FORAY INTO LEFSE MAKING

Have you ever heard of Lefse? It is a thin crepe like potato pancake. In our family it is considered a treat and appears at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I believe it is actually a food historically eaten by Norwegian peasants. Modern day Norwegians know it as peasant food and don't eat it.

Well I come from good solid Norwegian peasant roots so I grew up eating and loving it. My favorite way to eat it is with butter and sugar. What's not to like, right? I discovered some years ago that there are different ways to eat it. Cindy & I were invited over to someone's home for lefse while we lived in Texas. I was really excited about having this treat. When we sat down to eat the lefse was wrapped around potato and fish. This was lefse but served in a very different way.

So after years of eating it I decided it was time to learn to how to make it.

I asked around, got some favorite recipes and watched as master lefse makers did their thing. I took the challenge. I bought the ingredients and was ready to do it.

Well the pictures help tell of my foray into making lefse. In all honestly this was my second time. My first time was years ago and it wasn't a positive experience. I figured that now things were different - I am wiser and more experienced - what could go wrong? I watched Ken & Ron turn out great lefse with little effort. I have Ken's recipe and participated in one of his sessions.

On Friday I mixed the batch of lefse ingrediants since it needed to be chilled to be easier to handle. That part was easy. In 30 minutes everything was mixed and chilling.

On Saturday I gathered my tools. Now, of course to get a griddle, turning stick and rolling pin especially made for making lefse be prepared to spend mucho buckos. I wasn't and didn't. I gathered my flat gridle I fry eggs on, a spatula and my grooved rolling pin that I got last Christmas in preparation for this very project.

1/3 of mixture chilled and ready to use

You take a third of the chilled potato mix and make into small balls and put them in the fridge until ready to use. Using chilled potato balls makes rolling out much easier.

Then you take one of the chilled balls, place it on a well floured surface (in this case a dish towel I taped on the counter - yet another use for duct tape) and using your well floured grooved rolling pin you carefully roll the ball into a flat, close to round, ready to grill, crepe-like potato pancake called lefse. Simple! Right.

Chilled potato balls

Well floured grooved rolling pin

Lefse rolled out and ready to grill

On the griddle 

Lefse as it should look - age spots and all

I heated the griddle and began rolling out my first creation. It stuck on my  rolling pin. No matter. I had Christmas music playing and I was in a good mood. I tried again. I rolled the gob back up into a ball and began rolling it out . It stuck again and was again ruined. I grabbed a soup can that was on the counter and tried using it since it looked vaguely like a rolling pin.  It didn't work. What else could I try. I squashed the ball with my hand. It would be pretty thick - actually way to thick but at least I would have created my first piece of lefse. Well it didn't stick to my hand so that was good. It was pretty thick and that was bad. So I took my spatula and gently worked at prying it off the dish towel. Well, it stuck to the spatula and the dish and was ruined. By that time the Christmas music was sort of grating on my nerves and I was getting crabby.

I now had out three different spatulas - one long handled metal one I used to grill burgers on the gas grill in the backyard. I was grabbing at anything and everything.

I had started this at about 1:30 and now it was about 4:30 and I had a about 5 grilled, sort of round but not really, on the thick side pieces of lefse and I was frazzled. I had chilled potato balls in the fridge, the smell of burnt potato filling the air, flour over every surface in the kitchen and this was to be my fun afternoon making this delectable treat. I was close to taking this whole mess and flushing it down the garbage disposal and someone turn off that music. Anybody coming into this kitchen was going to be greeted with open hostility.

It was time to take a break. So I shut off now unappreciated music, cleaned up a bit and called it quits - for Saturday. 

Cindy & I sat in the hot tub for a bit  then went to see the Hobbit.

I called Ken in Las Cruces and poured out my heart to him and asked him what I was doing wrong. The answer was right there in front of me - flour. I needed to make sure the rolling pin and the dish towel AND the lefse were well floured. That is a critical point. If any of those things is not well floured it would stick.

Sooooooo. Sunday would be the day. I was going to get it now.

After Church, Bible study & lunch I changed into my fighting clothes, set things up and started again.

This time I poured flour everywhere. I put it in a cake pan so that I could put my rolling pin in it after using it. I saturated the dish towel ducted taped to the kitchen counter. I grabbed a well chilled potato ball, flattened it in the pan of flour and began rolling. It worked. It worked. It worked. Flour was the answer.

In a few hours I was done and successful. I was "the man." Too bad Cindy was napping. I needed someone to whoop and holler and tell me I was not only handsome but a genius and a master lefse king. Actually she said all that later when we went Christmas caroling. 

I love lefse. I wrote down some notes as to what I learned and am ready to do it again - next Thanksgiving. By then I should have rested up and calmed down. 

TETON RETURN

It was a very pleasant Friday.

Cindy & I left home about 8:30am and drove back to the Tetons to see the elk gathered in Jackson. Since we had already had snow and frost I wondered if we would see any Fall color. We saw a few protected spots where aspens still had golden leaves but for the most part the leaves were gone.

