Author: Gary Legwold

The title is not hyperbole. I am giving you two hot lefse-baking tips — hot, as in temperatures of up to 500 degrees F — that allow you to get full power to your most valuable lefse-making tool, your grill, and to prolong its life.

I have several lefse grills that I use for my lefse classes, but during my last batch of classes I discovered I had two grills that no longer worked because the electric probe controls were shot. They had burned out. If you’ve had your lefse grill for a while, you may have had this problem. So …

Hot Tip #1: Purchase a second probe control.

In the “How to Use Your New Grill” section of the Bethany Heritage Grill instructions, it reads: “It is not recommended that the probe control be used continuously for periods of more than 1 ½ hours at maximum temperature. At that time, allow the probe to cool down for 30 minutes before re-using. Alternate probes may be used to continue baking.”

I had never alternated probes in all my years of making lefse, which probably explains why my probe had burned out. I now have an alternate probe.

Here is how Roxie Svoboda, president of Bethany Housewares, summed it up when I interviewed her for my latest book, Keep On Rolling! Life on the Lefse Trail and Learning to Get a Round: “If you alternate the controls, you’ll have better luck making your grill last longer. Have two controls; we sell just the control separately. Put a different control in every hour, and let the other one cool off. We have people get together as a family and bake for eight hours. The grill is OK; it can handle it. It’s the control that you should change every hour or so.”

Hot Tip #2: Modify your old grill for a new control probe.

I bought new probe controls for my old grills, but the new probe controls didn’t fit snugly into the receptacles of the old grills. The probes didn’t go into the receptacles far enough for the grills to heat up sufficiently to bake lefse. Hmmm. So I emailed Roxie, asking if Bethany carried controls that would fit old models.

She responded that Bethany did not have old controls, but new controls work in older grills “with a slight modification.” Here’s how to modify your old grill for a new probe (see photo opening this blog):

1. Turn over your old grill. You’ll see two screws that secure the aluminum shield wrapping around the receptacle into which the probe control fits.
2. Loosen those screws and slide the shield toward the center of the grill.
3. With the shield in its more central position, re-tighten the screws.

This allows the new probe control to fit deeper into the receptacle and supply full power for a 500-degree grill.

“If this does not solve the problem,” added Roxie, “you may have a grill that has larger prongs [probes] that were produced for a short period about 30 years ago, before we purchased the company.”

In this case, the solution is to replace the larger probes. You need to send the grill and the probe control to Bethany, who will replace the larger probe with a smaller one. The charge is $20 plus shipping. Roxie advised to include a note in the shipping box that has your name, address, phone number, and a brief description of what you would like done.

 

 

I’m on a lefse tour these days, barnstorming with my books and making speeches about lefse and lutefisk to any group that might find entertainment and humor in hearing about these traditional foods. The speech highlights a fun afternoon or evening, and I always look forward to ending my presentation by singing a lefse song I co-wrote with Erik Sherburne from St. Paul. The song is “Keep On Rollin’”, which is a benediction for my latest book Keep On Rolling! Life on the Lefse Trail and Learning to Get a Round and, I can confidently say, is the best lefse song ever recorded on a Tuesday evening in December.

Erik wrote the music, and I wrote the lyrics to this lefse song for voice and piano. It’s a tune that honors the tradition and fun of lefse making as well as the resiliency, faith, and gratitude of lefse makers who just keep on rolling throughout their life. This “family” song is easy to sing and easy to play whenever folks gather to make and eat lefse.

“Keep On Rollin’” is eight pages filled with three verses, a bridge, and a rousing chorus. Many people have purchased the score after they hear me sing the song. Typically, the audience starts singing along in the chorus after the third verse, and the song invariably brings down the house.

People who cannot attend my presentation have asked if there is any way to hear a recording of the song before buying the sheet music. I’m happy to say that yes, now they can. Listen to my recording of “Keep On Rollin’”, with Dorothy Williams at the piano.

With lefse sticks, here’s what you do

Beyond just flipping rounds.

You make them for a chum or two

Now friendship knows no bounds!

 

Wanna make friends fast? Make lefse sticks and give them away.

“Oh, I can’t make lefse sticks,” you protest. “I’m not good working with wood.”

Oh, yes you can! Here’s a simple way to make a sturdy and stylish-looking lefse stick — and you can get the wood free.

This tip came from Nolan Spencer, who I featured in Keep On Rolling! Life on the Lefse Trail and Learning to Get a Round. He recently made the lefse stick pictured above and mailed it to me from his home in Deerwood, Minnesota.

“I’m cheap,” wrote Nolan, “and I make them from 5-gallon paint stir sticks, which I get free of charge at The Home Depot. I jigsaw the ends, plane down the sticks, and finish them on my belt sander. Everyone I teach lefse making to gets one. You’re an exception, Gary. Give it a try, and keep on rolling!”

