Tasteful Tuesdays: Tater Tots

I saw this recipe on that television show that is called "Cook's Country". I think it is an offshoot for  those America's Test Kitchen shows/cookbooks.  Anyway... I went searching for this recipe and found it on another blog.  I can't remember the address of that blog, but here is a version of the recipe.

Ingredients

1 cup water
2 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
2 1/2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Stir water and salt together in measuring cup until salt dissolves. Pulse potatoes and salt water in food processor until coarsely ground, 10 to 12 pulses, stirring occasionally.

Drain mixture in fine-mesh strainer, pressing potatoes with rubber spatula until dry. Discard liquid.

Transfer potatoes to bowl, and microwave, uncovered, until dry and sticky, 8 to 10 minutes, stirring halfway through cooking.

Stir flour and pepper into potatoes. 

Push potato mixture toward center of foil, and place foil and potatoes in 8-inch square baking pan. Push foil into corners and up sides of pan, smoothing it flush to pan. Press each potato mixture tightly and evenly into pan.

potato mixture in pan and about to be chilled for 30 minutes

Freeze for 30 minutes

Meanwhile, heat oven to 200 degrees. Heat oil in Dutch oven over high heat until it reaches 350 to 375 degrees. Using foil overhang, lift potatoes from pan and cut each half into 1¼- by 1-inch pieces.

Fry 7 or so of them at a time, until golden brown and crisp, 5 to 7 minutes. Make sure to stir the tots when you drop them in the oil so they don't stick together. Stir occasionally as needed to separate and toss them.

Drain tots on wire rack set in rimmed baking sheet, and place in oven to keep warm. Oven should not be more than 200 degrees

Now, mine are darker because I added jalapenos, green onions, and some seasoning. 

Were they good? Oh my heck, YES!  I will definitely make these again!

You Have to Giggle

Becoming More Independent.... and this isn't a Feministic Rant

Our refrigerator has not been cooling properly and we really can only keep water in there while the freezer has become the fridge. Luckily, we have a second refrigerator in our garage so the impact hasn't been so detrimental to our daily lives (maybe one shouldn't use the word detrimental when speaking of a fridge).
I have been searching all over the internet and You Tube and have attempted to fix this thing numerous times. I finally called the company itself and we figured out the problem with a few tests.
Apparently, the gasket isn't closing properly which is allowing all sorts of warm air to enter the fridge and freezer. So, instead of purchasing a new refrigerator or hiring a service technician- I decided to handle the repair myself.
I ordered the parts.
They arrived.
I looked at them.
They didn't look at me...because they have no eyes (I think the ants were watching while they drank the poison...nosy bastards).
I sighed...
and then I got to work.

I watched You Tube to get an idea of how to remove and add the gaskets from the fridge/freezer. It was pretty easy and I felt quite accomplished.
Once everything was put together, I took a water bottle and placed in the middle of the freezer and waited.

And... it didn't work.

Ants

Drink deeply little ants....drink deeply.

We have ants and no, they aren't creating a circle. A circle of their friendship that must never be broken.... Nope, they are eating poison.

So... What Does This Mean?

This makes me think that we should raise our children to be debt free and really live a more independent life away from the reliance on others. We need to be able to grow our own food, handle our own repairs, make our own clothes and so on and so forth.  Let me know what you think about all of this.

WOAH MAMA!

SNAKE!

Check out the defensive coil while sitting in the tree.

The snake actually journeyed to the roof of our home!

Luckily, he went back into the woods.

I've Been Sick

It seems like I am very prone to nasty chest coughs that continually have the potential to become something worse. This bout is the same and  I have opted to not talk for most of the day.
So now I have finally found a good use for the text option of my cell phone. I just text what I want to say and show it to that person or send the text itself. 
Hubby is happy that he only has to read my whiny texts and doesn't have to hear them.... and that's my story.

Happy Feast Day!

