Never Too Old To Learn!

Want to hear a good story?  Want to hear about how stupid I have been all these years?  Today I decided to take down the Christmas tree since it is 28 below zero outside and I have nothing better to do.  Well, I finally got a solution to a yearly problem:  how to store all those Christmas ornament hooks!  Every year it's the same problem - the hooks are a jumbled mess.  I have tried leaving the hooks on the ornaments, but they mostly fall off and become a jumbled mess in the box anyway.  Every year I shake the mass of jumbled hooks and a few come loose and I continue on this way until the tree is decorated.   This year I decided there has to be a better way.   Since I am such a traditional thinker, I'm not very good at thinking "outside the box".   So I tried Google for an answer.   I discovered that others had the same problem, but not many answers.  One guy said he put the ornament hooks on a piece of tape and rolled it up every year.   I thought that would be a real mess next year and didn't like his idea.  So I asked my husband Harold if he had any ideas.   He quickly said:  "Why don't you just stick them into something, like styrofoam?"  Wow!  Ding, ding, ding!!!  What an idea!  Then I had a good laugh at myself for not thinking of this sooner!  Sometimes things are just SO obvious, ya know?  Here I am, soon to be 70 years old in a few months, and I finally figure out how to store those things!   Thank you Harold!   What a clever guy he is.  Those of you who already do this, go ahead and have a good laugh at my expense.  Those of you who have the same problem, well........maybe I helped you?
    Here is the problem:

The yearly jumble of ornament hooks. 

And here is the solution:

Use those styrofoam trays that meats and produce come with to stick the hooks into.  Each tray will fit into a gallon ziplock baggie for storage.  Another good use for recycling those trays, too!

So here I am, almost 70 yrs old and I finally learn something new about Christmas ornament storage.   Sometimes I wonder..............
P.S.  William, if you are reading this, no comments about Polish, please!

Trying To Stay Warm In "Siberia"

Even by Minnesota winter standards, this week and this upcoming weekend is going to be one for the record books.   Although I probably shouldn't say that - back in 1996 we had an air temperature of minus 63 F, that's -63F degrees!!  That was the air temperature, not the wind chill!  I certainly remember that year.  But this whole week will be very cold.  Here is the prediction for the Fargo area, and we are usually about 10 degrees colder than they are:   high/low for the day

• Today

  Dec 27

  -3° /-9°F

  Bitterly cold with sunshine

• Thu

  Dec 28

  5° /-20°

  Cloudy with a bit of snow

  More

• Fri

  Dec 29

  -9° /-27°

  Bitterly cold with some sun

  More

• Sat

  Dec 30

  -17° /-33°

  Frigid with periods of sun

  More

• Sun

  Dec 31

  -18° /-26°

   

  As you can see on Saturday this means we will be about minus 43 degrees.   Sometimes we are even colder back here in the woods.    Ah Minnesota!  Land of the frozen chosen!  But we all love it up here - the air is so "fresh".    We learn how to survive the cold.  The rest of the country gets crazy when temps go almost to freezing.  We just laugh about that up here.   People often ask us how we can live in those cold temps.   Well, you dress warm, burn plenty of wood (or other fuel ), plug in your cars and trucks and tractors (and in small towns you can leave your vehicles running while you are doing errands in town), and you make sure any animals you have are protected.  Our homes are well insulated, we dress in layers, AND you just get used to it! 

  

  My car is plugged in to insure it will start on these cold mornings.  The heater is attached to the bottom radiator hose.  On some cars the heater is attached to the engine block.  There are other various ways to attach heaters to a car or truck or tractor to make sure it will start.  The other morning we had minus 30 below zero, and my car started up just fine.  We don't have a garage, so this is the next best thing we can do! (Look at our winter beehives in the background)

  
  

  

  Our outdoor wood burning stove that runs our radiant floor heat inside, is burning nicely!   Good thing Harold cut plenty of firewood when it was warmer.  We go through about 10 cords of wood each winter to heat our home.  The radiant floor heat is in the basement cement floor in coils, so the whole house is nice and toasty. 

   

  
  

  

  My farm cats survive in their outdoor cat house.  Inside their house is a large insulated wooden box with lots of thick blankets in it.  We have hay bales inside and out front, too.  This weekend we will put a heater in the cage you see pictured by the side of the house and put it inside also.  This way the cats cannot get to the heater, but it will heat things up a little more inside for them.   The snow also insulates the entire house.  You can also see our beehives in the background.  They also have heaters and thermostats in them, so hopefully the bees are doing well!

