Title:	Tots!: 50 Tot-ally Awesome Recipes from Totchos to Sweet Po-tot-o Pie
	Author:	Dan Whalen
	Published:	May 15, 2018, Workman Publishing Company
	No. of Pages:	160
	Cover Price:	$12.95 Paperback, $12.30 Kindle

---

What a fun and clever book! Tots!: 50 Tot-ally Awesome Recipes from Totchos to Sweet Po-tot-o Pie by Dan Whalen takes the lowly tater tot from the uninspired Minnesota hot dish to ethereal heaven. Not only does the book include basics, such as all the different varieties, shapes, and sizes of tots out there, but he also includes a primer on the best ways to cook them, and for history and trivia buffs, a timeline of tots through the years. This information can be quite valuable, especially for beginning cooks and those who hate to cook, but it is an interesting and good review for those of us who love everything about food.

While Whalen is a bit of a food-snob and doesn’t use canned soups, that’s okay for most of us. However, having spent some time in Minnesota and knowing that the classic Minnesota Tater Tot Hot Dish is not authentic without it, I take exception to that one recipe. It’s a fact that anyone trying to make that ubiquitous dish absolutely must use canned soup or it isn’t going to taste right, so I hope if you do purchase this delightful cookbook, you aren’t fooled into thinking Whalen’s hot dish is something to make.

There are dozens of mouthwatering recipes in this book; all are fairly easy, and every recipe that I tried turned out picture-perfect and delicious. There is a danger to making the recipes in this book, in that you and your families may become tater-tot addicts. I have had so much fun making Totchos, Bibimtot (a favorite), Chicken Tot Pie, Kentucky Tot Hot Brown (another winner), and Cheeseburger Tot Sliders– to name just a few – I can’t seem to stop and I’ve filled my freezer with several varieties of tots so I can make something new from this book at a moment’s notice. There are also some desserts made with tots.

If you’re one who likes to explore the fun side of food, Tots!: 50 Tot-ally Awesome Recipes from Totchos to Sweet Po-tot-o Pie is a book for you. It has beautiful pictures, the recipes are easy to follow, and it makes a good gift for beginning to advanced foodies.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.