Stranger in a Plains Land ~ 2

Here are some more terms I've become familiar with since moving to the Nodak:

Lutefisk ~ "It is said that about half the Norwegians who immigrated to America came in order to escape the hated lutefisk, and the other half came to spread the gospel of lutefisk's wonderfulness." I haven't tried the stuff because I've yet to encounter it. I'd try it if given the "opportunity" to do so.

Dinner vs. Supper ~ Dinner is the meal that you eat in the middle of the day. Supper is what you eat in the early evening. Where I come from, you eat lunch mid-day and dinner in the evening. My mother is from the South, so I knew these meals were called dinner and supper in the South, but didn't realize it applied to the Midwest as well.

Church Supper ~ increasingly less common, sadly, from what I hear. Here's a nice article from the 1940s. I might be an atheist, but I'm still a big fan bringing big groups of people together, especially over food.

Lefse ~ It's like a potato tortilla. In fact, I prefer to use these as tortillas rather than the things that pass as tortillas, but they are spendy--about $1 each. I'm going to have to learn to make tortillas. I think if I could do that, lefse would soon follow.

Hotdish ~ Hotdish is pretty much anything that you mix in an oven-safe dish and bake. It typically contains some kind of starchy food, some kind of protein, some kind of vegetable, and it's mixed together with a sauce, i.e. canned soup.

What's that you say? You say that the thing I have described is called a casserole? Oh no--you are mistaken. A casserole is the dish you cook stuff in. Hotdish is the food in the dish. 

The most ubiquitous of the hotdishes (or at least the one I keep hearing about) is tater tot hotdish. Mmmm. You had me at tater tots.