Announcing…Hot Dish!

Oh fer yummy! If you’re a Minnesotan, you don’t need this photo to be reminded of the glory that is Hot Dish (that’s casserole, for you Illinois folks)– just the words themselves take you back to the hot dishes of your past… oh the corn-flake-topped beauties, the cream of mushroom soup surprises, the chicken a la tater tots. A good life is one with many hot dishes.

But the title of this post doesn’t just refer to what we’re having for dinner. We’re actually announcing a storytelling series that we’re going to start in Minneapolis: Hot Dish… a Story Farm event. It’ll be an evening of short, candid, raw, storytelling, by amateurs and professional storytellers who just have to share that one story… you know the one, the story about the time that we found a mink in the attic, and Dad had to stab it with a pitchfork…. or whatever. The theme of our first Hot Dish event might be “You Know You’re A Midwesterner If…” or it might be “In the Kitchen.” We have yet to decide. But we’re considering doing such an event as our first Story Farm workshop in Minneapolis– that way, I can take the audio from the event and weave it into something we can pitch to MPR or something. Or, at the very least, it’s something we could share with you via podcast. Oh, and yes, I do realize we’re totally stealing the idea for this sort of event. But I think it’s fair game. The more events like this, the better!

In the meantime, I encourage you to ponder the many meanings of Hot Dish, including the one that means “sexy chick,” which I have to thank my mom for pointing out– it never would have occurred to me. I was thinking “dish,” like, “spill your guts,” but well, some of us have dirty minds.

In other news, have you checked out our new StoryMap? It’s not much to look at yet, but well, Matt, Casey, Anna Belle, Julie Johnson… we’re counting on you! Upload your photos or haikus please. It could be very cool. So, very… new media.