Nostalgia in Heritage: Lefse and Lutefisk

With Thanksgiving only a couple days away I'm sure you are either busy planning, packing, or working hard so that you can enjoy the holiday.  There's so much that goes into planning for the holidays is no wonder why a lot of people get so stressed.  Life can be stressful and busy on a normal day and then add in the planning a party, hanging out with family you don't always get to see, and traveling and you are just setting yourself up for unforeseen circumstances all around you!  See I get it, I know what you are going through, but instead of being stressed around the holidays let's try focus on what the holidays really are about.  I will be the first to tell you it's not about the food, yes the food is a part of it but it's not everything. It's not about money, entertainment, or even about decorating, those are all just added stress that we put on ourselves to impress the one thing that matters the most, and it's spending time with the ones around you. Appreciating who you have in life and being thankful for all the people that have been of it.  

Each year around this time I start to get sentimental and think about my grandparents.  My grandma passed away around Thanksgiving and she would always make sure we had some heritage at our family feasts!  Since we are Norwegian we would have lefse and lutefisk for our Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts.  

Lutefisk reminds me of my grandpa because of the stories that were associated with it.  If you have never heard of lutefisk it is an air dried white fish that has a very gelatinous texture. I know what you're thinking "Yum", but it was truly as bad as it sounds.  Ours was always served with clarified butter and usually only my grandfather, sometimes my dad and uncle would eat it but we always had to have it on the table.  It got to be almost a right of passage that we had if a friend or newcomer would come to our holiday feast, we would have them at least try the lutefisk and then make jokes about how bad it was in front of our grandpa and then we would all laugh.    

On the counterpart, Lefse reminds me of my grandma.  Lefse is a Norwegian flatbread that is made with potatoes and flour.  My grandma made the best Lefse, I think it was the amount of love that she put in making it because it truly is a labor of love.  You first peel all the potatoes, boil them, and then add in some cream, butter, powdered sugar and chill overnight.  

 

Then you add the flour until it's almost at a pie crust consistency.  You then roll it out very thin, so thin that you can see the writing through the lefse dough,

 

and bake them on griddle.  You let it cook a couple minutes until it starts to brown, and then

turn it over, and do the same on the other side.

After it's done, you put them between tea towels and let them steam and cool.

It takes a couple hours and a lot of patience to rollout all the dough.  But when you are done the first one always has to be eaten to make sure it's alright for the family, so you take some softened butter and sugar and wrap it up to eat.
 

It was so good, I almost forgot to take a picture so here's the last bite!

I remember when I was a senior in college my grandmother started getting very sick in the fall, it came up in many conversations that she needed to teach me how to make lefse since she might not always be around to do it.  I told her that we would have a date on my Thanksgiving break and she could teach me her ways.  Unfortunately, Thanksgiving was too far away and we never got to have that date.  Lucky for me, my grandma had many friends that knew her secrets and I learned to make Lefse just like her, with her recipe.  This past weekend I asked my mom over to come help me make Lefse.  It was great bonding over all that Lefse represents.  My grandparents, the love, and the thankfulness of having such great people in my life, and the lefse was pretty delicious as well. 

So cheers to your Thanksgiving traditions and making new traditions with your family, and reminding yourself that it's not about the food, but the memories that are associated with the food. 

-Cool