The Assumption is the oldest feast day of Our Lady, but we don't know how it first came to be celebrated. Its origin is lost in those days when Jerusalem was restored as a sacred city, at the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine (c. 285-337). By then it had been a pagan city for two centuries, ever since Emperor Hadrian (76-138) had leveled it around the year 135 and rebuilt it as Aelia Capitolina in honor of Jupiter. For 200 years, every memory of Jesus was obliterated from the city, and the sites made holy by His life, death and Resurrection became pagan temples. After the building of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 336, the sacred sites began to be restored and memories of the life of Our Lord began to be celebrated by the people of Jerusalem. One of the memories about his mother centered around the "Tomb of Mary," close to Mount Zion, where the early Christian community had lived. On the hill itself was the "Place of Dormition," the spot of Mary's "falling asleep," where she had died. The "Tomb of Mary" was where she was buried. At this time, the "Memory of Mary" was being celebrated. Later it was to become our feast of the Assumption. For a time, the "Memory of Mary" was marked only in Palestine, but then it was extended by the emperor to all the churches of the East. In the seventh century, it began to be celebrated in Rome under the title of the "Falling Asleep" ("Dormitio") of the Mother of God. Soon the name was changed to the "Assumption of Mary," since there was more to the feast than her dying. It also proclaimed that she had been taken up, body and soul, into heaven. That belief was ancient, dating back to the apostles themselves. What was clear from the beginning was that there were no relics of Mary to be venerated, and that an empty tomb stood on the edge of Jerusalem near the site of her death. That location also soon became a place of pilgrimage. (Today, the Benedictine Abbey of the Dormition of Mary stands on the spot.) At the Council of Chalcedon in 451, when bishops from throughout the Mediterranean world gathered in Constantinople, Emperor Marcian asked the Patriarch of Jerusalem to bring the relics of Mary to Constantinople to be enshrined in the capitol. The patriarch explained to the emperor that there were no relics of Mary in Jerusalem, that "Mary had died in the presence of the apostles; but her tomb, when opened later . . . was found empty and so the apostles concluded that the body was taken up into heaven." In the eighth century, St. John Damascene was known for giving sermons at the holy places in Jerusalem. At the Tomb of Mary, he expressed the belief of the Church on the meaning of the feast: "Although the body was duly buried, it did not remain in the state of death, neither was it dissolved by decay. . . . You were transferred to your heavenly home, O Lady, Queen and Mother of God in truth." All the feast days of Mary mark the great mysteries of her life and her part in the work of redemption. The central mystery of her life and person is her divine motherhood, celebrated both at Christmas and a week later (Jan. 1) on the feast of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. The Immaculate Conception (Dec. 8) marks the preparation for that motherhood, so that she had the fullness of grace from the first moment of her existence, completely untouched by sin. Her whole being throbbed with divine life from the very beginning, readying her for the exalted role of mother of the Savior. The Assumption completes God's work in her since it was not fitting that the flesh that had given life to God himself should ever undergo corruption. The Assumption is God's crowning of His work as Mary ends her earthly life and enters eternity. The feast turns our eyes in that direction, where we will follow when our earthly life is over. The feast days of the Church are not just the commemoration of historical events; they do not look only to the past. They look to the present and to the future and give us an insight into our own relationship with God. The Assumption looks to eternity and gives us hope that we, too, will follow Our Lady when our life is ended. In 1950, in the Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus, Pope Pius XII proclaimed the Assumption of Mary a dogma of the Catholic Church in these words: "The Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heaven." With that, an ancient belief became Catholic doctrine and the Assumption was declared a truth revealed by God. http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2014-08-15

Products I've Used to Completion

Well, I finished a bottle of Origins' Stay Tuned foundation. This is one of my favorite foundations. I think the fact that the the colour Fawn in this line matches my skin so well makes it so lovely.

That's all I have to say.

Where Have I Been?

Well, I left my camera in the car and kept forgetting to retrieve it and who wants to blog without pictures?

So....... what have I been doing you ask (or maybe you didn't)?


Well, we almost had our backyard deck redone until our contractor told us he was dissolving his company.

We think our fridge is breaking.

We have ants.

Hubby is on his third or fourth weed eater.

I had a bad reaction to some vitamins....if you know what I mean.

The grout cracked in our shower.

On a good note...

We didn't have to fork out any money for the deck.

We emptied out the fridge and I cleaned it....and then it started working again.

I keep my kitchen cleaner to avoid more ant problems.

Hubby was able to do some sexy weed work last week.

I watched a YouTube video and will be handling the title work for the bathroom.


On another, another note....Hubby buys weird ingredients and then challenges me to make stuff.