Minnesota Nice

A typical Minnesota/Wisconson Conversation:

"We gotta pot luck organized fer Sunday".

"I think I'll bring a casserole".

"Whatda' heck is a casserole"?

"You know, cream soups, meat, noodles and veg baked in rectangular dish. You don't know what a casserole is"?

"Oh, you mean a hot dish"!

Well folks, I've had that conversation. I lived in Minneapolis for 10 years. Shortly after moving there, this topic came up. I had never heard of a hot dish, and my co-worker had never heard of a casserole. Let me tell you, I learned quick, never to call it a casserole, and bow down to the fact that hot dish was invented by good Lutheran church basement ladies in order to feed the entire congregation on a budget. God Bless them! I can't tell you how many church basement cookbooks I was given up there. Each and every one of them loaded with cream soups, jello molds, and punch recipes created by silver haired ladies and taste tested by generations of families.

Minnesota is a nice place to live. It's loaded with history, good eats and lots of small town values. Any true Minnesotan will tell you that Minnesota Nice is real. You have to be nice because you may need someone to help shovel you out in the winter. Life there is steeped in tradition and history. One of the best traditions is good food. That has been carried through today in five star resturants, incredible pizza places, bars that serve the famous Juicy Lucy, and of course, those church basement recipes that bring us comfort and memories of our grandmothers. Minnesota Wild Rice Hot Dish is the Paul Bunyon of Hot Dish. Like the tall tale, something new is added every time it is passed along. There are countless recipes for this dish. Each has cream soups, poultry, and Wild Rice. I read so many of them, and created my own from multiple recipes, according to my own likes and dislikes. That's the beauty of it. You add and take away to make it your own, and pass it on to your grandchildren.

It is the best of Minnesota, distilled into a dish.

Thanks to my good neighbor, for sharing pictures of this dish.

Minnesota Wild Rice Hot Dish

Makes 2 Hot Dishes. One for you, and one for the neighbor who shoveled you out.

1# Mild Italian Sausage

3 Chicken Breasts

2 Cups Minnesota Wild Rice

1/2 Pound Portabella Mushrooms, sliced

1 Small Onion, minced

2 Cans Cream of Chicken Soup

2 Cans Cream of Mushroom Soup

1 tsp Rubbed Sage

1/2 tsp celery salt

1 tsp granulated garlic

4 TB melted butter

2 sleeves of TownHouse Crackers, smashed to smithereens

Brown sausage with the onions, until cooked through.  Add 3 shredded chicken breasts, coat well.  Mix in cream soups, sage, garlic, and celery salt.  Mix well.  Pour into a casserole dish.  Cover with crushed crackers, drizzle melted butter over crackers.  Bake at 375 until golden and bubbly.