Minnesota Prairie Roots

Writing and photography by Audrey Kletscher Helbling

Hotdish & potlucks, oh, so Minnesotan August 4, 2026

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“Bring Some to Share” by Lili Lennox pops color onto the side of Midtown Plaza in downtown Willmar. The mural reflects the cultural diversity of Willmar celebrated through food and community. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo June 2026)

PAGE THROUGH ANY MINNESOTA church cookbook, and you’ll find countless recipes for hotdish.

Leaving a gathering at the Kerkhoven Civic Center with a crockpot. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo June 2026)

Plate up at a Minnesota potluck and you’ll find countless crockpots, cake pans and glass bakeware brimming with hotdish.

Hotdish, a mixture of meat (usually hamburger); vegetables; pasta, rice or tater tots; a binding agent (often a can of cream soup); and sometimes cheddar cheese, is a Minnesota staple. We love our hotdishes, not casseroles, here in the North Star state.

Hotdishes brought to a recent family reunion, including Tater Tot Hotdish in the upper right corner. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo July 2026)

Tater Tot Hotdish is our signature hotdish. Our unofficial state hotdish. The Minnesota Congressional delegation even holds an annual hotdish contest in Washington D.C. Politics are set aside all in the name of a friendly cooking competition among legislators.

In my community, a Hotdish Showdown and sampling are part of the annual Faribault Flannel Formal celebrating all things flannel in the deep of winter.

I seldom make hotdish, with the exception of Chicken Wild Rice Hotdish. But whenever I’m at a potluck, I’ll scoop up whatever creative concoctions cooks prepare.

Bars brought to the Kletscher family reunion. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo July 2026)

Recently I attended my family reunion, an annual gathering of the descendants of Henry and Ida Kletscher. We arrived with our crockpots, our cake pans, our bowls, laying out a buffet of hotdishes, baked beans, salads, bars, desserts and more.

Hotdishes and other hot food prepared for the Kletscher reunion. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo July 2026)

Laura, who raises beef with her husband, my cousin Greg, brought Beef Stroganoff. Mark brought the best baked beans, so delicious I had two helpings. David, as he always does, brought sauerkraut, a nod to our German heritage. And someone brought Tater Tot Hotdish.

A mandarin orange salad and fresh cucumbers served at the family reunion potluck. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo July 2026)

I ate more than I should have. But, hey, how could I not sample the goodness my extended family prepared in their kitchens?

Days before the reunion, the topic of hotdish surfaced at a funeral. No, hotdish was not served as it often is at Minnesota post-funeral luncheons. Rather, hotdish recipes were featured in a family cookbook compiled by my former neighbor, Jan, then displayed at her funeral.

My neighbor Jan’s Tater Tot Hotdish recipe from her personal cookbook. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo July 2026)

G-Jan, as she was known to her grandchildren, with the help of her daughters, pulled together favorite recipes to print and place in a small binder for family. Her recipe box was also displayed. Among those recipes, hotdish. Goulash. Italian Hotdish. And then the “KIDS LOVE IT,” Jan noted, Tatertot (sic) Hotdish.

The Belview Bar & Grill promoted the day’s specials, including Tater Tot Hotdish. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo)

No food truly says “Minnesota” more than hotdish. We take pride in this dish referred to as a “casserole” in other parts of the country. “Hotdish” sounds less stuffy, more down-home, a word that fits Minnesotans. Especially when you toss in tater tots.

© Copyright 2026 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

From Belview: A taste of small town Minnesota November 13, 2019

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Looking to the south in downtown Belview.

 

TOO MUCH TIME HAS PASSED since I’ve explored small towns with my camera. Things happens and we get diverted by more important matters that require our full attention. So life goes. But life is settling somewhat now and I have time to pause and take in the nuances of places, which I love to document.

This past weekend Randy and I traveled 2.5 hours west to my native Redwood County to visit my mom in a senior living center. But before we pulled into Parkview, we swung through the heart of Belview, population around 350. It’s a small farming community on the southwestern Minnesota Prairie.

 

The sandwich board caught my attention as we drove by.

 

Belview did not disappoint. I spotted a sandwich board outside the Belview Bar & Grill that required a stop and a few quick photos. The sign was, oh, so Minnesotan with a menu listing that included Tater Tot Hotdish. We joke about our hotdishes here in Minnesota. That would be casseroles to those of you who live elsewhere. Hotdish ingredients here lean to hamburger, pasta/rice/tater tots and a creamy soup (mushroom/chicken/celery) to bind everything together. Spices? Salt and pepper.

 

The sign also promoted the University of Minnesota Gophers football game at 11 that morning. The Gophers went on to defeat Penn State.