We did manage to see 3 moose (cow and 2 big calves), a few deer and antelope. The elk don't come down into the elk preserve until LATE October so we didn't see any. So our animal safari was mixed but we sure saw beautiful scenery.

The smoke was very light so the mountains were mostly clear. We walked around and relaxed. 

It was a very pleasant Friday.

 

 

 

 

SNOW! OH NO!!

SNOW IN OCTOBER

Pretty

 

 

   Here it is October 6 and we have snow. Since we lived in southern New Mexico for almost 9 years it has been some time since we have had to deal with SNOW!  It is pretty though isn't it.

This Wyoming weather is very different. We will adjust. Once our Minnesota blood thickens up this will be t-shirt and shorts weather by golly.

A DAY AT THE PARK

Flexibility is the key to a good day.

Yesterday Cindy & I headed out from home after having prepared a picnic, grabbing a camera and warm jackets. We were heading to The Grand Tetons once again. It is so beautiful there.

This time I didn't pose in front of the Jackalope in Dubois though. Our plan was to go into Jackson and have a bite, stop at the Elk preserve to see what we could see then leisurely sightsee in the Park.

Well this is what we saw when we should have seen the stark beauty of the mountains.

This was no morning mist. It was about noon. This in fact was smoke from a forest fire that was burning south of Jackson. The whole Teton range was virtually invisible. The smoke was very strong. So like I said flexibility is the key to a good day.

We headed to Yellowstone instead. It is located north of the Tetons. Only 8 miles separates the two parks. Having said that both parks are huge so it was over an hour to get up to the southern entrance to Yellowstone.

The air up there was clear so the day ended up being great.

I'll let my pictures show you where we went. We decided to spend our time there looking at geysers and looking for wildlife.

This is West Thumb Geyser Basin.

From there we went to Old Faithful and looked at the other geysers in that area.



There was no smoke in Yellowstone. We drive back through the Tetons to get home. By early evening the smoke was less so we could see some.

A few bison at Yellowstone and an antelope and deer along the road on the way home was about it for wildlife.

We plan to go back in October to see if we can catch Fall color. Some of the aspen where changing. Beautiful.

SCREEN PORCH

One of the things we learned while living in Wisconsin is that in order to be outside at night it is best to wear bug repellant. People had decks that they didn’t really use once the sun set. In order to remedy that we bought an inexpensive screen porch kit from Menards. After putting it up we found we really   enjoyed spending time in the cool of the evening outside.

We then moved to the desert of New Mexico for 9 years where it was so dry we encountered only a handful of mosquitoes the whole time we were there.

Now that we are back in the north country the mosquitoes are out in full force and so it was time to get another screen porch.

Cindy & I finally agreed upon a kit from Sears. Honestly this particular one was a lot cheaper than the one we had originally planned to get.

Well since daughter Laura and our 2 grandchildren live 6.5 hours away in Denver and since we miss spending time with them and since Laura was lonely and since I really enjoy working with her since she will tackle just about anything and since she was willing to make the drive we made plans to have it started and for her to drive up and help me finish it.

So up they came.

Let me show you some pictures. The end supports were such that I had to build a bump-out from the house to give the supports some where to attach. It went pretty well.

Our plan to work together turned out to be harder than we thought. The grandkids didn’t want mom out of their sight. Laura and Cindy helped me when I really needed it, when it was a 2 person job. Cindy  had planned to be grandma and watch the kids.

I just enjoyed having us all together.

I made the porch useable and then finished it up over time. It feels wonderful to be outside at night now in the cool of the evening. An electrician put it some outlets so we have a light out there and sit and read.

Will this screen porch handle the winter okay? Time will tell.

DAY TRIP

Cindy & I felt like getting out of town today so we decided to check out the Sinks Canyon Loop drive which starts outside of Lander, WY and is about 30 miles from home. It is so cool living close to such natural beauty.

The Sinks Canyon Loop winds through the Wind River Range. As you can see in this picture the paved and gravel road is full of switchbacks bounded by aspens and conifers, mountain lakes, streams, picnic & camping sites. It was beautiful. Also the temperature was in the 60's and sunny. When first getting to Sink Canyon the air was thick with smoke from a large forest fire burning some miles away.

 

 

We stopped off at numerous places to see what there was to see.

Once we reached the highway once again we decided to drive to South Pass. I had heard people mention it a great deal so I was expecting something special. Well, there was no Visitor Center with a perky young park ranger eager to tell us everything we would ever want to know about the site. South Pass is simply a pass through which wagon trains came through the mountains on their way West. It was an important discovery that changed the whole experience for travelers. The site was commemorated by some plaques. I was disapointed.

We headed toward home but decided to check out South Pass City historical site since it was close by. It turned out to be a ghost town built during gold discoveries from the 1860's. There were a number of booms and busts over the years. Today it is a State historical site with well preserved buildings staged with period furniture and accessories.

