Nor-way, Jose!

I've written many times about my mom being a German-Jew-Presbyterian. My dad has always said 'Reynolds' is Irish, but I just think of us as being "Native Texan". So by my calculations that makes me a big ol' Irish-Texan-German-Jew-Presbyterian that's actually a Baptist-mutt. Which is why I always find it exciting that my kids are 25% Norwegian, thanks to Granny Sherry's 100 percentness. So last night we had a traditional Norwegian dinner. Actually, Sherry said we should be eating lutefisk for a real Norwegian Christmas dinner, but even Sherry isn't interested in eating fish soaked in lye. Instead, we ate homemade Swedish meatballs. And as you can see, Reed was a big fan of the meatballs. I guess he figured he better really enjoy the food since he hit the Norway genes jackpot as he inherited the bluest eyes and the blondest hair of the bunch.
I was most excited about having lefse for dessert. Now I'm sure the Rochester Cousins have lefse once a week, but it's actually a real treat for us since Sherry had to order it from Minnesota (the only place in the entire country you can get it).
All you other non-Norwegians must be wondering...what in the world is lefse? Well, the best way to explain it: it's like a really, really thin tortilla and you eat it with soft butter (apparently, the butter being soft is super important) and brown sugar. You can see the 50% Norwegian preparing his lefse here. (Soft butter in the bottom right hand corner.) Of course, this nonNorwegian- German-Jew-Baptist-Irish-Texan is happy to eat lefse whether the butter is hard or soft. I mean, can you really go wrong with any kind of butter...and brown sugar? I'm thinkin' not!

Norwegians eating meatballs.


Norwegians eating lefse.