Just had to share this surreal headline with you to brighten up a dull January day
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21141244

Thanks, Jem. I also found this of interest:

"Dog Evolved on the Waste Dump." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21142870

It's a rainy day here - the first rain all month.

Thanks for the link for the story. I added BBC World News to my bookmarked pages. Burning for 5 days, that must have been a lot of cheese!

It seems to me that the driver could had just driven the extra 1000ft to clear the tunnel.

*LOL*
I've always been sceptic to Norwegian cheese.

That may have what the driver of the little green car ate just before he farted. Ya think.????

Bob

dang,shame all that cheese got ruined.
All I ever had for milk from the time I was about 8 till 18 was goat milk.Never knew what a ulcer was or heartburn was till I didnt have any more.
Now folks that have goats cant even sell the milk to the public because it aint pasturized "spelling".
That fellow in the little green car,Hum,I would say he had brussel sprouts along with the cheese and beans!Had to get the green from somewhere!

Ultimate Fondue....

I have a few "bricks" like that in my freezer. Not much chance that they'll catch fire there fortunately.
Michael, don't knock it until you've tried it, although a really ripe Danish Havarti is one of my favorites. You can't find good aged Havarti in the stores here, and I don't know how to properly store it for aging. When it comes to "ripe" Havarti, you know what they say: when you've got it past your nose, you've got it licked!!

That cheese, which my Norwegian grandmother called Gjetost, was and is a holiday favorite of mine. I never knew it was an alternative fuel. I wonder if a T would run on it?

My grandmother (on my Dad's side) was Norweigan. She loved lutefisk and lefsa, especially together. I am OK with lefsa but the lutefisk is pretty weird stuff.

Royce,
Last month I went to the "Nordic Fellows' Annual Lutefisk Luncheon" in Farmington Hills, MI. I could get you an invitation for this year! Just let me know. ;-)
Walt,
Yes, Gjetost (Goat cheese) is it!

Roar,

My wife and I took over making Lefse for the family Christmas. Great stuff.

I never did take to Lutefisk, my grandfather wouldn't permit it in the house. It was enough for me to go by the barrel in front of a Ballard fish market when I was a kid.

Walt

my grandparents liked all Norwegian foods. they were born there and so was my father and his brother. my grandparents lived in the usa when the (kids) were born, but returned to Norway to deliver them. and them brought them here to to usa. It was always a treat at their home to have goats milk cheese, sardines, but I never liked the taste of lutefisk and lefsa. my dad and I both kind of laughed at the article in the paper here in port saint joe florida today. ps, it is very hard for us to find goat milk cheese here in florida!

Walt,

You are one ahead of me on the lefse baking front. I have never tried it myself, however my mother's sisters baked mounds of the stuff. They made what they called "krina lefse". It was dry, and you had to let it sit in moist towels to soften up before you could handle it without it crumbling. It also had loooong shelf life when dry.
What kind did you bake? As you probably know, there are many varieties. Different regions of Norway had their own version. The ones they served with a cup of coffee usually were buttered with sugar and cinnamon sprinkled on them, or in the north with "gomme" ( a soft sweet cheese ). The most common is the "everyday" type made with potatoes. There are several bakeries in the
U. S. that make those, and you can put just about anything in them. Just writing about lefse makes me hungry!

Roar

Roar,

Potato lefse, always fresh, buttered and sprinkled with a little sugar or sugar and cinnamon mix then folded into quarters to eat. We bought the special rolling pin in Olso and later inherited my grandmothers. Our family celebrates on Christmas Eve so my wife and I spend that day cooking, mixing rolling, dry frying, buttering and sugaring. Usually do about 12 dozen 7-8" lefse and most is gone that evening. We split the leftovers with the family and have a few left for Christmas morning.

T related - that same grandmother drove a Model T on her homestead in eastern Montana before she married my grandfather. She was one heck of a woman.

Walt

Oops! obvious typo it should be Oslo.

