A little background for perspective, being Norwegian is very important to my husband. He comes from a proud family of Scandinavians. In fact one of the first Gilbertson family events that I went to, they actually had the flag of Norway hanging on the wall during dinner. I am not kidding, it scared me a little. It was embroidered with his grandmother's maiden name, Tvedt. They don't come much more Norwegian than that. We also had a Norwegian wedding cake for the groom's cake at our wedding. They eat lutefisk at nearly every holiday, they regularly attend the Norsk Hostfest, they all own krumkake irons etc. Okay, you get it. They love being Norwegian. So, as you can imagine, the job of making the lefse is a very important one. I love to cook, so I figured it wouldn't be too difficult. And I love family traditions, so I would be happy to carry this one on for my Norsk husband.
So last year, my mother-in-law had me come over for my first lesson over Veteran's Day weekend. (Which is the traditional time for lefse making, in case you didn't know) The first lesson didn't go well. The goals for lefse are simple. It should be round, thin like tortillas, and soft with no holes. My first few were shaped like Africa, thick as pancakes and got crunchy around all the holes I put in them. Basically, they were not good. My father-in-law, bless his heart, was sitting next to the lefse griddle trying not to cringe at all the pieces I was ruining. He and my mother-in-law just kept saying "You're doing good, Jess." Such good liars. So the morning went on and my pieces started to improve as I got the hang of it. 6 short weeks later at Christmas, I got a special gift from them. My very own lefse stick, griddle, rolling pin and rolling pad. I must have done something right. They hadn't lost all their faith in me.
This year I came to the table a little more prepared and ready to go. The shapes of my lefse evolved to look more like Australia and Antarctica, which I would argue are much closer to that of a circle than Africa. And there were very few holes and dropped/ripped/burned pieces. I did MUCH better. I think things will only improve from here. Practice does make perfect in this case. I rolled a large part of the whole second batch and did pretty well. Mike even came upstairs once and gave it a whirl. He seemed to be much more natural than I was, but I think it's genetic. Ben even got in on the action and helped roll out some dough. All in all, a fun filled family event and I am glad I got in on the tradition. Next year I am shooting for oval shaped pieces.
