Heh, I’d eat that.
Ope! A deer!
- C. Berens and every other Sconnie
Cheese in hot dish? Never! Raw ground beef, onions, cream of soup - I use cream of chicken, a can of corn and a can of evaporated milk. Mix together, put in a casserole dish and top with tater tots. Bake at 350 for roughly an hour. A great thing to eat after shoveling snow.
I was thinking sorta like a heap of nacho chips, but upper Midwest style. So bland, saucy, and gooey. With narry a jalapeno in sight. But fun to eat with fingers and it runs down your chin.
Wisconsin hotdish definitely has cheese. Smell our dairy air, Minnesotans!
Sub peas for the corn and you’d be real close to the British shephard’s pie, just w tots instead of mash and not the usual Brit spicing.
Either your or @kitap’s recipe sounds like it’d be real wet when done. Crunchy on top, soupy underneath. Assuming I’m right I’m thinking it’d be better if it set up more. Hence QtM’s cheese?
I can’t imagine hot dish with cheese. Just no.
My recipe dumps a can of campbell’s condensed cream of mushroom in there with no other liquid, so it isn’t soupy at all. Its a little poor mans beef stroganoff under the tots (with corn). Oh salt and pepper.
And yeah, its good. Kids really like it and its cheap and easy.
In the Midwest the regional food group is dairy. We put dairy in EVERYTHING. Smother vegetables in cheese, top our desserts with whipped cream. Huge dollops of sour cream.
In the South, the regional food group is fried.
Which, speaking of dairy and fried, have you guys not from the midwest had deep fried cheese curds?
Looks like the thread’s gotten a little sidetracked here, but I’m fine with it because I find the dueling hot tot dish arguments fascinating! To cheese or not to cheese? I’m tempted to make 2 side-by-side sometime, one with cheese and one without.
Would you recommend sharp cheddar?
You don’t brown the ground beef before you mix it in and bake it? That seems…not right.
Ditto! 
It’s how I learned to make it.
I’ve heard this referred to as “Lutheran glue.”
Always. the standard sharp cheddar in our house is at least 4 years old. We buy it from the local cheese factory in 5 pound blocks. I’ve got a few chunks of 20 year old cheddar in the cheese cave, waiting for special tasting occasions.
My extended family in Detroit includes a number of uncles and “ANTS!” What are these “AWNTS” I’ve heard mentioned in various places as I’ve moved around the country?
You mean Aunts?
Yes. (Trying to be clever about it)
You mean like these?
A pesky plague indeed.
This is a weird one for me because I had been saying “ope” (usually when almost colliding with someone in a hallway) for most of my adult life, possibly earlier, with no idea where it came from and being vaguely embarrassed at my involuntary use. And then only recently did I find that it’s a common Wisconsinism. I’ve always lived in Northern California.
My mom grew up there, but I can’t recall her ever using it. It’s possible she did in my formative years. But maybe it’s convergent evolution. I guess I view it as a merger of “uh” and “oops”.
I made this hotdish casserole for dinner last night. It was good!!
My gf got a kick out of learning about Minnesota.