Scandinavian Weekend

In honor of the part of my children's heritage that is Norwegian, I'm declaring this Scandinavian weekend here. So, for Saturday's fun day, a Norwegian joke and a recipe for lefse, all from Cousin Dave's Home page.

Ole took a trip to Fargo, North Dakota. He was thirsty and stopped in one of the neighborhood bars. A Dane on the next stool spoke to Ole in a friendly manner. "Look," he said, "let's play a little game. I'll ask you a riddle. If you can answer it, I'll buy you a drink. If you can't answer it then you buy me a drink. Is it a deal?"

"Ya," says Ole, "dat sounds purty fair to me".

The Dane proceeded to ask Ole, "My father and mother had one child. It wasn't my brother and it wasn't my sister. Who was it?" Ole scratched his head and finally said, "I give up. Who vas it?"

"It was me," laughed the Dane. So Ole paid for the Dane's drink.

When Ole got back home to Minnesota he ran into Sven in a bar. "Sven," he says, "I got a game for you to play. If you can answer the question, I'll buy you a drink. If you can't, you have to buy me vun. Okay?" Sven agreed.

"Ok", says Ole, "My fadder and mudder had vun kid. It vasn't my brudder and it vasn't my sister. Who vas it?"

"Beats me," said Sven, "I give up, who vas it?"

Right away, Ole says, "It vas some Dane up der in Fargo, Nort Dakota."

More jokes here.

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And now, how to make lefse, which Dave says you can do without a lefse maker:

6 cups riced or mashed russet potatoes
1 tsp. salt
3 T. margarine or butter
1 T. sugar
2 T. heavy cream or evaporated milk
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Combine all ingredients except flour; refrigerate until thoroughly chilled. Add flour; mix well. Heat lefse or other griddle to 400 degrees. Form dough into long roll and cut into 12 sections. Form each section into a small ball. Roll out very thin with cloth-covered lefse or regular rolling pin on cloth-covered lefse board or other surface. Dust board with flour when turning lefse dough. Bake on ungreased griddle until brown spots appear. Turn and bake other side. Stack lefse between 2 towels to cool. Store in refrigerator in plastic bags. Can be frozen. Makes 12 lefse.

Uffda! That sounds good! My favorite way to have my lefse is spread with butter, sprinkled with white sugar, and rolled up like a crepe, but you can also spread them with jam or jelly or sour cream.