Submitted by Gwen (Erickson) Katula, Fountain City, Wisconsin

Gwen Katula – Lefse Time

My story isn't much different than everyone else's. Lefse has been part of my family as far back as I can remember. I guess I must have some strong scandinavian blood in my veins because it was love at first taste. We always enjoyed lefse through the winter holidays. My family would gather in the kitchen on that special day and bask in flour and potatoes. Always producing large batches to make it through that holiday stretch.

It would begin early in the morning peeling several pounds of potatoes and with every pot we had boiling with what we peeled. There was enough time while the boiling took place to start prepping for everything to come and a cup of strong black coffee. The ricing and patties would start to make your hands ache, those rolling and frying would take their familiar positions as the afternoon set in. It always took a few test sheets to find the groove. Getting the sheets just thin enough and with not too much flour. To fine tune the delicate handling of the Lefse sheets from pastry cloth to griddle. Remembering just how long you wanted it to bubble and cook. But those test sheets were heaven. Of course we were forced to eat them, just had to find out if we were doing it right.

That first bite would instantly flood your mouth with yummy and your mind with memories. Those memories of creating lefse the years before and all those moments you shared your labor of love with family and friends. We would proceed into evening and finally finish cleaning the flour off the ceiling fan. (Somehow Dad always managed to get flour everywhere.) A hard days work full of fun, stories and lefse eating. Another day creating the next favorite lefse memory. I think that's where our stories start to sound the same. Lefse is full of memories. I'm the one rolling and frying now, my kids are the ones running around the kitchen and asking all the why questions-starting their lefse memories.

Submitted by Anne Malm-Hossfeld Minnetonka, MN

Hi, Gwen. Thanks for the answer. I do have a family recipe for them, and it's the history I've been trying to track down, because I thought my family invented them (!), but then I heard they're a genuine Norwegian thing. If you've had them, that's great, because it means others out there are making them too. You might be interested in my story.

I grew up with a recipe for "Aunt Sophie's" peanut bars. Sopie Quam Shirley was my Norwegian grandmother's sister and lived in Minot, ND, where she helped out in her husband's family's grocery store – Shirley's Grocery (AKA Sjolie). The recipe I have was written in a cookbook my grandmother wrote for me in which she wrote down some of her own recipes. The recipe is for a sponge cake and a very rich butter frosting. You cut the sheet cake in long pieces or squares, frost all sides, and roll them in chopped, salted Spanish peanuts.

I was at a Duluth antique store last year and was talking to a man who grew up in Minot. I mentioned the Shirley's grocery store, and he remembered it. I mentioned Sophie who made "her own recipe" for "something called" peanut bars, and at least 3 other people at the counter said, Oh, yes, peanut bars, mocha bars, they're Norwegian! I'd never heard this. The man from Minot said his son had married a Norwegian woman, and at the wedding in Norway, they served them on the dessert tray, although they were covered in ground almonds, which I guess is more traditional. Another said there was a woman in Two Harbors who used to make them and sell them. So ever since I've been trying to track down more information on them.

Then at another antique store, I found a tiny pamphlet from 1955 called "Scandinavian Goodies" with a recipe for Mocha Cake -- bake a "one-egg" cake, cut in squares, frost with powdered sugar icing, and roll in ground almonds browned in butter. So they're real! I don't know the origin of the name "Mocha" -- it can't be referring to the typical coffee/chocolate flavor.

Anyway, hope this passes on some Norwegian cooking lore to you. I love your website and will be back.

Takk et ha de godt.
Anne

Submitted by (Grandma) Jeanne Wirsbinski and (Daughter) Julie Akason and our families

My mother's family, of Norwegian descent, has passed down the tradition of baking lefse. My grandmother, mother, uncles and now my sister are the experts upon whom we have depended on for our supply of the good stuff.

This year, my daughter's 16-year-old twin sons (we call them our "Minnesota Twins") had an unusual request for a teenager's Christmas gift: lefse-making equipment. They wanted to learn how to make that delicious treat, too.

