Hot Dish

Tuna Casserole

I wrote this article several years ago. Richard and Jeane have since passed but I decided to keep it as it was written and dedicate the first blog post to them. They were great people and Jeane had a great sense of humor and would have liked reading it.

One of the things that fascinates me about food, is how some of it gets its name. Stew, chili, bread, tomato, potato, onion, casserole. I actually never had thought about it before an interesting thing happened between me and my mother in law, Jeane. Now Jeane is one generation away from on the boat immigrants. She grew up in Northern Minnesota and is one of the nicest people on earth.

This is way back now many years. My wife and I were dating and had met in Arizona. I had met her parents Richard and Jeane before but she thought it a good idea to go back and met the rest of her family since marriage was being discussed. I had never been to Minnesota so being a young pup and in love I went along with the idea.

After all the initial meetings and getting the once over from everyone, it was decided to have a family dinner at Jeane's. So everyone was called and plans were made and I asked her what she planned on having and if I could help out. (Picture of Jean).

Now this is where the revelation about food names came in. Jeane says to me, oh yaaaa, we are having hot dish. Now I was born in Oregon, but have lived in Arizona since I was little, nothing to exact here. But when someone says to a boy from the southwest that we are having hot dish, naturally I had visions of enchiladas, green chili, red chili, chile rellenos, salsa, yuummm.

So fast forward a few hours. Everyone is starting to arrive, grain belt, the local cheap beer is being consumed. There is talking and laughing and generally giving the new guy, me, a hard time, just what a family get together is supposed to be.

So now comes time to eat. Well I am mentally prepared to grab a couple tortillas and another by now ok beer and dig in. Jeane comes to the table with a large casserole dish, that is white-ish and kinda thin, and now, sit down for this, has potato chips caked on top??????

As everyone else dives for the couple serving spoons perched there, I am in a daze. What the heck is that, that does not look like enchaladas or green chile, or anything I have seen up to this point. As some time goes by and everyone is devouring this thing, someone notices that I am just sitting there staring at it. So a couple are you ok's and is something wrong come my way, I'm speechless or so I thought until I blurt out, "What the hell is that?" Somebody bodily informs me that its a hot dish.

So by this time the bride to be looks at me. Now, keep in mind, I know she was not eating any either because it had tuna in it and that is not on her eating menu. She realizes that I, number one do not know what it is, and number two, she now knows that I was thinking Mexican something, not tuna and potato chips.

Jeane says to me, its tuna hot dish, (Minnesota for casserole), haven't you had that before? I must have given her a look of disbelief cause a very small giggle turned into all present having a good laugh at the new guy. Jeane I said, hot dish is like enchiladas, chile rellenos, with salsa, not tuna. After more laughing ensued, the question was posed to the new guy from the mid-Westerner's, what is an enchoeahahalaaadaaa?

Fast forward many years. The in-laws lived in Wickenburg, AZ, they ate spicy food on a regular basis and know all the Mexican food menu items by heart and we have not had a tuna hot dish for as long as I can remember.

So back to the beginning, how does food get its name. Ok, hot dish, probably pretty simple, farm wife sets pan on table, farm man grabs pan and says, damn that's a hot dish, name calling resolved. Tomato. Who first uttered this word? Probably in Europe, maybe Rome, or Italy. Maybe a Spanish name and has been mispronounced for ages until its present form. Bread. It has been around a long time, where did the name come from. Apple, pineapple, pasta, bread fruit, juju beans, ugh. Maybe next time we will tackle where recipe names come from. I will get Jeane's tuna hot dish recipe and share it with you. Or maybe not.