Local Fare

Apparently, in last week's wedding post, I unthinkingly used a term that has become familiar to me but has virtually no linguistic presence outside the American Midwest. Apologies to all - when I said that there were no "hot dishes" at the wedding, you were likely all imagining some sort of cold faspa-like buffet and assuming that's how they do things down there.

Nope, there was the standard chicken plate (which I'm told was very good) and stuffed ricotta pasta shells for the herbivores among us. But what we did not have was a hot dish: "any of a variety of baked casserole popular in the Midwestern United States, and especially in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, northern Iowa, and western Wisconsin. It consists of a starch, a meat, and a canned vegetable, mixed together with canned soup."

I've only ever heard this term since we got here, but everyone knows it. I don't think I've ever actually had one. My boss once commented about a potluck where everyone brought "a hot dish or a casserole." I've never asked her, but I'm curious - is there a difference between the two? Is it the vegetables that distinguishes one from the other? Is it the "canned" part of it? Is it a Lutheran thing? Goodness knows we've got lots o' Lutherans about these parts.

Sorry about that!