Well, Julie ordered your lefse kit, and we started our own tradition of baking lefse in my kitchen for our Christmas dinner. Her boys and their cousins donned aprons (I made a colorful chef's apron for each), and everyone took turns rolling and baking. Even my Polish husband (a/k/a Grandpa Joe) made tender, tasty lefse. It was wonderful! We made two batches, enough for our Christmas dinner and a few leftovers for each family to take home.

We look forward to our next lefse gathering and our new tradition of "Lefse Christmas." Your quality supplies were a big part of our success, along with a good share of beginner's luck.

Since I love taking pictures, I documented the day and am attaching some to share with you and your staff. (photos coming soon)

Submitted by LD Bauerly

Hi, I use to make lefse many, many years ago (mid 1950') 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 to 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 alot 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!

Submitted by Doris J. Keith-Hoitt

I am half Norwegian and my family is from a lovely small town on Puget Sound called Poulsbo. I spent my summers on Liberty bay at my Auntie Bernice and Uncle George's house. My twin sister Delores and I helped our Auntie Bernice make the lefse`. It became our favorite along with krumkake and fattigmond. Auntie was extremely persnikity about how she made her lefse` and I learned from the best. We would roll it outdoors under the giant Douglas firs and cook it on an old wood cooking range. When the weather permitted we always made it outdoors so we wouldn't heat the house up. Years later I often made the wonderful lefse` for my children and their friends They and their friends kept me busy making this wonderful delicasy.
My story is about the summer my husband the kids and I went to visit my dear Uncle George. Auntie had passed on and Uncle had retired but he kept himself busy with his gardening, he put out a couple hundred fuschias each summer, and being active in the local Sons of Norway.

We arrived at Uncles around two in the afternoon and Uncle seemed all in a dither. "Doris! get your clothes changed and let's get going. Gotta get to the Sons, , , let's go!" I didn't ask questions - I just changed into some jeans and a tee shirt and off we went. We arrived at the sons and Uncle took me straight to the kitchen. There were 8 or 9 ladies rolling and as many cooking on their lefse` griddles. "Get to rolling Doris" Uncle George ordered. I went to a vacant spot at the giant rolling table. I rolled and rolled and listened to the older women gab. As I worked I noticed the 'ladies' didn't include me in their conversations at all. Actually the treated me like 'what's she doing here?' and I felt a little snubbed. So I just kept on rolling. We worked like beavers in the hot kitchen. Finally I said to one of the ladies "Why are we working so hard here today? Is there some kind of big dinner? Is it a party? What's up? They looked at me like I had two heads and said "didn't you know - - - King Olaf is here! In my youthful ignorance I said "Who is King Olaf? They filled me in and than one of the ladies said "who are you and why are you here? I told them I was Doris Hoitt and Uncle told me to get in here and roll lefse` so that's what I was doing. They asked me who 'Uncle' was and I told them Uncle George. They said "You're Bernices niece, you're with George Herrick?? You're one of the twins? -- I said yes. Suddenly they all started treating me nicer. As we rolled they noticed I was good at it and one by one they left and I had to roll faster and faster. Before I knew it I was the only one rolling and there were still 5 ladies cooking. I kept up. These old Norsky ladies were pretty impressed that I could keep up with so many cooking. So! In all that heat I spent the afternoon cooking lefse` for the King and his entourage -- and I never got to see the king.

I was told that when he ate at the Sons that evening he told the members it was the best meal he'd had in a long time. He commented that it was a sad thing that he had to travel all that way to have such a purely Norwegian meal made completely from scratch -- no mixes! Apparently in Norway most people are too busy to do all the old styles of cooking.
I live down here by Springfield, in Oregon. In a small town near here, Junction City, the Sons of Norway has a yearly celebration called the Scandie Festival. Last year I went and there is a fellow selling 'crepes' and calling them lefse`. I'm thinking next year I might get hold of a portable kitchen and go out and see how the public likes the real thing. I can proudly proclaim "I've made lefse` for the King of Norway, come on in and have the real thing."

Submitted by Charlene Hansen-Wheeler, Bloomington, Indiana

After church today, we had an advent event. We had various stations in the church to do craft activities. My daughter and another gal, got the idea to do lefse. It was a big hit, and lots of rememberances of childhood experience with it, also totally new to it interested families. We are doing our part to keep the tradition alive down here in Bloomington, IN. It was so great! It touched my heart and childhood memories, I had to pass it along to you.

