30 Oct You’ve picked your President, but have you picked your Election Night meal?

If you’re anything like us, your ballot has already been cast and you’re thinking about what you’ll be eating Tuesday night as the polls close. Regardless of which candidates are victorious, it’s important to remember: this is America and you’re free to feast (or famine) on the food of your choosing in front of your TV on election night.

We’ll be feasting on bi-partisan recipes from the Story Farm-published cookbook United We Eat: 50 Great American Dishes To Bring Us All Together by Capri S. Cafaro, a national news correspondent and former Ohio Senate Minority Leader. United We Eat features recipes and photos representing all 50 states with contributions from well-known political leaders from both sides of the aisle, who share their favorite dishes for bringing people together during these tumultuous times.

No cuisine could pair more perfectly with a year than comfort food does with 2020. Fittingly, we’ll be gorging in Senator Amy Klobuchar’s (D-MN) Taconite Tater Tot Hotdish on election night. Each year Klobuchar and her congressional colleagues from the North Star State come together  for  the “Minnesota Delegation Hotdish Competition”, where the politicians fight for bragging rights over who makes the best version of the classic comfort dish typically served during the winter months. In 2011, at the inaugural Hotdish Competition, Klobuchar took top honors with her decadent take on the midwestern masterpiece (recipe below).

For dessert we’re going with Michael Steele’s recipe for Smith Island Cake. As the former chairman of the Republican National Committee describes the cake, “Smith Island is a small fishing community located 10 miles offshore in the Chesapeake Bay. In the 1800s, the wives of Smith Island fishermen would make this cake as a way to remind the men of life at home while they were at sea. Over the years more layers were added and the layers got thinner and thinner to become the cake we love to make here in Maryland today.”

Now stop drooling and go vote if you haven’t done so already!

Taconite Tater Tot Hotdish

Serves 10

1 pound ground beef

1 can (8 ounces) cream of mushroom soup

1 can (8 ounces) cream of chicken soup

1 small yellow onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 cup shredded pepper jack cheese

1 bag (32 ounces) frozen tater tots

Salt (to taste)

Pepper (to taste)

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. In a skillet over medium heat, brown ground beef, drain off fat. Set beef aside.
3. In the same skillet over medium heat, sauté onions and garlic until translucent. Approximately 5 minutes.
4. In a large bowl mix together beef, onions, garlic, both cans of soup, salt, and pepper.
5. Spread mixture evenly on the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish. Cover with half of the shredded cheese.
6. Place tater tops in one layer over the mixture and cheese.
7. Bake at 450 degrees for 30 minutes, or until tater tots are crisp and remove from oven.
8. Cover with remaining cheese and bake until cheese melts, approximately 5 minutes.

Smith Island Cake

Vanilla Cake

2 cups sugar

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, cut into chunks

5 eggs

3 cups flour

¼ teaspoon salt

1 heaping teaspoon baking powder

1 cup evaporated milk

2 teaspoons vanilla

½ cup water

Chocolate Icing for the Ten Layers

2 cups sugar

1 cup evaporated milk

5 ounces unsweetened chocolate

1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a mixing bowl, cream together sugar and butter using an electric mixer.
3. Add eggs one at a time and beat until smooth.
4. Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder. Mix into egg mixture one cup at a time.
5. With mixer running, slowly pour in evaporated milk, then vanilla and water. Mix until uniform.
6. Using a serving spoon, spread three spoonsful of batter into 10 individual 9-inch lightly greased pans, using the back of the spoon to spread evenly. Bake 3 layers at a time on the middle rack of the oven at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. A layer is done when you hold it near your ear and you don’t hear it sizzle. (Start making the icing when the first layers go in the oven. Put the cake together as the layers are finished.)
7. To make the icing, pour sugar and evaporated milk into a medium pan. Cook over medium-low heat until warm, stirring constantly.
8. Add chocolate and cook to melt. Once chocolate has melted, add butter.
9. Cook over medium heat at a slow boil for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
10. When combined, add vanilla. Icing will be thin, but will thicken as it cools.
11. As each batch finishes baking, let layers cool for 3 minutes in the pans. Run a spatula around the edge of the pan and ease each layer out of the pan. Don’t worry if it tears; no one will notice when the cake is finished.
12. Use 2-3 serving spoonsful of icing between each layer. Alternate cake and icing until all ten layers have been assembled.
13. Cover the top and sides of the cake with the rest of the icing. Push icing that runs onto the plate back onto the cake.