Will do, Nolan, my lefse friend!

It’s party time!

As we approach the February 4^th Super Bowl with NFC and AFC Championship games this weekend, think about taking to your extravagant football parties one of the 13 lefse wraps in Keep On Rolling! Life on the Lefse Trail and Learning to Get a Round.

Just as I can guarantee a Minnesota Vikings victory, I can also guarantee your lefse wraps will be the talk of the table because:

• Everyone loves a tasty wrap. It’s fun finger food, and you don’t fill up on a lot of carbs—just the savory combinations inside.
• A lefse wrap is the tastiest of all wraps. Most other types of wraps have wrappings with no taste—zilch. But velvety, toasty, potato-y lefse adds to the texture and the ensemble of flavors. Plus, lefse is pretty with its brown spots and freckles against a golden background.

So forget all the same-old, same-old dishes you’ll find at typical football feasts. Wow revelers with this simple, can’t miss lefse-wrap:

Hamlet and a Pickle

• Danish ham-and-cheese lefse wrap
• 4 tablespoons stone-ground mustard
• 1 pound thinly sliced Danish ham
• ¾ pound thinly sliced Havarti cheese
• 8 crisp kosher dill pickle spears

Spread 4 lefse rounds with stone-ground mustard. Cover lefse with a layer of ham, and then cover with a layer of cheese. Lay two pickle spears across the diameter of each lefse. Roll up lefse and cut into pinwheels.

Enjoy, and enjoy the games. Skol Vikes!

One of the joys of the marketplace is listening to customers. It’s gratifying to hear praise for my books, and it’s a joy to keep learning from other aficionados about the art of making lefse.

Example: When I was selling my books at the Linden Hills Holiday Market in Minneapolis in November, I had the pleasure of meeting Rev. Charles Colberg of Minneapolis, who gave me two tips that have pleased my feet and especially the consumers of my lefse.

First, Rev. Colberg turned me on to Darn Tough socks, which are unconditionally guaranteed for life. Can’t kick about that guarantee, so I asked for and received a pair for Christmas. I love the fit, feel, and warmth.

The second tip from Rev. Colberg has lifted my lefse to the next level — and I already made very good lefse. The tip: Switch to King Arthur Flour.

This tip was so simple that I pooh-poohed it initially. After all, flour is flour, right? Well, no, as I discovered. There are reasons why King Arthur Flour is twice as expensive as the flour I have been buying. It is never bleached and has a protein content (gluten) that is carefully calibrated so that you have the same results every time you bake.

I was not put off by the price. I will pay what is asked if it makes my lefse better. And it did. When I rolled lefse for customers in the week before Christmas and for the Christmas Eve family gathering, my dough was velvety but tender. And my rounds were round with edges that were reliably smooth and not ragged. Same recipe I’ve always used but different flour.

So that is my tip: Switch to King Arthur Flour. It is arguably the second best tip I can offer lefse makers striving to improve. My best tip? It’s not mine but a tip from Bonnie Jacobs, who owns Jacobs Lefse Bakeri in Osakis, Minnesota. “Here’s my best advice on trying to make perfectly round lefse,” Bonnie told me in Keep On Rolling. “Do it more than once a year.”

After years of writing about lefse and teaching lefse classes and, upon occasion, selling lefse to friends for special events, I have decided to hang my shingle and sell Keep On Rolling Lefse!

I hang my shingle knowing my limits. Keep On Rolling Lefse will not be big enough — it’s just my daughter, Kate McIntosh, and me — to compete with the six commercial lefse makers I chronicle in Keep On Rolling! The big factories ship just about anywhere and make enough to supply grocery chains and church dinners. We cannot. We’re for the local Twin Cities individual market; we can ship if you are willing to pay the two-day shipping cost.

But our advantage is Keep On Rolling Lefse is fresh and made to order. Just tell us how many rounds you want and the pick-up date, and the lefse will be rolled and grilled on the pick-up date or the day before. Lefse is so much better when it is fresh! If your order is so large that it requires filling with some frozen lefse, your cost is lowered. That’s a fair deal. And we can do lefse-wrap lefse rolled at a thickness that’s perfect for the juicy ingredients of lefse wraps.

So give Keep On Rolling Lefse a try. Tis the season!

In the bridge of the lefse song “Keep On Rollin’”, which I co-wrote with Erik Sherburne, the lyrics are:

A lefse maker I once knew/She said “Here is what you do/

When in a storm/Just let your faith take form/

Keep on a rollin’/The sun will shine anew/

So stand tall, be true/Stay strong, be you!”

I came upon this story called “Lefse Apron.”

