27 May 2009

Hot Dish Supper

Karen - who is one of David's employees, his fit model, and guitarist in the band who played at our wedding - has a summer tenant for the mother-in-law apartment over her garage who is from South Dakota. Since David is also from South Dakota, she decided it'd be fun to have a South Dakota party. Which, if you are from the region, would also be known as a Hot Dish Supper.

So David made green bean hot dish topped with canned fried onions, which is pretty much de rigueur for these affairs, someone else made creamed corn, and other people made other hot dish with dead animal in them and jello (also dead animal) with mandarin orange in it. Much wine (not South Dakotan) was also imbibed, and then for dessert the hostess made a very yummy rhubarb-strawberry pie (true story: David's mom's family hails from Leola, SD - Rhubarb Capital of the World - and in the mid-70's his Grandma Rose was crowned Rhubarb Queen). Also for dessert, David found this Memorial Day cake and piped on icing in the shape of Mt. Rushmore.

052609Rushmore

David would like everyone to know that while Mount Rushmore is the name of the mountain, the actual title of the sculpture is "Shrine of Democracy". And once he posed with a handbag in the old Visitor Center (since torn down) in the same spot as Eva Marie Saint in "North by Northwest".

In the course of the evening, we also found out that Chris, Karen's tenant, has family roots in Hecla, SD, which is where David's dad comes from. Considering it's a town of about 300 people, they're probably at least related by marriage somewhere down the line.


Other Food Stuff


I've been making quite a lot of yogurt lately, which is actually quite easy and very yummy. With this latest batch, I decided I'd hang it up in cheesecloth (actually, it's a loose weave muslin, rather than the cheapie disposable stuff from the supermarket) to drain off the whey and make for a thicker, richer end product.

052709Yogurt

Note how I cleverly framed it so as not to show the pile of dishes in the sink below. And yes, that is gift wrap ribbon used to tie it up. It's called recycling.

5 comments:

Leslie said...

One of my favorite church memories is when our beloved interim minister was reading announcements for a church pot luck. Those with last names A-L were to bring a salad or dessert, those M-Z were to "bring a hot dish". All of a sudden it struck him and there were tears of laughter all over the congregation.

Sheepish Annie said...

I always strain my yogurt now. Once I tried the Greek yogurt with honey, I was done for. Sooooo yummy!!!

Not as yummy as cake, though. Cake is better. Especially when it has presidents on it.

Unknown said...

Sling the strained yoghurt in a ginger nut/ginger Hob-Nobs/graham cracker all bashed together with enough melted butter to hold it together lined piedish ( I'm hoping I've got my UK/US kitchen translation right hereeven if my grammar is shot to hell ) and scatter redcurrants over the top.

I'm pretty sure this idea belongs to Nigel Slater, but it's a real early summer pudding.

Ted said...

I have never heard of the term "Hot Dish". We always just call them "Casseroles".

And in all my travels in the USA I've never had the famous green- beans-with-canned-fried-onion. I have had "scalloped corn" on a few occasions when in the midwest. Some versions were fine and a few were very good.

Lisa/knitnzu said...

Considering it's a town of 300, related by marriage would be a genetically nicer thing than related by, oh, say the things that folks in The County are sometimes related by.

You need to dig up that handbag pic and get a video still from the movie... side by side comparisons!

I'm noticing what I'd originally just saw as background twigs as xmas lights. We keep them up all year too. Nice background lights/party lights, whatever.

Doesn't draining the yogurt like that make it more like the greek style?