Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Hopscotch & Tater Tot casserole

Hopscotch (70" x 85")

After picking beans from 7:00 - 8:00 AM, I headed downstairs and decided to try to get some more finishes during my last few days of summer vacation. Nope....no canning today. I'll keep the beans safely waiting in the fridge until the next picking tomorrow or Thursday, so I had the WHOLE day open for quilting.

Around 9:00, I had two lil' girls joining me since I had "Balto" on as my background-noise movie of choice. Yeah....LOL.....not really an adult-female choice, but.....**shrug**....it's just background noise! :0)

By lunch-time, the quilt was taken off the frame and trimmed up. The pantograph used was Snapdragons (petite 4 3/4") and I used 6 bobbins of Aurifil thread. I can't remember the exact name of the color, but it's a taupe-like color that blended well with the various scrappy colors.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle at its fullest with this quilt! The backing was a $3.00 Goodwill bedsheet purchase. It feels SO good...100% cotton; almost a shame NOT to use it as a sheet :0)

The batting used was one of those old blankets.....hmmmm....I think I still have the tag downstairs. I'm kinda curious to know the actual makeup of the material.....but it's providing LOTS of weight to this quilt. I LOVE heavy-feeling quilts.....I don't think I can give this one away. I'm kind of partial to it....I think it's going to be kept for ME!

I haven't been able to get back downstairs since lunch time; had some afternoon errands to run. Binding remains to be done yet; I plan on using some 2.5" scrap strips from the 2.5" strip-bin.

So......Tater Tot casserole for dinner tonight. We haven't had this in a while, and I THINK it's one of Paul's more enjoyed meals that I make. There are so many variations out there......this is how I've adapted them to fit my family:

Tater Tot Casserole
1 lb. ground beef, browned
1 med. onion (optional--I don't always add it).
1 package frozen tater tots
1 can corn (or 1 bag of our frozen corn) :0)
1 can cream/potato (most recipes call for cream/mushroom----YUCK!)
Grated cheese (to your liking)

Brown beef with onion; drain.
Drain corn, reserving juice .
Add soup, corn, and 1 soup can of liquid (1/2 milk and 1/2 corn juice). Mix well.
Pour mixture into 9x13 baking dish.
Spread cheese over mixture (to your liking---I usually cover the mixture lightly) ~1 cup?
Top with frozen tater tots.
Bake at 425 for 30 minutes, or until tater tots are brown and crispy.

**smacking lips**
Just typing up that recipe is making me hungry! 10 more minutes remaining on timer :D

10 minutes later
Looks like Candace is a fan, too :0) Too bad she needs to wait for a bit while it cools down.

8 comments:

Cheryl Willis said...

throw in a can of Rotel and you have a great dish to take to a pot luck. love the scrappy quilt!!

Quilter Kathy said...

Great job on the quilting...very cool design. So glad it will be a quilt that you get to keep and enjoy!
The recipe sounds like something my family would enjoy...thanks for sharing it!

QuiltinLibraryLady said...

I was just thinking of Tater Tot Casserole. Looks good. Haven't made it for a long time. We had it regularly when the kids were still at home.

scraphappy said...

Oh, I love the quilting on Hopscotch. Glad you were able to put garden chores on hold for the day and get some time in on the frame. Hope the tater tot casserole turned out yummy, it certainly looks like the girls are planning on digging in!

Amanda said...

Love the quilt, simple designs often look so good in scrappy fabrics don't they. I don't know what tater tots are, a small frozen potato I imagine. It interests me how so many American recipes use tins of soup in them; it's not anything I ever see in British or French recipes.

Cornfield Quilter said...

Super quilt and the food doesn't look too bad either!! I'm coming to live at your house. :D

Nancy said...

Ok that definitely looks like a "school wiped me out what can I cook" supper. Thanks for sharing!

The quilt is lovely and totally inspires me to make one. Wonder who could quilt it for me??? :o)

Dee said...

Congratulations on the finish! 6 bobbins means a lot of quilting. Most of mine are taking 4 or 5. I enjoyed seeing your tater tot casserole. I haven't had that since I was a young girl. Thanks for the memory!