Tot Fest 2009!

I have a certain friend of mine, who shall remain nameless, that is a lot like me in regards to enjoying the simple things in life. She,like myself, can find simple joy in a day spent in pajamas, a mug full of icecream, a walk through the neighborhood, and the tots. The tots?you ask. Oh yes, the tots. No, I'm not talking about babies, nor their pudgy rubberband wrists that inspire you to chew on them...that's another blog, for yet another time. I'm talking about the unbridled love for a food product that is surpassed by none,and saltier than most. The tater tot.

This friend and I have been plotting for months to have a mutual meeting of the minds and stomachs,where she and I could combine our love of a)pajamas b)icecream and c)tots. That meeting occured this last Saturday. I.Still.have.not.recovered. She said "bring the tots!!" I said to self while at the store "Self, why not have tots AND potato wedges?!" Because as you are already well aware, you can NEVER have too many potato filled salty crunchy items at a gathering. NEV-ER. So I got the tots, AND the wedges, and some macaroni salad for good measure. Why macaroni salad? I cannot tell you. It was my wild card item for this event to be sure. It sounded good. Oh and onion dip...for chips, I thought. (This applies later, you'll see.)

So I arrive at totty friend's house, with the husband in tow. Our husbands are also friends, but they believe we are certifiably crazy, so they chose to leave the tot fest. Why? I don't know. They said something about "you guys are DISGUSTING!!" and then left. Whatev. This did not slow us down, nor give us cause to pause. No-sir-ee, we were on a totterific mission I tell you, and as soon as I pulled out the wedges we both squealed with glee and began placing them on a cookie sheet to be baked.

While they baked we noshed (I really don't like the word "noshed" but I've always wanted to use it. so there-noshed. noshidy nosh noshed) on chips and dip and diet pepsi.Oh lord the pepsi. Nectar of the sodium deprived gods!!! She said something like "I FEEL IT IN MY VEINS!!!!" while I shoved another chip in my mouth. Had someone been standing outside the door listening, the authorities would have been called.

Then the glorious ding of the oven sounded, and she looked at me like a deer anticipating the painful bumper of a car, but the fun ride through the air, and we both jumped up to go to the source of said ding. The oven. Out they came, smelling delicious and looking like a hot smooshy salty fantasy. See, I haven't had the tots since I was atleast 15. I have memories of rolling them between my fingers in the cafeteria as a pudgy 10 year old, encrusting the salt underneath my nails to be savored after getting back to class. Gah, I was a gross kid. Not much has changed. She showed me (being a much more experienced Tot lover than I ) how to dip them in pepper covered ketchup. By accident, ahem, we noticed that if they rolled into the spot where the onion dip had been, it tasted..GREAT. AND, if the tot happened to saunter on over to the macaroni salad? DIVINE. So basically we had a triple dip situation going on-with every surface on our plates becoming a tot dip!oh it was glorious. But short lived? Did you know that tots can fill you up fast? All of a sudden I found myself saying things like "these tots won't go down my throat" and "gah,this plate is getting heavy, I think I've just hit a whole new level over here" and she uttered "I'm so full but I think I can get justonemore in!"

When the husbands got home they looked at us, laying back in bloated glory, visions of beauty to behold, of that I am sure.Is it wrong to be able to gross out your own husband? I don't know, but if it is, I don't want to be right. Underneath all of those "Gah you guys ATE all that?" and "I think I'm going to barf just THINKING about its" I'm pretty sure deep down they were impressed. The next morning my fingers still smelled of tots. Sweet sweet memories.