Thread drift - do any of you scandahoovians have a good recipe for Krumkake? We've tried a few and never managed to get it right. I have my grandmothers well used iron as well as one we got in Norway. Just never found the recipe or technique that leaves them thin, crisp and rather fragile the way they should be.

Walt,
I found this on the NET. Could it be of any help?
http://scandinavianfood.about.com/od/cookierecipes/r/krumkake.htm
Best regards, Sven

Sven,

Thank You, I've not tried that one (it's been a while and my sister has been doing them) so I'll give it a try.

Walt

Walt I'll see if I can talk Jan into making some to bring next time we meet at Tenino. .....I just asked and she said yes and if they were what you are looking for she'd even share the recipe!.... I think it had something to do with a ride in a speedster!

Walt,

I am sure the link Sven sent will be good.
If for some reason you are not happy with the result, I may be able to help. A friend of ours bakes krumkake that I think are just to die for, but you know everybody's taste is not the same, and I might be able to wrestle the recipe from her. Let me know if I need to go into a wrestling match with her. :-) I didn't manage to keep my mother's krumkake iron or her conical pin she wrapped the krumkake around, so I have not tried to make them myself.
You might think me weird, a lot of people do, but I eat my potato lefse with salted butter and sunny side up fried eggs.
I can't help muse about how a fire in Norway led to a discussion on the MTFCA forum about lefse and krumkake.
Skål!

Roar, my mother and maternal grandmother would spend a weekend or two making potato lefse and "krina" lefse also. We kept the hard stuff in the attic. Mom would bring 3 or 4 sheets of the hard lefse down every afternoon, pour boiling water over them and lay them between linen towels to let them soften for supper. I like that type better than potato lefse which leaves a funny after-taste in my mouth.

The biggest problem these days is finding a lefse "plate" (which you cook the lefse on) that's large enough. Lefse should be about 2 feet in diameter. All I see these days for lefse baking are roughly 14" across. At that point it's a Norwegian flour tortilla. Should make a dandy burrito though <grin>.

I was told that one of my great-grandmothers could make 17 different types of lefse. I suppose there are some other types out there but on the Minnesota prairies I'm only aware of the two discussed here and "Hardanger" lefse which is, I believe, a sweet version.

Drifting even farther, a good Scandihoovian Christmas combines the smells of pines, coffee & lutefisk. I'd buy a candle that smells like THAT. ;-))

Warren,
That "lefse plate" they cooked the lefse on, as well as "flatbrød" (flat bread), is called "takke". Back when, they placed that over a big round woodburner, but these days most are electric, and good size ones are hard to find. I have seen "takke" for sale in the Sons of Norway magazine, but I think they are the small ones. You just have to bake a lot of them, and let me know when you have the next batch of krina lefse done! :-)

Roar,

Our "takke" is a 16" electric Bethany Heritage grill. I see one on line now for $95. I know we didn't pay that much!....but then it's been a few years ago!

Floyd

Floyd,

If my memory is anything close to being correct, those old takke for the wood burners must have been 30 inches or so. Now that I think about it, I wonder what happened to the one my grandmother had.
I guess the program didn't like the o with a slash through it in my previous post.

One of my favorites is Lefse with butter, sugar and cinnamon washed down with some good black hot coffee. But the lutefisk would put me over the edge. It's nothing anyone would really want to eat.

Is there a bakery up in your neck of the woods that makes "krina lefse". Sure would like some. Otherwise it is only when I go to Norway.

Here's a good place to have your Lutefisk, but you will have to wait til next December.

This feast has been going on annually for at least 60 years that I know of, probably much longer.

http://www.texasgetawayvacation.com/norwegian-lutefisk-dinner.html

UF-DA!!!!! When I was a kid I work in the meat department after school and on weekends. Around Christmas Lutefisk came in, in wooden buckets and I couldn't believe how much we would sell. When store closed and it was time to head downtown on Friday or Saturday night your hands smelled so bad nobody wanted to be with in 20 feet of you. I haven't eaten any for 40 years and can't say I miss it.