It’s an excerpt from “New Land, New Life,” produced by the St. Paul Sons of Norway Lodge, Synnøve Nordkap. Members shared stories about their Norwegian ancestry. Erna McGuire embodies the faith, gratitude, strength, and resilience that are often fundamental to our elder lefse makers.

As you make your lefse for Thanksgiving, listen to this podcast. Oh, it’s OK if tears fall upon your lefse.

 

I have an intriguing chapter in Keep On Rolling! that I call “The Lefse Revolution!” That chapter celebrates five very good lefse makers who have bucked tradition. I celebrate them because, too often, lefse makers get locked into THE WAY, rigidly rejecting all other recipes and ways to make lefse.

Well, in writing two lefse books, I have interviewed more lefse makers than any writer, and I will say there are many ways to make lefse—and one is not superior. But too often we grow up intimidated or put off by the rigidity of THE WAY promoted by an elder, fearing being scolding by not following THE WAY.

In my lefse classes, which start Monday and continue for two weeks, I preach openness and experimentation. I give you my way—which is traditional and has worked for me for years but is different from THE WAY—and I pass on methods and recipes I have picked up over the years that intrigue me. Three examples:

1. We will try rolling lefse made with instant potatoes. Whoa!
2. We will try rolling lefse dough that is warm and has not cooled overnight, which is the traditional way.
3. We will try rolling lefse dough made with olive oil, not butter or cream.

So I give you a mix of tradition and revolution. What do you expect from a Gemini?

Two of my classes, November 8 and 9, are full, but please join the “traditional revolution” fun in my other lefse classes.

Wanna know how to scare the krumkake out of most true-blue, traditional lefse makers on Halloween? Tell them they have to make lefse using instant potatoes!

This has been a forbidden ingredient in lefse because, say traditionalists, instant potatoes are not real (although the box says the contents are 98 percent potatoes), and using instant potatoes is perceived to be cheating.

Part of lure of lefse is in the anticipation that is increased with the time required to boil potatoes, mash them, rice them, make the dough, and then cool the dough overnight. This potato-prep time is a nostalgic labor of love that connects us to those who made lefse before us, to grandmas and aunts in the “good old days.” But with potatoes that are instant (can’t you just see the sneer as traditionalist sputter that word), the anticipation is diminished, and the connection to grandma is hurried by an unquestioned and unwelcomed need for speed.

On the other hand, there are times when you don’t want—or physically cannot pull off—the big production; you just want a little lefse. Why not use instant potatoes and get right down to some fun rolling?

When I wrote The Last Word on Lefse 25 years ago, I was one who sneered at instant potatoes. But with age and with the writing of Keep On Rolling! this year, I no longer sneer. Over the years, I have interviewed too many lefse makers who make excellent lefse using instant potatoes.

So for the first time I am going to explore using instant potatoes as an experiment in my lefse-making classes, which begin next week. We’ll make dough with “real” potatoes and dough with instant potatoes, and we’ll see how the lefse rolling and baking go, and how the lefse tastes. I’ll let you know.

This morning I look out my window, and a howling north wind is shoving treetops severely south, and slushy snow is slanting sideways. Ah, lefse season has begun!

Lefse is the ultimate comfort food, and pausing to eat it with a cuppa tea underscores the fact that you are nice and cozy and warm when the world outside is not. I maintain that making lefse has the effect of an anti-depressant. Rather than being subject to the dim, bleak, gray conditions that characterize foul weather, lefse makers defiantly thumb their nose and merrily roll a few rounds.

So, I welcome the first snowfall just as I welcome my annual appearance at Ingebretsen’s. Last week, I spoke there about lefse and lutefisk, signed books, and talked shop with Julie Ingebretsen, pictured.

I remember the first year I signed books at Ingebretsen’s in 1992. The Last Word on Lefse  was brand new, and the outside temperature on the day of my signing was frigid. And yet, as I approached to the store in my car, I could see a line of rather cheery pre-Thanksgiving shoppers coming out the door.

I quickly set up my table, which Julie had positioned right inside the store door so that shoppers could not miss me as they entered. Let’s sign some books!

And yet, bundled-up shoppers would invariably enter the store and move right past my table to the market section. Their primary mission in coming to this grand, old establishment was to purchase lefse, lutefisk, cheese, polse, smoked ham, meatballs, herring, blood sausage “klub,” and liver pate.

I waited, crestfallen, thinking something was wrong with my book or me.

Nothing was wrong. After shoppers had succeeded with their primary mission and allowed their bones to thaw in the warmth of the store, they relaxed and roamed—and eventually found my table full of lefse books. They’d smile, pick up that beautiful blue book, and say, “You wrote a whole book on lefse, then?”

In the end, sales were brisk, and it was a very good day. Bad weather, but a good lefse memory.