A taste of Fargo in Rockville...

Well, we've had our first hotdish, and it was pretty delicious. Joey liked it quite a bit, and his like for it was tempered only slightly by the discovery that cream of mushroom soup was a main ingredient. Katie says she didn't like it so much, but I think she can be convinced into it. And Ellie was amenable as usual.

Since I would like this to remain a Fargo blog, and not morph into a hotdish blog, I'm not going to go into detail every time we do this. But for the record, here's how we cooked this first one:

2 lbs. ground beef, browned.
2 cans cream of mushroom soup.
Lots of green beans (a pound and a half, maybe?), cooked a little.
2 lbs tater tots.
Grated cheese.

Toss the browned ground beef in an 8x13 Pyrex pan, mix in the green beans and the soup. Top with tater tots. Bake at 350 degrees or so for about 20 minutes -- basically follow the directions on the tater tot bag for fixing the tater tots. Then toss cheese on top and broil until it looks right. Boy, that was good. It tasted like a childhood I didn't actually have (Mom made plenty of good casseroles, but not this one, I don't think...).

Some folks toss onions in with the ground beef, but Jen and the kids aren't such big fans of onions, so I skipped that. Some folks just toss in green beans from the can, and that might be good, but the fresh ones were terrific. Some folks also toss cheese in with the meat/soup/veggies mix; I might try that next time.

Katie immediately knew exactly what was going on when she saw the case of cream of mushroom soup (right) arrive from Costco. "No, not more hotdish!" she wailed. Yes, more hotdish.

Ellie's a funny girl. We were driving with her the other day, and she was trying to remember what it was her Nanny had called her a few days before (it was "baby cakes"). Jen and I were not being very helpful, suggesting things like "sweet waffle" and "peanut butter and jelly." Finally, Ellie came up with a guess of her own: "Hotdish!" Not bad -- I may start calling Jen that.