Tater Tot Casserole 07-Apr-2012

Traditional Tuesday night supper when I was growing up.

Ingredients

• medium onion, peeled and diced
• 1 or 2 cloves garlic, peeled, minced or crushed
• 1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced or chopped
• 3/4 pound ground beef, turkey, veal, etc. (A good mince)
• salt, pepper, other seasonings to taste. [^ I have variously tried: dried mustard, wet mustard, basil, oregano, ginger, chili powder, ketchup, bbq sauce, or whatever I feel the urge to toss in. Some of these have met with more or less success. ^]
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup [^it wouldn’t be a hot dish without cream of mushroom soup!^]
• (optional) 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
• 15-20 frozen tater tots [^I recently did this with frozen sweet potato fries and it came out quite nice.^]

Directions

1. heat oven to 350&degF;

2. in a skillet, over medium-high heat, saluté the onion, garlic and mushrooms until soft. [^Sometimes, I’ve carmelised the onions first, depending on how much time I have.^]

3. add the mince and seasonings, brown the meat thoroughly

4. take off the heat and mix in `CoM soup

5. pour meat mixture into 9x9 pan

6. spread tots on top evenly

7. bake for 20 to 30 minutes