Project Blizzard

The books by Laura Numeroff in the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie series are some of our favorites. They are perfect illustrations of the Sequences that I mentioned earlier. Our own edition began when I made the mistake of giving my crafty child the Gooseberry Patch Christmas books some weeks ago. She now has a list for me that will take until August to complete.
At the top of that list was her desire to make our own wrapping paper this year. To that end, I began carving...
In the meantime, about a dozen rolls of Christmas paper were discovered in the basement. No worries though. We have already dreamed up several other messes that we can make with the stamps. Stay tuned...

A Quick Favor

I have a quick favor to ask of my readers.
I am currently working on building a new website for our church using only interlinked blogs. Why? Because I'm curious to see if it can be done. That and I'm bored. Ha!

I've installed Google Analytics to each page and I'd like to make sure it works. The easiest way to do that is to have people from different regions click through the site. Would you mind visiting the site for me? You can find it here: Somonauk Baptist Church. There isn't much to see yet, so it shouldn't take long at all.

Thanks ever so much!

I can do that...

In an email from Chris Baty (the founder of National Novel Writing Month):

"Well, you rocked it this November. I hope your NaNo recovery process has been going smoothly, and that you're now knee-deep in celebrations that will prevent you from attending to any work tasks, school duties, or household chores for a long time. (Remember: NaNoWriMo winners do NOT do their own laundry. It sets a bad precedent.)

See? I'm just following orders.

Norwegian Lefse

To a certain extent our Christmas baking, at least the Norwegian part of it, is a mild Sequence. (If you are unaware of Sequences, you need to find a copy of Patrick McManus' book The Night the Bear Ate Goombaw and educate yourself.) We need 1/4 c. of Whole Milk to make Potato Cakes. Nobody sells milk in 1/4 c. containers, and so we are left with nearly a half gallon of milk that no one in this household will drink. So there is nothing to do but make Lefse with it.

What is Lefse, you ask? It's a Scandinavian tortilla that you fill with Salt Cod, potatoes and melted butter for Beitas on Christmas Eve. Or spread them with butter and dust with sugar like the potato cakes. Are you beginning to sense a theme here? You can do what you like with them, as long it involves Butter. You get bonus points if you include potatoes with the butter.

In order to make Lefse, you will need some special equipment, as follows:

• A Lefse Grill--an oversized electric griddle. Lefse griddles are larger. They also have no sides.
  
• A specialized rolling pin--the surface is carved into tiny squares. (mine is only parallel lines, not squares, but I can live with that.)
  
• A Lefse Stick--Every Norwegian community seems to have stories floating around about Somebody's Great Grandmother using the stick out of the bottom of a roller shade when the real thing wasn't available.
  
• Extra large new pizza boxes--Pizza boxes?! Of course. You have to store the Lefse in something when it's finished.

The recipe:
Four, Two and a stick. Well, that 's how I learned it anyway. Let me 'splain.

4 c. flour
2 c. whole milk
a stick of butter (this should be no surprise by now)

I should note that there is also Potato Lefse, but that's a different recipe. We'll do basics first.

Measure flour into a large bowl. In a heavy saucepan, heat milk and better until it begins to steam. Turn off heat and pour milk over flour. Mix with a spoon until combined and then knead with your hands until smooth. It will be very hot, so be careful. (Actually, this is my favorite part. By the time I make the Lefse, I've usually already done quite a lot and the heat feels good on my aching hands.) Form into a 13" log, wrap in plastic wrap and set aside.
Taking one inch at a time, roll out on a lightly floured surface with the Lefse rolling pin until you have a large circle (Much heated discussion has taken place over the merits of circle vs. square Lefse. Essentially, circles are prettier, but squares are more functional. Mine tend to look more like the continent of Africa.) You want it thin enough to be able to read through...almost. As you roll, alternate the direction of your motion, so that the pattern on the rolling pin goes every which way. You will also want to flip and re....

Oh, forget it. The only way you're going to learn how to do this properly is to come to my house and let me teach you. I'm pretty sure that if I haven't lost you yet, I certainly would when we got to the part about hanging it on the stick. And I'd never be able to digitally translate how to soak them.

Det blir alltid plass til ein velkommen gjest.
So when are you coming?

Christmas Kitchen II

The King's Singers and Mannheim Steamroller are playing on the stereo today. A quick re-read of the last post tells me that I need to tone down the sugar a notch; which is unfortunate since we made Cashew Brittle today*.

But first we'll do the Potato Cakes we prepped for yesterday. In the middle of all the rest of the projects yesterday, I peeled, cooked and mashed potatoes. I should note that this is the only recipe in my kitchen for which I ever peel potatoes. Here is the rest:

Potato Cakes

8 c. cooked, mashed potatoes
1/4 c. whole milk
2 t. salt
1 stick butter

In a large bowl, add milk, salt and butter to potatoes and mix well. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

2 c. potatoes
3/4 c. flour
1/8 t. baking powder

One batch at a time, mix cold potatoes, flour and baking powder until thoroughly combined. Dough will be very sticky. On a well floured surface, roll dough to 1/16th inch thickness. Cut 6 inch circles (I use a sherbet lid. Sophisticated, huh?) and cook on a hot griddle (400* or so) until golden brown spots form. Flip and repeat on other side.
You need to work fast to get the dough rolled out while it is cold. As it warms it will be harder to work with unless you use a lot of flour. Too much flour can make them tough though. I find it useful to keep a pastry brush handy to brush off excess flour before cooking. Once the circles are cut and moved from the rolling surface, however, they can sit for a little while until there is room on the griddle. Electric griddles work better than stove top. If this is your first time making these, I highly recommend that you have a second person there to man the griddle, so you can concentrate on rolling. Once you get the hang of it, you will be able to coordinate rolling and flipping.
If you are not covered in flour from the waist up when finished, then you didn't do it right.
To serve, spread a thin layer of butter on a warm potato cake and heavily dust with sugar and tri-fold them. You did know this was a Norwegian recipe, right? They work equally well when used in place of a tortilla and stuffed with ham, scrambled eggs or whatever else you can find.
You should get 45-50 cakes out of this, with about 1/2 c. of extra potatoes left over.
They freeze well, but you will need to put a layer of wax paper in between each one as you stack them. The wax paper isn't necessary if they are just going in the fridge.


Evil Cashew Brittle

1 c. butter (Not margarine!)
2 T. light corn syrup
1 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. cashew halves

In a heavy saucepan, bring butter, syrup and sugar to a boil. Over medium heat, boil 5-6 minutes, stirring constantly, until candy thermometer reaches 300*. Remove from heat, stir in cashews and immediately spread on greased parchment paper on a baking sheet. Cool completely and break in pieces. Store in an air tight container. You can double this recipe, but any more than that and it becomes too difficult to spread out before it hardens.

*In this case today isn't actually today. My posts are slightly off kilter with reality, so what I'm writing about happened on Friday.