The biggest surprise was that my daughter had ordered the whole lefse kit from you I believe, for me and her to use. I learned a lot from the experience!

Submitted by Carol Beck

My son Adam could never get enough lefse. It was always "when are you going to make lefse, Mom?" I would take a day to make the lefse, which he would devour in no time. When his daughter got to grade six he phoned long distance to ask for my lefse recipe. Alexandra was to take a treat to school from her heritage. I attempted to dissuade him--but he was adamant, so I gave him the recipe and the instructions. When I phoned him the next day to see how it went he was proud of his accomplishment – even though it took him a full day. He was happy that the other students loved his lefse,but was chagrined that neither he nor the teacher were quick enough to get a piece! Since that time he has been much more appreciative of the lefse that I make, even leaving a little for his Dad.

Submitted by Rose M. Shea, Wenatchee, Washington

My Aunt Josie used to make lefse for local gocery stores back in North Dakota. I can remember coming into her home and watching for like seemd hours as she mixed up the dough, rolled it out on her board and laid it out in her lefse pan to bake. Then she would remove it to let it cool,then fold it to fit into the wrappers for the stores. Her home always smelled of lefse and as a 1st grader I so loved going to her home.This si the reason I purchased my own lefse kit this past December, so I too could make that great smelling lefse for my family right here in our home.

Submitted by Mark Metzler, Winona Minnesota

My Uncle Allie was a towering man. He stood 6-4 and had broad shoulders. A hard-working farmer and great baseball player, he wasn't the type of man who you'd normally think would love being in the kitchen.

But he loved to bake. He'd make breads, cookies and cakes. His favorite was lefse. Each year he'd bring a big bag for my family, and each year we'd finish it off in a hurry. As I grew older, and especially after his wife died, I'd stop in to see him whenever I was in Stoughton, a town famous for its Norwegian heritage.

As the years went by, he continued the tradition of giving my parents a big bag of lefse, and my brothers would help my mom and dad polish it off. I never got enough, and I think he sensed my disappointment. After all, he was my godfather, and he was suppose to watch out for my well being. So, during my trips to his house he'd pull out another bag for me a bag that I would put in the trunk of my car and take to wherever I was living at the time.

"Don't tell your brothers. We don't want them to feel bad," he'd say. I never did. But now I feel a little lonely. It's not because my brothers didn't get enough lefse as far as they know, they did. It's that I never asked him to teach me how to make lefse.

A few years ago he died, and I no longer have that secret bag to take with me when I leave town. Certainly being without my Uncle Allie has left a gap in my life. Still, whenever I have lefse especially great lefse like I get from lefse time there's a moment when I'm transformed, and I can see my uncle standing in front of me.

Submitted by Linda Isaacs Jamestown, ND

Growing up in Minnesota in a Norwegian community, we're connoisseurs of lefse. And our whole family agrees that the best lefse in the world is made by my mother-in-law Evalyn. So we were thrilled when she was able to join much of the family at a 'mini family reunion' in Washington in 1997.

We came from Oklahoma , our daughter's husband was stationed there in the Navy, and two of my husband's brothers and their families live in the Seattle/Portland area, so we had several big family parties. Evalyn, at 92, flew from Minnesota all by herself and was the center of the family festivities. Our Norwegian menu included lutefisk, and we required everyone to taste it, even the little kids and some of them actually came back for seconds!

We not only watched her making lefse, but we video taped it, along with her comments on how to do it. And we wrote down all the tips we could get, which now are a permanent part of our cookbooks. It helped sometimes my daughter and I make lefse which gets the highest compliment from my husband, 'It's almost as good as Mother's!'

She's now almost 102 and still lives in her own apartment. She doesn't make lefse any more, but when any of us need advice on how to do it, she's our authority!

Submitted by Carol Peterman Surprise, AZ

My 80+ year old uncle just taught me how to make lefse. At age 58 it was my first attempt. I am now hooked, as I love lefse. This is a memory that I will cherish, and will continue to polish my lefse making skills.