked some walnuts up to add to it.  Oh well, you live and learn and then rage for a second until you realize the granola is still great!

So chop them up.  I found a really easy method for this.  Put some plastic wrap down, place nuts on top of the plastic wrap, then put plastic wrap over that.  Then use a meat mallet and pound on them(stress released!) or find a frying pan, that works too!  The goal is to get them broken into little pieces.  If you want, use a knife or pulse them in the food processor if you like more traditional methods.

So next get the honey, oil, cinnamon, vanilla, and salt into a mixing bowl and mix well.

 

 

 

 

 

You may be asking about the brown sugar, but hold on and follow directions.  Next add the rolled oats, which let me take a step aside and explain why rolled oats.  They are sometimes called old fashioned oats or rolled because of the method used to prepare them.  Anyways, it is what you want as they cook the best.  Add the wheat germ and the nuts also and mix well.  Then mix a few more times just to make sure its all mixed well!

Next put it onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  You don’t need to use the parchment but I feel like the mix would make a mess on the pan so I played it safe.  Spread evenly and then place in the oven set at 225.  Bake for 60-75 minutes stirring it every 15 minutes.

 

Ok, so now we are finally at the brown sugar part.  After your first stir, sprinkle brown sugar over the top.  Doesn’t have to be a lot, you just want to cover it well.  And then stir again to mix the brown sugar in.  Why do I do it this way?  I can’t really explain it, I forgot to add it one time and did it this way and liked the way it turned out so I say don’t mess with it.  I am sure there is some scientific reason why this is good or bad to do but I don’t have that answer for you.  So if you like, go ahead and mix it in with the honey mixture before adding the oats in.  Probably do 3-4 Tbsp.

So then it is finally done!  It is a little hard to tell because the color your looking for is golden brown oats but this can be hard to see with the honey mixture on them.  What I do is taste a small bite every stir after the first 30 minutes of baking.  Once it is out, continue to stir every couple of minutes for the next 15-20.  The granola will begin to stick and clump up as it cools.  The bigger you want the clumps to be, the less you stir it.  So now it is done, go enjoy!  And rage on!

Other Thoughts

Ok, so this is the base for a trail mix I made awhile back.  I don’t particularly like the raisins and other things I added to it that time so I didn’t do it this time as it is just for me.  But, I can tell you what to do!  Once it comes out of the oven, let it sit for about 5-10 minutes and then add in the other goods you want to add.  Such as raisins, craisins, chocolate chips, pretzels, really whatever you like.  The choice is yours, which it always has been when in your kitchen.