Hot Dish in Rollag, MN

The next few posts will be about going to our friend Dan's home in Rollag, Mn. Dan grew up in this house and has rather deep Minnesotan roots and is a master of the cuisine of the upper midwest. An integral part of the holy trinity that dominates this under appreciated cuisine is the hot dish.

Hot dish is defined as follows:

Hotdish is any of a variety of casserole dishes popular in the Midwest of the United States and especially in Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

It consists of a starch and a protein (meat and/or a vegetable) mixed together with a binding ingredient (most often canned soup or a sauce) and a topping.

Dan starts with ground beef that is browned and empties a bag of frozen corn on top of it and some carrots.

Then come the frozen peas.
The tater tots.
The crowning glory of the hot dish is the thick coating of creme of mushroom soup (held by a smiling Dan)

This is tossed in the oven to bake and is served at countless church potlucks across the Midwest.

Dinner on Sunday evening was delightful and full of many bottles of wine, jello, and Dan's matriarchal ring pasta salad.

It was a wonderful evening.

We went to bed well fed but too tired to make jelly.

~Eikon