Tuesday, September 20, 2016

A True Minnesotan...

will heat up the leftover Tater Tot Hotdish at 8 AM and call it breakfast.  Don't ask me how I know this.

Elsewhere people will bake a casserole for supper.  Here in Minnesota a casserole is the dish used for baking and hotdish is what goes into the casserole.

Hotdish appears in church basements after a funeral or at church suppers and family reunions.  Every farm wife worth her salt has a favorite hotdish recipe.  They usually consist of a meat, a vegetable, a starch and a can or two of cream of whatever soup.

Here's mine.

Tater Tot Hotdish

1 pint jar (or 1 lb. browned) hamburger
1 pint jar (or 1 can) mixed vegetables
2 cans cream soup (chicken or mushroom or celery or a combination)
Tater Tots to cover the top

Layer the above ingredients in a casserole dish.  Like onions?  Toss some in with the vegetables.  Same with mushrooms.  Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Leftovers can be heated up for breakfast the next day.  :)

15 comments:

  1. Sounds good, but back here, we'd call it a casserole (in a casserole dish). lol

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  2. Gorges...Yeah, most places call it a casserole. Except Minnesota. We call it hotdish. I don't know why. There are jokes about MN hotdish. There are hotdish cookbooks. There is even a contest every year among MN politicians for the best hotdish. Guess back there you are just classier with your casserole than we are with our hotdish! :)

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  3. Doesn't matter what you call it - sounds delicious! Great for a chilly, damp fall day!

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  4. Mom, we make this for dinner once a month or so. You can keep the cream of mushroom soup as that would ruin it, cream of celery is just fine. Don't forget to top it with french fried onions!
    David

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  5. i take it the soup is added without the water?

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  6. Chickenmom...I think maybe Tater Tot Hotdish is the official Minnesota comfort food. :) It ranks right up there with chili for cold weather dining. :)

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  7. David...I forgot all about the french fried onions. Nearly every Minnesota Hot Dish is topped with french fried onions. :)

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  8. deborah...That's right - the soup is added straight from the can.

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  9. Ok so now I'm going to have to make it too. My favorite. My all time favorite breakfast is cold sausage pizza. Wind and rain here tonight. Trees are losing their leaves fast.

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  10. So I read all the replies, now I want Chili too. Takes guys I'm hungery

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  11. Rob...I like it, too, but I don't often have the tater tots on hand. I think it has maybe cooled down enough for a pot of chili, though. That really sounds good.
    Had a small storm blow through here earlier tonite. Sounded like some hail, but it was raining too hard to see out the windows. Didn't last long.

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  12. I really like Tater Tots. I get big bags of them at the discount grocery. Sometimes I fry them, sometimes I microwave them. They don't cost a lot and they're really nice, especially with some hot sauce and garlic.

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  13. Harry...I like them, too. Especially when I get busy with one thing or another, they are quick to fix with a meal. Now that I have easy access to Sam's Club, I can get the big bags to keep in the freezer. I saw a video where someone had dehydrated the mini tater tots, so I tried it. I haven't tried rehydrating them yet, but if it works, it would be a good way to keep them on hand should we lose electric.

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  14. Here in the South, at least, the container is a casserole and so is the food inside.

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  15. Linda...I think that's the way it is in most parts of the country - except here in Minnesota. I don't know why. I grew up with the term "hot dish." And you baked the hot dish in a casserole. Go figure. :)

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