Making Lefsa Today - You bet'cha!

Today I am making that Scandinavian specialty called lefsa.  It is sort of like a potato tortilla, baked on a hot griddle.  Just about everyone in Minnesota eats this delicacy around Christmas time.  I am of Polish heritage and before I came to Minnesota, I never heard of lefsa.  For sure, we never ate it!  But when I first tasted lefsa I just KNEW I had to learn to make it!  It is so delicious.   It takes some practice to make it just right and to make it thin.  Oh sure, a person can eat thick lefsa, but it's a matter of housewife pride to make the thinnest, most delicate lefsa!  Over the years I have learned a lot, so I think I make a 'pretty good' lefsa, as the Norwegians up here would say.   It's a two day process to make lefsa.   On day one you boil up russet potatoes and put the cooked potatoes through a ricer.   Then you add lots of butter and cream and a little bit of salt and sugar and let this cool overnight.   The next day you add flour and mix it all up until you have a dough, but you try not to mix it too much or you will have "tough" lefsa - oh horrors!  This is the messy part.   I just figure on getting bits of potato and flour all over the floor and on my hands.
     Then the dough is rolled out very thinly on a floured cloth, transferred to the hot griddle with a traditional long stick, flipped over, and then set to rest between warm towels.  When it has set enough, you spread it with butter, sprinkle with sugar (I like brown sugar) and roll it up and eat it.  It goes SO well with a cup of hot cider or tea or coffee.   And quite filling, too!
     Here are some photos I took this afternoon of my lefsa making session:

The dough is first rolled into little patties and placed on a floured cloth.   Some ladies have a special round lefsa cloth, but I use a sturdy piece of linen, duct-taped to my pastry board. 

A special grooved rolling pin is used.  The rolling pin is covered with a stockinette cover, and a 2 foot long thin stick is used to handle the lefsa dough.

First one side is cooked until light brown spots appear on the underside.

The lefsa piece is flipped over using the long stick, and the second side is cooked.

A stack of cooked lefsa pieces.  They are folded in half and kept warm.

The cooked lefsa pieces are kept warm in several layers of towels, and I usually put a damp warm towel on top.  (Note my towel from 1971!)

A piece of lefsa cut in half and ready to eat with a mug of hot cider.   Yum!  This is Christmas in Minnesota!

I usually make about 24 to 28 pieces of lefsa.   That's enough for us during the holiday season, and some to share with neighbors.   It takes me an afternoon to do, but it is so worth it!  Merry Christmas!

Harold's Sawmill - Part 2

Last June I wrote a post about the sawmill that my husband Harold designed and built.   Since then he has tweaked it a bit and added some things to it, and it really cuts well now!  He has been busy lately sawing up logs for lumber to build a chicken house this spring.   We hope to have chickens again, and since we have 100 acres of woodland it only makes sense to use what we have for lumber!  After all, why buy lumber when you have it right in your own backyard.   Several weeks ago Harold brought in a huge red oak saw log.   It was about 30 inches in diameter and over 10 feet long.   Red oak may seem like 'overkill' for a chicken house, but this is a log that has been down for quite some time and is not the best wood for furniture or hardwood flooring.   I took some photos yesterday of Harold cutting up wood.  He sure enjoys his sawmill!  If a person was going to buy a sawmill such as this from Cook's Sawmill Co. it would be over $6,000.  Harold built this from new and used pieces for about $600.  That's a big savings!  Of course he isn't going to just use the sawmill for chicken house wood - he hopes to saw logs into usable lumber for others, too.  And someday we would like to make our own hardwood flooring. 

Harold gets things lined up before the cut.  He has already cut some pieces off of the huge 30 inch diameter log.

He begins to push the blade through the log.

A close up of the blade cutting through the log.

An even better photo of the blade cutting through the log.

A beautifully cut red oak piece about 1 inch by 24 inches.  (still has a bit of saw dust on it)

Harold adds this piece of lumber to the pile already cut.  After everything was cut for the day, he stacked the wood inside his shop.

Harold gets the log lined up to flip over to another side for cutting.

The log is still too heavy to flip easily, so he used his tractor and a chain to turn the log over.

The rest of the log is in position for cutting.  Harold will slice off the top bark piece, then saw up the rest of the log into lumber.

A lot of saw dust is generated cutting logs into lumber!!

Harold has a ways to go yet before we have enough lumber to build that chicken house.    Most of the trees he will use are poplar, ash, and oak .   Perhaps this summer I can show you a picture of that chicken house, truly "built from scratch".

Back To Indiana For A Visit

A week ago my husband and I took the Amtrak train to Indiana to visit my Mom and sister and niece.   We enjoy riding the train, as it is roomy and relaxing.  No worries about driving.  You can walk around, eat in the dining car, view the scenery in the observation car and also meet interesting people.   It's an unhurried old fashioned way of travel, and we're definitely old fashioned folks!  It was difficult to take photos on the train with all the movement so I didn't even try.   But I did take a few pictures of the lovely train depots we were at.   This time we took the train to Niles MI instead of Indiana.  Doing this made for better connections in Chicago.

Harold waiting inside the Niles MI train depot.   This is a lovely old building built in 1892 and it was decorated nicely for Christmas by the local Garden Club. 

The Niles MI depot is a large building made of beautiful stone.

The other end of the building.  This lovely stone structure has been in use since 1892.

Before we got to Niles, we had to change trains in Chicago.   Chicago's Union Station is a HUGE building and the hub of Amtrak.  It's a busy place - like an airport.   The main waiting area is called the Great Hall. 

This photo doesn't capture the size of this room or the massive height of the ceiling, but it is a beautiful place to wait for the trains.   

There are four staircases leading out to downtown Chicago from the Great Hall.  This Chicago depot was built in 1925.

One part of the Great Hall had a massive Christmas tree, decorated with railroad signs. 

Another part of the Great Hall had a display of a Christmas train. 

I am standing in front of the Christmas tree on the other side of the hall to give you an idea of how tall it was.

My sister and I with our Mom who is 96!

Mom enjoys playing cards, so we made sure to play plenty of games with her.  Doesn't my Mom look good for being 96?