  

  A closer look at my cats sunning themselves this morning while the outside temperature was 20 below zero.

  So we Minnesotans have fattened up nicely during the holidays, and we're ready for the hibernation months of January and February!  We'll drink lots of hot black coffee and talk about "how cold it is" outside ..............and that's how we survive the winter! 

Learning How To Make Swedish Flatbread

Today Harold and I went to visit our friends Bill and Pat who live about an hour and a half northeast of us.   They live in the beautiful pine country of northern Minnesota.  Pat makes an excellent Swedish flatbread (but she is of some Norwegian heritage), and she taught me how to make it today.  Flatbreads are made by many Scandinavian Nordic folks in a variety of ways.  They are all pretty much the same:  large rounds of thin, crisp crackerbread that is broken into pieces to eat.   They are made with a variety of grains and buttermilk, a little leavening,  and a bit of sugar and salt.  Flatbread is very good just buttered, but I suppose a person could also put a little cheese or a thin slice of meat on top, too.  Flatbread is made similar to lefse, but no potatoes are involved, and the dough is cooked to a crisp, and further dried with a short baking in an oven.  These flatbreads can be stored indefinitely in a tin.  I don't know about the "indefinite" part, though, because they sure don't last long around my house!  Last year Pat gave us some as a Christmas gift and I can tell you they didn't last more than a day or two - they are so delicious.
     Before we began the flatbread making, we started off with a nice lunch!   You need energy to make flatbread, right?

Bill, Pat and Harold pictured here.  That's not wine - she is pouring out sparkling apple cider!  She had a delicious lunch of vegetable lasagna, salads, garlic bread and desserts. 

 Then we began the flatbread making:

The ingredients for making Flatbread:  corn mix, graham flour, regular wheat flour, buttermilk, sugar and salt.  You also need a rolling pin and a long lefse stick, and a plain ungreased griddle.

The dough is mixed in a large bowl, first by spoon, then by hand.

Pat sections off the dough in one inch thick slices.

The dough is rolled out on a well floured cloth, with a regular rolling pin, as thinly as possible without tearing or making holes.  Because there is a little baking soda in the dough, the rounds end up being somewhat thicker than lefse, about the thickness of a thin saltine.

The dough is baked on a hot 450-500 degree dry grill until there are light brown spots on both sides and the dough is no longer raw.   It is then placed on a cookie sheet in a 300 degree oven for just a few minutes, turning once.   The flatbreads are then placed on a rack to dry out until completely crisp.

One finished flatbread cooling on the rack.

We are finished!  The stack of about 15 flatbreads is ready to store now.

A closer look at the stack of crispy flatbreads before we broke them into pieces for storing.

Two tins of flatbread pieces I got to take home!  They are so good just buttered and eaten with a cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate or cider.   When you want just a "little something" to eat with a hot beverage, Swedish Flatbread can't be beat!  It has a nice grainy taste, and is only slightly sweet.  

Here is the recipe as Pat gave to me:

Swedish Flatbread

1 box cornmeal muffin mix(I use Jiffy)

1 C. Graham flour

1C. white flour

1 C. buttermilk

1 tsp. soda

1 T. plus 1 tsp. sugar (add a little more if you want it sweeter)

Roll out thin and fry until light brown on lefsa griddle at 500 Degrees

Place on cookie sheet in 300 degree oven until it starts to harden . It gets stiff like cardboard.

Cool and break into pieces.  

Makes about 12 to 15 rounds, depending on how big you make them.

Lefse Day!

