Spooky Link Love

• I'm craptastic at coming up with Halloween costume ideas, but the lovely Annabelle at Shopping Detox is a master!  She's clearly been thinking about this for a long time, while I hastily borrowed a nun costume from a friend simply because it was free, comfortable and warm.  That's all I care about, man.  But if you're not like me, then spend some time with Annabelle.
• I think I found my new source for kick-ass recipes!  Peas and Thank You has scads of delicious recipes, and they're all vegetarian!!!!  This is terribly exciting for me, and I'll let you know how this turns out: 

Curried Sweet Tater Tot Casserole

OMG, I salivate just looking at that.

Here is a story about why I'm extra excited to eat this: Where I'm from, we call casserole Hotdish.  Scoff if you want, but no other word so perfectly sums up what you're eating than the word Hotdish.  Hotdish comes in a plethora of flavors--indeed it's among the most versatile foods, but one of my all time favorites has always been Tator Tot Hotdish.

Each family has a different version of this  dish,
and ours did not include french fried onions,
but you get the gist of it.

Trouble is, Tator Tot Hotdish, or Totdish as I prefer to call it, is made with ground beef, which I stopped eating when I was 15!  I tried, last year, to make a Totdish with the fake beef substitute, but it was just not quite right (though I did eat it all).  This curried sweet potato variety is just different enough and just delicious enough sounding, that I think my longing will all go away!  I'll let you know!

• By now you're probably sick of hearing me ramble on about the American Midwest, so here's the perspective of a recent transplant on the blog Becoming Midwestern.