We did managed to see some wildlife along the way: squirrels, chipmunks, hawks, cows, antelope and a bear I was lucky enough to photograph. We were wearing a bear bell at the time. Of course it wasn't moving very fast and wasn't a danger.

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

Wow!  A day trip to Yellowstone. I imagine we will get used to this but right now it is so cool to be so close to such beauty. We all owe a debt of gratitude for those who had the foresight to set aside land for our National Parks.

Cindy & I left around 8:15am and headed west. We past the Jackalope in Dubois, drove through  Grand Tetons NP and headed north. Only 8 miles separates the 2 parks. We got into Yellowstone around noon.

All the while we drove we had our eyes open for wild life. Nothing. Here I thought we would see herds of elk, buffalo, antelope, anything but instead we saw a ground squirrel. One ground squirrel. That changed by the end of the day.

Yellowstone is huge. The area most often visited by tourists is laid out in a huge figure 8. We had entered from the south and we had a limited amount of time so we decided to do the lower portion of the 8 and save the upper until next time. So we ended up visiting Yellowstone Lake and Falls, a few different geyser basins and mud pits and Old Faithful. It may not sound like much but we were busy. Oh, Old Faithful is simply one of many geysers in the park. It just happens to be the most famous.

As the day progressed the animals started to show themselves. First a coyote hunting for rodents loped into view.

Coyote on the prowl

Then buffalo, a few elk (they are BIG animals), a couple of sandhill cranes, and some very big black birds. I don't know if they were grackles, ravens, or simply blackbirds. They looked big enough to be wild turkeys.

The following scenes give you an idea of what we saw.

Around Yellowstone Lake:

Around Geyser pits

Around Geyser pits

Yellowstone Lake

The geyser pits at the south end of Yellowstone Lake are very interesting. We spent a lot of time walking around.

The Lower Falls: We will get a better look next time.

A week or so ago a young woman lost her life at the Falls. It was her first day of work and she slipped and was swept to her death.

Bubbling pit:

Buffalo encounter:

Just watch. Here are 2 very large bison eating alongside the boardwalk. When people walk by they are 2 feet away. If for ANY reason these bison felt the urge these moms, dads and children would have been in serious trouble.

"Why does the bison cross the road?" This is a trick question. At one point on our adventure one bison was walking down the middle of the road leading a parade. He wasn't intimidated one bit. He was leading and that was that. We followed behind while cars from the other direction slowly passed by. He finally left the road when he wanted to "relieve" himself.

Old Faithful: Our final destination.

At the end of the day we joined hundreds of others from all over waiting for Old Faithful to be faithful. After she blew we got in the car and headed home.

What a day. It was in the upper 70's and partly cloudy. We made it home at 10:30pm and will be returning again.

GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK

When we moved here to Riverton we knew we were in beautiful country.  Yesterday we took a day trip to the Grand Tetons. A day trip! Can you imagine that? We kept saying to each other that this is in our "backyard". 

We took off about 9AM and 2.5 hours later even after stopping for a soda and a picture or two we were there.
 We just HAD to stop here. It is a jackalope of course. You can see them all over this part of Wyoming. We thought the kids would smile a bit. We do have a family picture standing in front of a huge prairie dog in South Dakota. I'm a sucker for theses things. You notice I don't have a picture of Cindy sitting on it.

This convenience store is in Dubois (pronounced Do-boys) west of Riverton half-way to the Teton range. There is even some beautiful country around Dubois. It looks a bit like the Grand Canyon although above ground.

I'm not sure where it happened but we turned a corner went over a hill and there the views became breathtaking.

We headed to the Jackson Lake Lodge for lunch. This is probably where we will take our guests to eat. The food was really great and the view from our table was of the range. While eating we were constantly looking out toward the range across the flatland. I thought we might see some wildlife. We did. We saw a ground squirrel/chipmunk, wild turkey and just as were leaving some sandhill cranes. No big game yet.

Since this was our first trip we wanted to get the lay of the land. So we drove north of the lodge toward Yellowstone just to see. We finally turned around and headed south. Of couse we stopped every so often to gawk and take pictures.

Normally when you see cars and people along the side of the road you know there is something to see. We were passing one such group when I noticed they weren't looking at the mountains. I pulled over very quickly because they were looking into the forest. This is what we saw. It was a momma black bear and her two cubs. I'm afraid this is the best I could do. She looked around at us and her cubs and started ambling up the hill deeper into the forest. Wow!



At another site I noticed people with cameras gathered around the river bank. Sooo - we did a u-turn, pulled over, parked, ran to join the crowd and there was a moose. She was laying down in some bushes next to the water.                                                                                  

There is really not much more to say really. The park is gorgeous and filled with wildlife. Beside these animals we saw another moose, a herd of elk right next to a herd of buffalo, antelope, mule deer, geese with gauslings, but no porcupines. Sorry Matt. We looked!    

                                                                  

Come and visit.

Next weekend we are thinking of going on another day trip. Either to Yellowstone National Park or Cody.