Crowd Pleaser

     What would you prepare for a family reunion, a funeral luncheon, or a church supper?  If you lived in the Midwest, Minnesota in particular, you would make a hotdish.  Howard Mohr, author of How to Talk Minnesotan, says, "A traditional main course, hotdish is cooked and served hot in a single baking dish and commonly appears at family reunions and church suppers."

    

     It is a baked casserole containing a starch, meat (protein), canned or frozen vegetables, and mixed with some sort of condensed canned soup.  Most typically the meat is ground beef and the starch is either noodles, wild rice or tater tots.  The consensed soup is almost always cream of mushroom, or as it is commonly called "Lutheran Binder."  Another favorite is the tuna hotdish made with Kraft macaroni and cheese, canned tuna, and peas.

 

    Hotdish is filling, convenient to prepare and easy to transport.  At a communal meal when everyone brings something it pairs easily with potato salad, coleslaw, jello salad and pan baked cookies known as bars.

     Hotdish is also the integral element of the book "Hotdish to Die For," a collection of 6 culinary mystery short stories in which the weapon of choice is hotdish.  Make room at the dinner table, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle...

     And at the Minnesota State Fair: