South Dakota is most Neurotic state

[MM_Dandy]

According to KELO, the website Truit has pegged South Dakota as the most neurotic of the all the states. It also believes we are the 3rd most introverted, and the most focused, life-organizationally speaking, whatever the hell that means. Finally, along with North Dakota (aka "Dakota"), the Rushmore State is considered to be the land of the "Friendly Conservative." So, according to one source, we are known as "open, warm, and straightforward," as well as the most likely to go postal on your ass.

Illinois is claimed to be the most competitive state, along with the most flexible in that life-organization category, and that it's citizens are most likely to think in concrete terms rather than in the abstract.

I'm sure there's a lot more, but I couldn't find the original source at Truity.com. So, anybody agree or disagree with what we see here?

[Arneb]

Friendly Conservative...I guess it's no coincidence that category exists only in two of the least-populous states. Never heard of those folks from your side of the pond lately.

[MM_Dandy]

Perhaps it means that we are politely crazy. A little bit like Canada - Oh, dear, please excuse me while I cry uncontrollably over my goulash.*

*Goulash here is not really goulash. This is what you would get if you walked into just about any kitchen in South Dakota serving "goulash."

[Lianachan]

Hmm - doesn't sound much like goulash right enough, and I'd be cautious about any recipe that instructs you to "scrape bottom of frying pan". That said, it doesn't actually sound too bad*.

*I'd prefer proper goulash, though.

[Enzo]

Scrape the bottom? AH, fancier cooks call that deglazing the pan.

Everywhere I have been, when they say goulash, they mean macaroni with a ground beef and tomato sauce on it.

[Heid the Ba]

That would be what us Lowlanders know as "Cheesy macaroni mince", the recipe is still on packets of Marshall's Macaroni.

You don't want to know what my mother used to serve as "mousaka": needless to say I was very surprised the first time I had mousaka in Greece.

[Lance]

I once made up some pretty standard pasta meat sauce and poured it only the only noodles we had in the house at the time; elbows. Cyndi saw it and immediately exclaimed "goulash!" Not to me, but it's funny how food names can vary by region like that.

[MM_Dandy]

I once made up some pretty standard pasta meat sauce and poured it only the only noodles we had in the house at the time; elbows. Cyndi saw it and immediately exclaimed "goulash!" Not to me, but it's funny how food names can vary by region like that.

That's because you can't think in the abstract as well as she can.

[Enzo]

Much as I would love beef wellington for dinner, expedience rears its ugly head, and I like to make one skillet/pot meals a lot. Usually it involves ground beef or pork, always has onions and hot peppers. I might mix that with baked beans, or mix with macaroni and cheese (yes, from a box), it might turn into full blown chili. Might mix into rice.

Rather than struggle with a name, we tend to just call everything "glop." "What kind of glop do you want for dinner, dear? bean glop? Rice glop? Macaroni glop?"

40 some years ago I moved into a hippie commune (the same farm I wound up on alone, and then with the wife). We each had a day of the week that was our day to cook meals for the group. I liked to make bean soup. I prefer a thick hearty bean soup. I often baked corn bread to go with it. some of the others would vocally complain the soup was too thick, not "soupy" enough. So I solved the problem, I quit calling it soup, and started calling it "bean surprise". If their bowl of surprise was too thick, they could dump some water in it, the bastids.

[Lance]

"Glop" huh? Okay, good. Now I know what to call it. I make that a lot.