Hotdish making is serious business if you're from Minnesota. We definitely have a certain order and way we like things done. It's no surprise that we have our own rules when it comes to how we like our hotdish prepared. If you stray away from these hotdish commandments you might encounter a Minnesotan that's not so "nice." Stick with this guide and you'll be good to go!

1. It must contain some type of starch...corn, rice, noodles or potatoes. Sometimes, if you're really creative, you can actually incorporate all of them into one dish...

2. It needs a meat. Minnesotans love their meats. The most popular hotdish meat is hamburger or chicken. Often times, hotdish will even include meat you caught yourself...like venison.

3. It must be served HOT. Hence the whole, "HOTdish" name. If you eat your hotdish cold you're a heathen and you're doing it wrong.  You may as well move to the south and call it casserole.

4. You need to include some type of "cream of something" into your hotdish recipe. Usually that's a cream of chicken, or cream of mushroom soup. It's always hard to find this sacred soup around Easter time in Minnesota.

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5. Jello salad is the best dessert to pair with a hotdish. The two go together like peanut butter and jelly.

6. The only two seasonings you should use are salt and pepper. We're simple folk in Minnesota. Anything more than that takes away from the beauty of the hotdish.

7. It is acceptable to eat your hotdish with ketchup. Yes, we are counting this as a vegetable.

8. The best hotdish recipes come from church cookbooks. That's one of those facts of life.

9. Eating seconds is required. If you're hosting a hotdish dinner, you must plan for people wanting seconds, and sometimes thirds. It's always best to make more than you need...and hotdish makes for great leftovers.

10. It must be called HOTDISH. None of this casserole nonsense. If you call it casserole, we can't be friends.

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