Brandon: what do you want me to cook for dinner tonight? i will make anything you want. ANYTHING YOU WANT.
Jen: whatever you want to make. the simpler the better.
Brandon: interesting. i am surprised you didn't take advantage of the situation.
Jen: and what? ask for tater tot casserole?
Brandon: and ask for tate... haha i was JUST typing that!
Jen: believe me, that was the first thing that came to my mind, but i wouldn't force you to make something you hate
Brandon: don't worry - i will kick it up biggie style
Jen: i challenge thee!! kick up tater tot casserole!!
So, the back story here is that tater tot casserole is a childhood favorite of mine that Brandon has long derided as flavorless and too boring for him. Not to mention the fact that the crowning glory is tater tots, which for some ungodly reason he does not enjoy. The rest of the components are ground turkey, corn, and cream of whatever you choose soup (I always pick mushroom). I have made it for myself a couple times when he was out of town, but he has never tried to make it for me himself.
His first order of business was to make it into two separate dishes so that we could have freshly baked tots for tonight and tomorrow night rather than soggy leftovers.
In his version, Brandon decided to use an Italian sausage for the meat layer.
The second layer is where the bulk of the kickin up kicked in. Instead of just corn, Brandon whipped up a batch of his succotash, including zucchini, poblanos, and red peppers. He seasoned it with a bit of garlic salt and sauteed the veg, then added it to the corn. (Still steamy in the pic below!)
The third layer is the cream of whatever you want soup. Brandon made the inspired choice of cream of potato. He also went a bit dirty and used one can per dish.
As you can see in the rear dish below, he used some red pepper flake on top of the soup. And finally, the completing layer - the tots. We picked extra crispy for this experiment.
The finished product! We cooked it at 400 degrees for about 23 minutes, but tonight I think we will make it longer for even more crispiness.
Here's what it looks like inside. Wowwwwwwwwwwwwww... it tastes even better than it looks!