 

At some point in Minnesota culinary lore, Tater Tot Hotdish became our signature hotdish. I don’t know that it still holds such high esteem. I much prefer Minnesotan Amy Thielen’s more savory and complicated Classic Chicken Wild Rice Hotdish.

 

While I’ve not eaten at the Belview Bar & Grill, I will always choose a home-grown eatery over a chain.

 

But others, I expect, still embrace the basics of that solid and comforting tater tot-topped hotdish. Belview Bar & Grill advertised the dish, along with chili and beef stew, as hunters’ specials. That would be deer hunting. I saw a few orange-attired hunters in Belview, including two who stopped at the senior care center to drop off lunch for an employee.

These are the small town stories I love. Stories that I discover simply by observing, by listening, by gathering photos that document everyday life.

© Copyright 2019 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Post Super Bowl thoughts from southern Minnesota February 5, 2018

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I started my Super Bowl Sunday (after attending worship services) by dining at the Faribault Lions Club Super Sunday Pancake & Sausage Feed with my husband, Randy, and his brother. Neil was on his way home to Missouri after visiting family in Minnesota for the weekend. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo 2015.

 

FOR ME TO STAY UP past 11 p.m. rates as rare. But I did last night. Until nearly 12:30 a.m. Monday. I wanted to watch The Tonight Show from Minneapolis, ending way too much time for me in front of the TV on Super Bowl Sunday. But, you know, when the championship game plays out in your home state, you get caught up in the excitement—even if you don’t much care about sports, which I don’t. I finally have it down that a touchdown earns a team six points.

 

Not a ref from the Super Bowl…image used here for illustration only. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo 2015.

 

During past Super Bowls, I’ve focused primarily on the commercials and the half-time show. I still did this year. But, for the first time ever, I watched most of the game. Except for the 33 minutes and 35 seconds I missed when my Wisconsin daughter called during the third and fourth quarters. Family trumps football any day, even on Super Bowl Sunday.

 

Icy cold beer served up in a Minnesota Vikings mug chilled in the snow. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo.

 

It was an exciting game. I found myself rooting for the underdog Philadelphia Eagles, even if they kept the Vikings from the biggest game in football and even though I can’t stand those creepy dog masks worn by some Eagles fans. I did, though, feel, for New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who has a strong Minnesota connection via his mom, born and raised here. Up until a few weeks ago, I’d never heard of Brady. That just shows how much of a football fan I am not.

As for that half-time show…I’m not raving like most are about Justin Timberlake’s performance. But then I’m not a Timberlake, nor a Prince (gasp), fan. Unfamiliar with the songs performed, I couldn’t understand the lyrics. And when Minneapolis lit up in purple during half-time, I didn’t even notice the Prince symbol displayed.

 

Two weeks ago a major storm dumped 16 inches of snow on Faribault and other parts of Minnesota. Snow also fell on Super Bowl weekend. But it is the cold, below zero temps and minus double digit windchills that marked the weather. I was delighted with the weather, which played perfectly off Minnesota’s Super Bowl tag as the “Bold North.” Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo January 2018.

 

I saw many, but not all, of the commercials. My favorites focused on the theme of bringing our country together in an especially divisive year. Strength. Unity. Togetherness. Diversity. I especially liked T-Mobile’s “Little Ones” spot featuring babies of multiple ethnicities paired with empowering words. Most, but not all, of these social cause ads worked for me. In the didn’t like/work would be the Dodge Ram Truck ad using the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I didn’t appreciate his inspiring words used for a commercial purpose.

TurboTax nailed the humor, at least for me, with ads themed on convincing viewers they have nothing to fear in doing their taxes. A monster creeping from under a bed, a ghost in an attic—both were memory relatable. I just hope no little kids got scared.

The Mucinex spot that zoned in on post Super Bowl Monday as a sick day also tickled my funnybone and, in a round-about way, connected to that daughter who called me during the game. Thirty years ago she also used boogers to illicit laughter. “How do you make a Kleenex dance?” she asked kids and parents during a family skate time at a (now closed) Faribault rollerskating rink. “You put a little boogie in it,” she delivered in her sweet preschool voice.

 

A wonderful blend of textures is presented in Wild Rice Hotdish, another popular Minnesota dish. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo.

 

A year from now I likely will have forgotten who played in Super Bowl LII. I will have forgotten the record low game time kick-off temp of one degree above zero. (An effort is underway to collect cold weather gear for Minnesota homeless from Super Bowl attendees returning to warm weather destinations via “Pass Your Parkas.”)  I will have forgotten the Mucinex and other commercials. I will have forgotten who performed at half-time. I will have forgotten how Jimmy Fallon gushed about Minneapolis and the Tater Tot Hotdish (not casserole) served to him by a Champlin family. But that memory of my sweet preschooler—now a grown woman—telling that joke about boogers, that I still, and will always, remember.

© Copyright 2018 Audrey Kletscher Helbling