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Friday, December 23, 2016

Lefse (but no Lutefisk!)

Well, it's the night-before-the-night-before Christmas!  The lefse is ready to bring to the family Christmas Eve.  Every year when my girls and I make the lefse, I tell them again how my grandma made lefse on a wood stove.  We regulate the griddle easily - can you imagine regulating the temperature of a wood stove?  And, Grandma said they made the lefse on Christmas Eve Day along with the rest of the food.  Boy, we don't know how good we have it, do we?


In later years, my Grandma and her brother would get together on Christmas Day and make lutefisk and lefse.  Grandma's apartment STUNK, but they loved it.  I've tried it and can stand just a small portion of lutefisk, but I don't go out of my way to make it OR have it.  Lefse, on the other hand, is a MUST for Christmas Eve.  I butter and sugar it (white sugar is the tradition, but I prefer brown), and roll it up and cut into pieces for everyone to have.  I mostly prefer lefse warmed in the microwave wrapped around some ham!  

EDITED TO ADD:  It has been brought to my attention that not everyone knows what Lefse and Lutefisk are!  Ha - never thought about that.  Lefse is like a tortilla - but it's made with butter, mashed potatoes and flour, and rolled out to fry on a hot griddle.  Lutefisk is a whitefish soaked in lye, and has a gel-like texture to eat.  It was very smelly in the past, but that seems to have been improved and doesn't smell quite so bad these days.  In any case, that gel-like texture is what is such a turn-off for me - the flavor is very bland!

This year I did something fun, and mailed a package of lefse to my 2nd cousin.  (Twice removed or something like that.)  She is the granddaughter of my Grandma's brother that shared lutefisk and lefse with my Grandma.  We met one summer when we were about 14 or so, and have always stayed in touch as pen pals (she lives in another state), and now on Facebook.  She, too, remembers her grandpa and my grandma having lefse at Christmas.  It was fun to mail her a surprise package of homemade lefse, and she was excited to receive it.  I think our grandparents would be happy to know that we're still in touch!  

Our traditions keep changing, but making the lefse always gets done!  (Skip the lutefisk, thanks.)

Merry Christmas!

1 comment:

  1. Interesting! I don't know those foods. Are they of Scandanavian origin? I like that you and your cousin however many times removed keep in touch and remember your grandparents tradition!

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