to think there is something wrong with Americans?

[TheBloodManCometh]

In Colorado, here for 5 weeks.

Why the HELL is there a half inch gap on either side of the door in all public toilets?? You can see everything going on!!!
This has been the case everywhere I've been in America?
AIBU to be both baffled and embarrassed

lighthearted btw. I don't really think there's something wrong with the Americans

I'm not sure anyone actually likes casseroles, or ever did. But they're cheap and they feed a lot of people on a budget. So they end up at potlucks and BBQ's all the time.

Now the big thing (at least where I am) is quiche dishes.

Yes, the classic green bean casserole recipe! But otherwise no, I never use canned soups as bases. I think of that as more of late 70s/80s thing.

I like casseroles, though I never eat them now, but I was raised on them and thought they were terrific.

I always sift flour.

Actually the secret of making really, really good brownies without making them from scratch? Sift the brownie mix. Yeah baby.

My mum (uk) used to cook using Campbell's chicken soup all the time. I used to as well until I became vegi. I think it was an 80s thing.

Read this thread in one sitting and have travelled from revolting toilets to delicious cakes with other topics in between , never seen such a diverse thread ever on AIBU !

Just came back to catch up on thread and thought I had clicked on the GBBO thread by mistake.

Is there a GABO?

In the 80s we (in the UK) used to use the condensed mushroom soup to fill vol au vent cases for parties. We thought that was the height of sophistication .

Well, I live in Minnesota, land of the hot dish! (Casseroles are called hot dishes here.) I don't use cream of soups much...usually make my own with white sauce etc if recipes call for it. That's why people do it...in the fifties the cre soups were advertised as a quick replacement for making your own white sauce and flavorings.

Tater tot hotdish requires Cream of Mushroom soup though. It just does. It looks like vomit but it's divine. They serve it once a month in school even as it's part of our heritage. :o

Tell us more of tater tot soup. Are tater tots potato croquettes? All I know of them comes from napoleon dynamite.

i think of a casserole as like a stew - the ones you see on pinterest etc that are clearly US recipes i would call a "bake", so "chicken pasta bake" for example

I just googled it and found this recipe by this terrifying looking family. duggarsblog.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/duggars-tater-tot-casserole.html?m=1

Tater tot casserole? Fellow Americans, you've gone Too Far.

Tater tots are like shredded potato formed into little potato nuggets. The stuff of school hot lunches, and not to be trusted.

My sister lived in Iowa so I was introduced to tater tot hot dish on a visit for her birthday. Someone brought it to the party with birthday candles in it.

i love it scone

for dp's next birthday i'm going to do the candles in a cottage pie!

It's a bit like a bastardized shepherd's pie. :o

Ground beef, veggies (I like green beans myself, or mixed green beans, carrots, and corn), some diced onion and garlic, all browned together in a pan.

Then you mix in cream of mushroom soup, put it in a greased pan. Shredded cheddar cheese on top. Then you top it with tater tots. (Which are just round puffy chip type things...yes like croquettes. Or potato puffs, I've heard them called?) Then it is ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL that you sprinkle seasoned salt over the top.

Then you bake at 350 until it's all bubbly and the the tater tots are crisp.

It is the food of the gods when you've been fishing/playing hockey on a frozen lake all day in -30 temps! :o Or, you know, for potluck in the Lutheran Church basement.

I am every Minnesotan stereotype ever.

Pipbin never listen to the Duggars about anything. Anything. Ever.

Oh Pipbin you've never seen a Duggar bashing thread on here? Keep an eye out, one will come up before long, they're always fun (and yes they are as scary as they look).

Interesting about bake vs casserole. For me casserole and stew are almost interchangeable except that a stew is specifically to use up tough pieces of meat, not much extra flavouring added other than the flavour from the meat itself and the vegetables, maybe some herbs or something, whereas a casserole is a bit posher and has extra flavourings like wine, beer, mustard, perhaps cream (although cream is probably more stroganoff territory)

Tater tots sound like hash browns. I always thought they were like potato croquettes.

Also, erm, interesting name considering we're on an American thread, but did anyone else call potato croquettes potato faggots or have I totally imagined that? I swear that's what my dad, and the dinner ladies at school used to call them.

Hashbrowns and tater tots are secretly the same thing, in different shapes. And hashbrowns you would do on a griddle (pan thing, not the oven type I've just learned of from the other thread, which we call a broiler) while I think tater tots are deep fried?

broiler = grill yes?

now i think of it, what is a broiler chicken? is it intended for broiling/grilling? which seems weird because i don't think you would grill a whole chicken

Hash browns here are either just shredded potatoes, or a patty like thing.

Tater tots are puffs. Like little cylindrical things. I'm trying to link a picture from wiki but this stupid phone won't let me. :(

They're not good for you, especially if fried (they're usually baked though) but taste delicious.

When I switch my oven to broil the heat comes from the top rather than the bottom.

Interesting about the tots. I'd never heard of these until I started watching 'Eat Street' on the Food Channel (in the UK). I may now be slightly hopelessly addicted to sitting open-mouthed in wonder at the ever more outré dishes available from US food trucks.

I particularly remember the one where all the food, dripping with butter, cheese and everything delicious-but-bad-for-you was served in actual dog bowls...

You broil broken down chicken, not an intact one. So like shove chicken breasts/thighs with some seasoning under the broiler, flip them halfway through.