Saturday was a pretty great day. It started off with pepper jack cheese scrambled eggs and maple bacon and ended with macaroni and cheese fritters with green tomato jam, and in the middle was a fantastic day sailing with great friends and snacking on tater tots. I reconnected with a friend from college who is down in Charleston on his sail boat for a couple of weeks (not a bad life he leads), and he invited a group of us to go sailing with him on Saturday. Now, to be honest, I hate sailing- well I should say, I hated sailing. My dislike for the sport involves three very spread apart and very long stories that I won’t go into, but my last sailing venture ended up with us swimming to shore in a horrific storm and having the Coast Guard called to come save us- it really was not that much fun. But, never the less, I went sailing with my old college friend and a group of my best friends from Charleston. I think that it helped tremendously that the boat was significatly larger than the little sunfish I almost died in, and that there was very little wind to speak of. It also helped that we stopped at the Marina Variety Store (www.varietystorerestaurant.com) to pick up some sandwiches and, the best, some tater tots. Tater tots are so under rated and so under served. They really should be a staple like french fries. I think that tater tots go well with pretty much everything- sailing definitely included. So, the sail was fantastic, and we got to see Santa who was also out in his boat with Mrs. Claus and a couple of elves throwing candy and caroling to all the boats in the harbor- random but awesome. Here are some pictures from the sail.
Charleston is so pretty! So of course, as soon as I got home, I googled tater tot recipes. This one from www.food.com looked pretty good, and I will definetly try it, but Ore-Ida makes it so darn easy! The last thing I will add is that we went to Big Gun Burger Shop (www.bigguncharleston.com) on Saturday night after a few Christmas parties that were heavy on the alcohol and light on the food. This place is so great!! Not only do they serve late, but they also have a Twinkie Milkshake which is really amazing. I opted for the Mac and Cheese Fritters instead of a burger (which I have had and they are so good), and they were the perfect late night snack (other than tater tots of course, but they didn’t have those on the menu which goes back to my whole thing of them being under served!!)
Ingredients:
8 medium potatoes, cooked, peeled, and hot
1 tablespoon flour
1 dash pepper
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons finely minced onions (optional)
canola oil or vegetable oil
Directions:
Finely shred or use a ricer while potatoes are still hot.
Stir in flour, salt, pepper and onion (if using).
Heat 1/4-in oil in heavy pan.
Form into small balls and drop in oil; fry until slightly golden.
