Tater Tots

For some reason, I always want to spell it tator tots.  Maybe because they're potatoes?  Not sure.

Anyhow, this was somewhat of a disaster.

Bake the potatoes, then grate them while they're hot.  I've tried this before and this time it went a lot better.

Then add a few things, flour, salt and pepper.  Roll them into balls, then fry them.  Seems simple enough.  However, I don't think my oil was hot enough and the balls sat in the oil for too long, cuz they from this:

to this:

They didn't stay together.  So I turned up the heat, tried the next batch

And they stayed together much better.  I forgot to take a picture of the ending, but they worked for what I need.  I plan to make a tater tot casserole tomorrow and so these are now in the freezer, waiting to go on top.  Cheese will be spread over it, so even if they are crumbly and frankly just ugly, they still taste fine.

Overall rating:  3.0 stars.  Next time I'll just buy tater tots.  Even if I am trying to save money and use up my potatoes before they go bad...