The Absent Uncle: What is DNA?

Earlier this day I was looking at what was for dinner. Bunch of leftovers, a few vegetables, and nothing could stand as a meal on its own. 

So as a good Minnesota boy, I stared down that refrigerator, thought about the possibilities, knew I had Campbell’s mushroom soup and started to break it down into a hotdish. My DNA. 

Growing up in southwest Minnesota with a very busy mother, a great set of aunts, the ever-present church recipe book for a hotdish and the variety experienced at family and church functions, I loved almost all of them.

When I moved south, people didn’t understand the term. They called them casseroles. C’mon folks, casseroles are the dish you put a hotdish in. 

As my wife will attest, I don’t follow recipes, nor does my refrigerator give me the ingredients that will allow me to follow any recipe. This is where DNA kicks in the memories of those combined flavors. 

My mom, aunts, and my sisters could put anything together and more than make it more than palatable – it was extraordinal in what could be put together and mixed with rice or pasta of some sort along with whatever meat was in the refrigerator that needed to be used.   

After I moved away from the Midwest, away from all those hotdish makers that I really missed and those great individual meals, it tugged at my heartstrings. So, bit by bit, I have started to explore my DNA roots of the hotdish. For the most part, the hotdishes get better with experience. My sisters have given me hints but the core is put your stuff together, add the mushroom soup, taste it, season it, forget the recipe, and really just enjoy. Oh, yes.

I made a really good one tonight. Bon Appétit!