Submitted by LD Bauerly

Hi, I use to make lefse many, many years ago (mid-1950s) with my mother. We would have to cover all the doorways in the house with sheets or close the doors. We had to make them on a gas stove with 2 flat griddles and keep adjusting the flames. When they got too hot, the flour would burn and smoke up the house! My mother never had all the nice equipment to make the lefse. Now I have mastered the making of the lefse and have done so with the grandkids. They have loved lefse since they were old enough to chew. Now the granddaughters are helping me and are doing a great job. We eat the first batch and make the next one for the holiday dinners. We usually start early in November and enjoy all the fun we have making them. I have a lot of the equipment and enjoy the making of lefse as well as eating. We have many members in the family that all eat them in a different way. My husband likes peanut butter on his. Yuk. He is not Norwegian!!!! Kids like cinnamon and sugar. I like sugar and real butter. My folks use to eat them with lutefisk. Yuk.. I am Norwegian but do not like lutefisk. We have many fun times making them. I always remember the first times helping my mother though with the smoke going throughout the house from the burnt flour. I can't imagine the women in the really olden days making them on cook stoves!!! Wanted to share just a few things with you all.

Thanks for reading.

Submitted by Megan Hogstad Jamestown, ND

I recently (six months ago) took my first call as a Youth Minister in Central North Dakota. I am also new to the lefse experience. I love to eat it but had never made it. The church I serve makes lefse as a fund raiser for our youth.

We made plans for the Saturday before the Christmas program to make the lefse. I gathered the church recipe and distributed it to any who wanted it and then told everyone when we would meet. I showed up at church that Saturday morning with coffee and donuts for everyone and we started in on the 60 pounds of potatoes everyone had mixed up the night before. We had 7 griddles going at one time and we never blew a fuse. We considered it a minor miracle. In four hours I learned how to mix the potatoes with the right amount of flour. I balled up the potatoes to be rolled out. I am a very good roller and I'm proficient at grilling and turning.

We enjoyed the fruits of our labor by eating the "bad" sheets that were not fit for selling. Sunday morning we counted before we began selling. We had 88 bags of lefse. There were five sheets to a bag. WE SOLD ALL 88 BAGS IN 7 1/2 MINUTES! For the next four weeks our youth and the congregation could not stop talking about how good our lefse turned out. We already have requests for next year! A few weeks later for Christmas I received my first lefse griddle and all the tools to go with. I look forward to trying it out.

Submitted by Ann Hupe Kenai, Alaska

I stumbled across your website. What memories!

My mother's side of the family is Slovak, however, we eat lefse, too, anytime we can but definitely for Good Friday, Easter, Christmas Eve, and New Year's.

My most favorite but my last memory of my Aunt Kathy was Easter Week in Toronto, Canada. My husband and I came over early to help with the week as my Uncle Paul was a Lutheran minister at the local seminary. Easter was very busy at their place as they host Good Friday and Easter Sunday for all the seminary students who have no family to go home to.

And did we make lefse! Over five hundred, we counted, for just Good Friday alone.

My cousin Anna Ruth had flown in from Chicago where she and two friends had netted whitebait, a very small fish that resembled tiny anchovies but tasted like ocean perch when quickly deep-fried. That, with the lefse, was a very memorable meal. Our favorite topping was browned butter with or without brown sugar. I liked the browned butter and sour cream. Definitely not for those with weak gallbladders.

Believe it or not, we did consume all five hundred lefse on Good Friday. Saturday was the day we made even more for Easter Sunday.

Now my cousin Janet has the equipment, so I'll gave to get my own as soon as some bills get paid. Thank you for such a wonderful website!