As any good, true Minnesotan knows, lefse and Christmas go hand in hand!  This Scandinavian specialty is eaten by the thousands (probably hundreds of thousands) by Minnesotans during December.   Even those of us who are not Scandinavian enjoy these treats.  Lefse is just plain good!  The Norwegians like to eat it with lutefisk - cod soaked in lye and then boiled to death until it is a gelatinous mess - but we won't go there.   Real Norwegians tell you that lutefisk is good if it is properly prepared.   The smell of it alone is enough to put most folks off.  But I digress.........
     At Christmas time lefse makes a good lunch or snack with tea or coffee.  It is usually spread with lots of butter, then either white or brown sugar, then rolled up and eaten out of hand.   Lefse is sort of like a potato tortilla.   Eating lefse during the holidays is almost a sacred ritual with most Scandinavians.   Recipes and techniques are handed down through the generations, and everyone says "Grandma's was the best".   I never ate lefse before coming to Minnesota, but when I tried it for the first time I KNEW I had to learn to make it!  I am 100% Polish heritage, so learning to make lefse was a new thing for me.   I didn't have any Norwegian grandmothers to show me anything.   The first time I learned about lefse making was from a square dance caller's wife many years ago.  I read lots of cookbooks and watched videos on the internet and tried my hand at lefse making over the years.   I also watched a Swedish lady from our church make lefse one day in her kitchen.  I eventually got pretty good at it, if I say so myself!  One day I had a couple of Norwegian heritage fellows (guys) over at my house.   I gave them some of my lefse to try and asked for their opinion.    They said it was "pretty good" and that I got it "nice and thin" - which is about as complimentary as any Scandinavian will get!  They ate lots of it anyway.   So it must have been OK.   Even pet dogs and cats love lefse around this time of year!  My farm cats go nuts over it.   They get the sort of overcooked pieces and those that are not shaped good.   They aren't fussy!

Today my neighbor and good friend Marlene came over to help me make lefse.  I made sure she took plenty home with her.

Here is Marlene rolling out the dough.

She transfers the rolled out piece to the hot griddle with a special long "lefse stick".  Stores around Minnesota sell these griddles, usually made by Bethany House, and also all the other equipment for making lefse.

This is what a nice thin piece of rolled out lefse looks like on the griddle.

When both sides have little brown spots and the dough is no longer moist, usually a minute on a 425 degree griddle, the lefse is folded in half and placed between towels to soften.

I like to put a warm, moist towel over the top of the pile of towels.  I find that the moist heat helps to soften the lefse quickly.  This way you can eat them sooner!!

Marlene holds a piece of perfectly cooked lefse ready to eat!  Thank you for your help today, Marlene!

This is equipment you must have for successful lefse making:  a well floured cloth (be sure to tape it down good to your surface) , a special grooved rolling pin with a stocking cover, and a long thin stick for transferring dough from the cloth to the griddle.   The dough is made into small patties. 

A close up of one of the patties of dough, ready to roll out.  You can see small pieces of potato are still visible in the dough, but these will flatten out with the grooved rolling pin.

This is what the rolled out lefse looks like before going onto the griddle.  It should be rolled as thinly as possible.   Old Scandinavian grandmothers say the dough should be thin enough to "read the newspaper through".   Transferring the dough from the floured cloth to the griddle can be tricky if your cloth isn't floured enough.   This is why the long thin stick is used.

Here is what the rolling pin looks like under the stocking cover.   The grooves in the rolling pin give the lefse the traditional crosshatched look.  I see where a little bit of dough got stuck to the grooves through the stocking cover.   I will have some cleaning to do with a stiff brush!

A couple years ago someone gave me this cookbook of 91 Ways to Serve Lefse!  The traditional way is still the best, but this book does have some interesting variations.  (Like rolling it up with meats or cheeses or spreads)

If you are interested in making lefse and you can get the required equipment, here is the recipe I use:
4 cups of riced potatoes - yes, you must use a special potato ricer!!
1/3 c. butter
1/2 cream - I use Half and Half. 
1 tsp. salt
1 T. sugar
Flour as needed. 

Peel the potatoes and boil them just until tender.  Drain well.  I use a colander for this, and then put the potatoes back into the hot pan to dry out a little more on the hot burner for a while before putting them through the ricer.  Measure the 4 cups of riced potatoes by gently putting them into a measuring cup - don't pack down too hard.   Meanwhile heat the butter, cream and salt and sugar until very hot.  Mix this into the riced potatoes and refrigerate overnight.
     Next day - the potato mix must be cold - add 1/2 cup of flour for each cup of riced potatoes.  You might need just a little more, but not too much.  Too much flour makes for "tough" lefse.   Mix with your hands and form into balls or patties using about 1/4 cup of potato mix.  This is the messy part!  Put these on a plate or tray and refrigerate them, removing only one ball at a time to work with. 
     Using a large cloth or one of those special lefse rolling cloths they sell at the hardware stores, flour it well.  Roll out each ball into a very thin circle.  Transfer to the griddle and brown one side (about a minute or less) and use the stick to flip it over to cook the other side.  Put cooked lefse between towels.  Store in a refrigerator.  To serve, lefse can be reheated in a microwave for a short time if you like warm lefse.
Makes about 16 pieces. 
You must use dry type of potatoes like russets.  Don't boil your potatoes too long, as they will be too moist.
There are lots of recipes and You Tube videos of lefse making on the internet, too.

