Customer Reviews

Hotdish To Die For

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A chance to learn a little bit more about the mystique of Minnesota and her hotdish obsession, as well as have a few laughs and get some great recipes. I've sent copies to my friends all over the country and they loved it -- so will you!

I bought this book for my Mother who's from the land of great lakes and every time she reads one of the delightful short stories in this book, she calls me crying from laughter and proceeds to compare the characters to members of our Minnesota family... it's a scream! A must for anyone from or in Minnesota!

"Try it, you'll like it!"

In the preliminary "unofficial guide" to "the hotdish mystery," the author explains to auslanders that hotdish is: (1) midwestern colloquialism for a hot entrée that is similar to a French casserole except that it is often inedible; (2) the [illegitimate - sounds like "custard"] offspring of canned cream of mushroom soup. (Actually - any creamed soup will do - cream of chicken, cream of celery - etc.) These quick, clever mysteries all involve - in varying manner - our beloved, ubiquitous hotdish. Also included are 18 delectable looking hotdish recipes to make the Dr. Atkins carb police cry. The book is a celebration of the triumph over our legislature's misguided assault on hotdish. (Those silly people down in St. Paul tried to BAN HOTDISH at communal gatherings - uttering some annihilistic balderdash about public health concerns and the absence of USDA labeling.) God Bless Governor Ventura and Pat Dennis.

Okay, first I admit it. I am a closet humor writer, but lucky for us, Pat is out of that closet and making us laugh. This is a mystery book, but I think of it as a humor book because I laughed more than I wondered "who done it."

This is collection of six of Pat's short stories (10-15 pages), each with a hotdish (or casserole) as an integral part of the mystery. I make a killer hotdish, so I was intrigued.

As a humorist and a writer, we get the best of both. It helps to be from Minnesota, and maybe even Lutheran to enjoy this to the fullest, but the rest of you will giggle along. Stories have tongue in cheek titles like The Elder Hostile, Death by Idaho (potato), Hotdish to Die For. And the book ends with 18 hotdish recipes, many already in my metal 3x5 recipe box. If you don't know what a hotdish is, it a food staple of things from a can and tator tots, served at church festivals, dinners and funerals--and in the homes of women who attend those churches.

This book is as Minnesotan as Paul Bunyan and "going up north," and her local points add to the flavor. Pat adds to the mix by putting fun back into dysfunctional.

Some great lines are:
-- In describing mismatched lovers: When it comes to love, all cats are grey in the dark.
-- In describing a man who had reached 30 without being married, or much of anything: He had little to give, so he had almost nothing to lose.
-- In talking about neighbors at the lake: As only long-time lake neighbors get to do, Jeff loved and hated every one of them.
-- In describing a woman on mood-altering drugs: Without her medicine, she got so much more done.

Armchair Interviews says: Pat Dennis is a hoot. Her quirky characters and twists of plot are very funny, the kind of story you tell people and they say, "Sounds like Aunt Mary."

Every summer we go from the West Indies where we live to vacation at the family cabin in Minnesota. I try to pick up a book to get me in the mooooood! I picked this up at the hotel in Minneapolis.....what a find. I laughed and laughed. The recipes in the back are pretty darn good too...we tried some of them at the cabin! Good Readin' and Good Eatin'!

I've made 3 of the recipes from this book and so far, not a single one of them has come out good. Hot dish isn't hard. Everyone makes casseroles. Casseroles from my many other cookbooks come out nicely. I followed the directions just as they were written, and I don't make substitutions, yet, none of the hot dishes were good. One of them, my complaint was flavour, and that is objective, so we can excuse that one. The second hot dish, the rice didn't cook all the way so it was unpleasantly crunchy (I used the exact rice called for in the recipe). The one I made this weekend, all the chicken was dried out. Maybe the book is funny, but the meals aren't.

Pat is very funny. I've seen her on stage. Mark Newbauer- Comedian