Tater Tot Hot Dish (no really, it's good)

A "hot dish" is just a casserole, for those of you not from the midwestern US.

Note: If you can't find real, paddy-grown, hand-harvested wild rice, don't bother -- that paddy-grown stuff they call wild rice in the stores is awful and never quite cooks without a pressure cooker, and even then it's just not as good. Use brown rice or even white rice (though it's not as good with white rice IMHO) or those vegetarian "recipe crumbles" in the frozen food section - or what the hell, use 1 lb. ground beef or turkey, cooked and drained. It's fine to use leftovers from something else you made, and to mix any or all of the above, but if you have to cook it, chop up half an onion and (if it's not meat) add a little butter or olive oil, some minced rosemary, minced sage, and some pepper. For wild rice I think it's 4 parts water to 1 part rice. Check the package. I just boil it until done & drain off any extra water - or put it in a casserole in a 350F oven for an hour or so.

2 cups or so of cooked wild rice or whatever
1 can of low-salt cream-of-mushroom soup
12 oz (1 soup can full) milk
1 package frozen french-cut green beans, thawed
Some cheese (white cheeses look best), cut up into small chunks -- or no cheese
Some nuts (walnuts or pecans or sunflower seeds) -- or no nuts
Shiitake mushrooms, stems removed, caps sliced into thin slices -- or regular mushrooms, sliced however you like them
1 Tbsp fresh rosemary, minced very fine (or 1 tsp dried is OK)*
1-1/2 Tbsp. fresh sage, minced very fine (or 1-1/2 tsp dried is OK)*
Some tamari or shoyu (or regular soy sauce)
1 large bag of Tater Tots(r) or Crispy Crowns(r) -- the latter have the advantage of a more optimal surface area-to-volume ratio, giving you more crispy fried part and less of the potatoey part. Sometimes you can also find tater tots shaped like the ABCs, which are pretty fun.

Mix the wild rice/whatever, soup, milk, green beans, cheese, nuts, mushrooms and herbs. You can also add chopped onion at this point if you like. Add tamari to suit your liking, keeping in mind that tater tots are pretty salty. Mix in about half the tater tots or crispy crowns in with this stuff and put it in a casserole and top with the remaining tater tots, artfully arranged.

Bake it in the oven at 350F for 45 minutes to an hour. You can cover it at first and then remove the lid for the last 15-20 minutes or so to ensure proper crispiness. Also -- be careful as it sometimes bubbles at first. I usually put a sheet of tin foil on the shelf under it, and try to make sure I use a large enough casserole so that it's not quite full.

*Quantities for the herbs are approximate. Use as much or as little as you see fit. I measured it last time I made it and that's about how much I used. I put the quantities there on account of some people panic if you don't. The main thing is to use more fresh herbs than you would use of dry herbs, which are more concentrated.