After five years, I have finally qualified as a full-fledged Midwestern wife.  I made my first batch of Tator Tot Hot Dish.  In making this dish, I accomplished three things:

1) I used up two more pounds of ground beef
2) Made Marty the happiest man on earth
3) Introduced my kids to tator tots.  I know, how can that be? 

See, the thing is, I don't really like hot dish.  I realize that this puts my Minnesota-born status in question, but I don't like food where all the stuff for a meal is combined and the dominant color is brown.  Exceptions to this rule:
- Grandma Z's chicken and rice (all gooey, all shades of beige)
- Beef stew
- Pot pie

But, to accomplish my three tasks, I decided to go ahead and make this meal.  Since we can't eat dairy, I made a batch of cream of mushroom soup instead of using the traditional canned version.  It was pretty tasty, but I would have been even happier just eating the soup, which I thought was delicious.

On the table: Tator Tot Hot Dish: Something We Can All Eat

 

Isn't fall pretty?  The colors of the changing leaves against a crisp blue sky?  It makes you want to play outside, and breathe deeply, and do things like eat hot dish.