Tater Carrot Cinnamon Yum Yums in a Pan

Hey there, it's hard to compete with baked Italian meatballs, enough to serve the whole family! Let me introduce myself as a resourceful single Kittens living on a rooftop and eating what the other cat brought in... not quite that bad, but I primarily like to throw things together based on what I can find in the kitchen without a definite plan ahead of time. I realize that when it works, I should write it down and make it again!

The latest happy accident started as a spice rub for pork and the meat part went all wrong, but the remainder of the rub ended up on vegetables and tasted great! I give you:

TATER CARROT-SEROLE

You can call it whatever you want, it's barely a casserole unless you want to put French's Onions on top- that might not be a bad idea.

Here's the spice rub for pork, but here its simply sprinkled on veggies (below listed are powders without salt):

• cumin
• garlic
• onion
• cinnamon (go heavy on this, especially if you like cinnamon)

I like to use Adobo whenever I think of reaching for salt, it just tastes good to me. Add some salt or Adobo if you prefer. Mix the ground spices to your liking, start small and add then together tasting as you go along. I prefer to ease up on onion and garlic in this dish to give the cinnamon a chance to take over with the sweetness of the carrots. In general, I don't like sweet flavors, but in something like this it works for me because of the cinnamon!

Here's the veggies:

• carrots
• tater tots (yes you read that correctly)
• celery

Oil a baking pan lightly to prevent sticking. Add equal parts carrots and tater tots (if you like the tots, put more!). Add one or two chopped stalks of celery depending on how many tots and carrots you're working with, or how much you like celery.

*hints on celery- use a peeler on the outside of the stalks to remove the fine threads if they bother you when eating celery- they can bug me!

Like anything else feel free to include onions and fresh garlic cloves whole if you like, or another vegetable of your choosing that can hold up as well as the carrots. I'd avoid spinach for example.

Put some butter on top before baking if you like it as much as I do! You're going to put your covered baking pan in the oven at 375 for an hour or longer if you want softer results. If you cook this longer, you will see more breaking apart of the tots and your carrots will be softer!

As I mentioned, this dish originally included pork, but it was too dry (possible because of thinner cuts- might be worth trying with a roast). The rub works great for pork and we'll be returning to the test kitchen for a fool proof version of this dish with meat! So far our tasting panel has approved the tater-carrot version.

Meow-appetite!