Here is a cute poem I found regarding lefse:  (some Scandinavian lefse humor)
Yew tak yust ten big potatoes
Den yew boil dem til dar don.
Yew add to dis some sveet cream
And by cups it measures vun.

Den yew steal 'tree ounces of butter
And vit two fingers pench some salt.
Yew beat dis wery lightly
If it ain't gude it is your fault.

Den yew roll dis tin vit flour
An' light brown on stove yew bake.
Now call in all Scandihuvians
Tew try da fine lefse yew make!
..................ya, you bet'cha uff da!

And here is a nice piece of today's lefse ready to eat:

Yum!  Buttered and rolled up with brown sugar and slightly warm...........I'm going to grab a cup of coffee!

December Busyness!

So far this has been a real busy month for us.   It's been enjoyable "fun busyness" for me, and "hard work" busyness for Harold!  He has been working on our old black pickup, Chevy Silverado 1993 vintage.  It had various problems, but he discovered the real problem was a blown head gasket.  Harold said he could fix this himself, and proceeded to buy $108 dollars worth of parts to fix the problem.   Now the poor old Chevy has her guts all over his shop, and he has been working for days to disassemble, clean, and put back together the engine.  He had most of the tools needed, but had to borrow a torque wrench from a neighbor.   Two of our neighborhood guys have been stopping by to help Harold and give advice.  We can't afford a new truck, and even a good used one is beyond our means right now, so hopefully Harold can fix "old blackie".  We need something with 4 wheel drive out here where we live, for winter driving.  My16 yr old car and our other pickup doesn't have 4 wheel drive.   So we really need our Silverado to be fixed.   I have confidence in Harold - he can do anything!

Here is what he is working on - looks like a confusing mish-mash to me!

Poor old "blackie" is all torn apart in his shop.

Harold is hard at work on the engine.

He is smiling anyway!  Things must be going well!

Harold took a picture of me working on the engine!  Um.......I think this photo would be considered "fake news" for sure!

Harold keeps his shop nice and warm with this old barrel stove.

So while Harold is working away in his shop, I am busy at home baking and decorating and cooking and just enjoying everything about Christmas!  I love to try new recipes, make new things to decorate the house with, and spend evenings reading from the many shelves of Christmas books I have collected over the years.   A cup of tea or hot cider, and a good Christmas story book and sitting in my comfy chair in the library - that's so relaxing!

I have 3 large shelves of Christmas books, as well as several Christmas cookbooks on other shelves.

One of my favorite things to do is bake cookies:

Here is a batch of favorite Peanut Blossom Cookies.

The house is so cozy now with lights and decorations all over.  Every year I put my village houses in the bay window.

Here is one view of my village in the window.

Here is a view looking the other way.

This year I put the tree in our dining area.   I've had this same artificial tree for 17 years now.  A few years ago I crocheted the tree skirt for it.

And of course, it wouldn't be Christmas without my favorite candy!  I just love those raspberry filled hard candies.   A person can only buy them around the holidays.  So this year I bought 7 bags of them! (should last me a while!)    I remember my grandfather always had these in a candy dish at his house at Christmas and I ate plenty of them as a kid.

My absolute favorite Christmas candy!  Raspberry filled hard candies!

The remaining time until Christmas will be spent mailing out packages of goodies to family and friends, and doing a little more cooking and baking.  We usually have neighbors over for coffee almost every day, and so far the cookies and goodies have been disappearing quickly!  This gives me another excuse to bake!  Later this week I will make lefsa and pierogies.
     So many folks get stressed out during the holidays, but I try to enjoy every aspect of the season.  This coming Sunday our church is having a Christmas program.  I will be playing special music for that on the organ and bowed psaltery.  We are having a special holiday pot luck, too.  During the week I listen to my collection of Christmas CD's on the radio/cd player in my kitchen.   This gets me in the holiday spirit.  On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we will be visiting via Skype with family members who are far away, and spending time with good friends.   But most of all I will be reading about that first Christmas in Bethlehem once again, and thanking the Lord for the gift He has given to all of us - His Son and salvation!  Merry Christmas to everyone!