We grandchildren and great grandchildren of Norwegian immigrants probably share food ties if not familial ties.
Do you like lefse? Me too but I am of the plain butter, no other adornment, tribe.
We just laid on the butter, rolled it up and scarfed it down.
We had friends who ate lefse with sugar. To substitue and save time I'll whip up a batch of pancakes (much easier to do) Spread a cold pancake with butter, sprinkle it with sugar and roll up like a fat cigar and eat it. We ate these as snacks, and used up the leftover pancakes.
The children Norwegian immigrants have more in common with each other than with the relatives back in Norway. We have much more in common with our fellow Canadians than we do with Norwegians. We are Canadian after all. Still we harbour a faint nostalgia for the old country and what it represents. A connection to the recent past where ancestral roots are deep.
Norway today is weathy. A beer might cost fourteen dollars but the Norwegians can afford it. Right off the bat we see that things have changed.
I belong to a Norwegian cultural group. A lot of Scandinavians, likely more Swedes and Danes than Norwegian get together and learn how to speak Norwegian or carve a piece of wood. I go for the food. Also it gives me a chance to wear my prized, but itchy, Dale of Norway sweater, purchased on ebay. I'm allergic to wool. Well, I first really went to find other people who could play Norwegian whist. Guess what? Nobody knows how to play bid whist anymore. Do you know how? Let me know as I want to try playing it again.
I learned to say Tusen Tak. In our family we only said mange tak. Ever the under statement.
Our Norwegian immigrant extended family always had coffee in the afternoon. It wasn't just coffee though. It was coffee with a sweet. This was the highlight of many a visit. I really felt gypped when we went to homes where afternoon coffee with sweet was not in the picture.
Even today I consider this custom very civilized. Visit for awhile and then gather at the kitchen table. All together, the kids and the adults. A ritual really. It isn't quite the same now, lounging about on the couch, munching on natchos and salsa while we covertly check our messages and listen to chatter out of the corner of one ear. Are you familiar with the sugar lump straining technique? Its hard to pull off with a lot of finesse.
I have read that Norwegians are still attached to the potato even though they can afford all manner of imported fruits and veggies. The potato was a big staple of our diet too.
We may have invented a sandwich and I share it here for the first time and encourage you to try it. As a kid it was one of my favourite snacks:
Harold's Cold Potato Sandwich
Butter two slices of good fresh bread, slice up a cold boiled potato. Put slices of potato in two faced sandwich with some slices of onion and salt and pepper. This makes a good and filling sandwich. (I liked it without the onion but the salt and pepper and buttered bread are mandatory). Cheap and filling.
Here's another simple recupe from my childhood:
Bedtime Snack
Break bread into a bowl.
Cover with milk and cream, sprinkle with sugar, good.
Or use jam instead of sugar.
These ingredients were always available so we never went hungry.
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