A Tale of Two Bags of Potatoes

I love potatoes. Maybe it is the dominant Irish heritage in my DNA (which I estimate to be 80-90%). Maybe it is the carb lover in me.  When spuds are an option, they are my first choice! It is only natural that when 5 lb. bags of russet potatoes were buy one, get one free at our grocery store last week I put two bags in the cart with a grin on my face!

What to make?! I instantly had all sorts of ideas for these beautiful spuds. I knew I wanted to try making The Pioneer Woman's tater tots which would yeild enough for dinner and some to freeze for another time. 

By now The Hubster has figured out my game: I make things that are good. Sometimes making even better things requires new kitchen tools. In this case, that new tool was a food mill. I nearly fell out of my chair when an internet search showed that most mills cost about $120.00- I knew Mike would not go for that. Williams Sonoma carried the OXO mill for $50.00 which is far more reasonable. I know OXO stuff is pretty good (except for the can opener I bought. I should have returned that!) and if Williams Sonoma carries it, I thought it would be a safe purchase.

Even my "$70.00 savings" (by choosing OXO over other brands) didn't get the stamp of approval from the family finance guy so I headed to Bed Bath and Beyond with a 20% coupon. I scored the OXO food mill there! It was the same fifty dollars but I got it at 20% off. That made Mike happy, yay!

 

So... on to tater tots...

I washed and peeled one of the two bags of potatoes.

 Keep a bowl of water handy- I plunk a potato or two in while I peel the next few... this keeps them from turning brown.

See the muck at the bottom of the bowl? THAT is starch that seeps out of the potato and turns brown on the beautiful ivory surface of potatoes! THIS is why we soak taters!

Like my peel catcher? I cut the potato bag open and used it as a splat mat!

 

Now, before you groan and say you do not have the time to peel a bag of potatoes- I set the stop watch on my phone.

I peeled a bag of potatoes in under 4 minutes. While children were playing under my feet. And I am no master peeler either! Food made from scratch is not as time consuming as we have been raised to think it is!

 

After the potatoes are peeled, I cut them in quarters

Notice the moist towel from the potatoes under the cutting board? I do that to keep the board from sliding across the counter as I cut. Safety folks... lets not lose a finger!

 Boil until you can stick a fork into a chunk without pressing very hard.

 

*If this is your first time boiling potatoes, they do foam when boiled. Again, this is the starch

Drain

 

And now the fun part! Using my shiny new kitchen tool!

 So easy, a three year old can do it with ease!

Isn't that beautiful??

 I added salt, pepper and 1/4 cup flour as the recipe calls for. But almost all of the reviews online said that the recipe lacks a binder, like egg, and most people complained that their tots fell apart in the pan. So knowing this- I STILL proceed with the intention of making great tater tots. I added a smidge more flour, parsley, dried garlic and two eggs as suggested by the folks who wrote reviews.

Heat vegetable oil ( I used canola oil) and portion tot mix into tablespoon sized balls. Flatten and drop into the oil. Pan fry until golden.

You are totally curious about how mine turned out, right?

Well... they disintegrated in the pan! Just like everyone else's!! I don't know why I thought things would turn out differently for me!

So there I stood, with five pounds of potato that I couldn't bare to waste. By now you should know I am not one to be defeated by an obstacle- I could fix this!  The mix had egg in it, so I couldn't even make it into mashed potatoes- I needed to get creative!

I thought for a little while. I turned to the remaining bag of potatoes and was inspired! I would make twice baked potatoes!!

Feeling quite pleased with myself, I grabbed my cutting board, quickly washed the second bag of potatoes, halved them and got them into the oven

Crisis averted! While the potatoes were baking (400 degrees for about 25 minutes) and I was cleaning up, my thoughts turned to something I saw on Pinterest (the magical site that inspires me everyday!) Someone once posted a picture of fried potato peels.

I figured I would try it. I had already had my fail for the day and I already had a pan of oil sitting on the stove from the tater tot debacle. What is the worst that could have happened? Really... I should not tempt Murphy and his Laws. But I gave this idea a whirl.

I got the oil nice and hot and used a skimmer (or spider- what ever you happen to call it) to put a handful of peels into the oil

I had never done anything like this before so it was kind of a gamble. As is working with a pan full of hot oil. I am somewhat accident prone so this made me nervous!

These babies fry very quickly, so I had to work fast, keeping them moving around at all times!

 Once they were nearly golden, I took the skins out of the oil, drained them on paper towel and sprinkled lightly with popcorn salt (an ultrafine salt)

The Hubster LOVES potato chips and the crunchy little french fries that you find at the bottom of your fast food container- he was delighted to find these waiting for him when he got home from work! *Brownie points for me*

When the potato halves came out of the oven and cooled down, I scooped out the middle, added a little milk to the "tater tot mixture" and piped it into the potato shells.

I ate some of the scooped out middles for my lunch (dressed with fat free, plain greek yogurt and a little bit of cheddar cheese) It was good

The filled potato shells went back in the oven for 20 minutes

I have enough twice baked potato halves for two dinners. Half went in the fridge for later this week and the other half went into the freezer for a side dish in the future (probably later this month)

I am really bummed that the tater tots did not work out... I guess there is a reason we all buy them at the grocery store! But a few great things happened in the wake of my disappointment; I got to cook with Owen and expose him to something new, I gained a food mill, we have some great looking and smelling twice baked potatoes for two meals and I learned how to use the skins to make chips- which 1) my husband looooved, 2) reduced waste and 3) saved me money!

I will call the Tater Tot recipe a fail, but the process was a win!!