December 18th Traditions

December 18, 2011 Prompt:

Traditions

This is the time of year when families are upholding decades old traditions and working to create new ones. It doesn't matter what you celebrate (or don't) ... please share with us your December traditions: how they got started, why you continue them, and why they are special to you.


Christmas is Lefsa. Lefsa is Norwegian,it is made with flour, cream, butter and the all important ingredient, riced potatoes. My grandfather was Norwegian and his mom-ma would make he and his sibling Lefsa. Grama Dot would make it Christmas morning for him. Then my mom always made it for us Christmas morning. I make it for my family now.


Not everyone appreciates the flavor of Lefsa, those who do not have Goodman or Peterson blood in their veins are not huge fans of these flat butter soaked potato cakes, but they appear to curiously participate in our tradition for no other reason than to be apart of it.


Lefsa always reminds me of my father. There has not been a Christmas since he died that I don't shed a tear while listing to the Statlers Brother Christmas album and rolling out Lefsa with my family, wishing for nothing more than for him to still be with us. Because he loved Lefsa, the cooking of it and the eating of it. One year he even whittled a Lefsa stick, so two people could cook at once, for those high production years. His stick and the commercial stick hang side by side in my linen closet all year long, then they emerge like Santa every Christmas morning, and after breakfast is over secretly disappear for another year.




Here is how it plays out. When we first get up Brian, Andy and Edik will peal the potatoes and cube them and put them in my two largest pots to boil while we open our presents. Once we are finished with the gifts the men clean up the mess, as I start to make the Lefsa. 


The recipe is 10 pounds of potatoes, they must be put through a potatoe ricer. This takes great strength, so one of the men in the family does that. One cup of butter tossed in with the hot riced potatoes, so that it melts and runs through them like lava. A pint of cream is drizzled over all the steaming potato and butter mixture, they delicately combine. The mixing is done by hand, lightly lifting and folding the ingredients. The flour is then added. It can take up to 2 pounds of flour, gently folding together, reducing the moisture so that the small golf ball size globs will not stick to the granite counters as they are rolled thin, like tortillas. When the small balls are divided off the large dough blob in the huge stainless steel bowl, they are kneaded with more flour to make the perfect consistency as to move slightly above the floured surface and turn and flatten and expand with the unique rolling pin.


The Lefsa rolling pin is a large rolling pin, with the rolling portion being ribbed. The ribs are the perfect replica of someone gouging the rolling pin with a fork and dragging it the length of the pin. The ribs create a texture in the dough to help it not stick. I was fortunate to find such a pin in an antique store. We had no idea there was such an item for our tradition.


While cooking the family come in to hang out while I roll these thin tortilla type wonders out on the counter, lightly toss them onto one of my two electric griddles. Brian keeps an eye on them as they cook on both sides. He uses the Lefsa sticks to turn them so both sides are toasted, but not brown.


By the end of the process of rolling and cooking up to ten pounds of potatoes into lefsa the kitchen is a floury mess. The joke is to wear black pants and at some point someone puts a white flour hand print on someones butt.


Peter and Andy have the Lefsa eat off. I think 14 is the max that anyone has done, but I could be wrong, it is their secret war to determine who is the the champion. Edik still can not hold a candle to them. They put butter on them, then sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on them. Sometimes, they put butter and raspberry pie filling on them with whip cream. Everyone has their own recipe for delighting in this tasty temptation.


Its funny that Lefsa was the binding tool that brought Mark and Cheri my brother and sister-in-law together. Cheri's family has the same tradition. Its also the binding agent that brings my family all together around my big granite counter to celebrate Christs birth and our heart filled Christmas tradition.