Once again, I run the risk of offering a limerick contest, the 2nd Annual Lefse Limerick Contest that runs throughout the rest of the month of January until February 10, just before Valentine’s Day. Of course, the topic of all limericks is lefse and love! Email your lefse-love limericks to glegwold@lutefisk.com.

Let’s get right to the risk. Wikipedia defines a limerick as “a form of verse, usually humorous and frequently rude,” in five-lines. The first, second, and fifth lines rhyme, and the third and fourth lines, which are shorter, have a different rhyme.

The form originated in England in the 18th century and became popular in the 19th century. Wikipedia says, “Gershon Legman, who compiled the largest and most scholarly anthology, held that the true limerick as a folk form is always obscene … . From a folkloric point of view, the form is essentially transgressive; violation of taboo is part of its function.”

Wikipedia cites the following example is a limerick of unknown origin:

The limerick packs laughs anatomical
Into space that is quite economical.
But the good ones I’ve seen
So seldom are clean
And the clean ones so seldom are comical.

A Clean Lefse Limerick

So you see the risk of running a Lefse Limerick Contest. To be true to form, a lefse limerick, it appears, should be “obscene” and “frequently rude” and a “violation of taboo.” Oh, dear!

Well, following the exact form of a limerick will never do in here Lefse Land. We have our fun with lefse and certainly lutefisk, but we are never rude or obscene. No, no, no!

And yet, it is possible to dance along the borders of the true limerick to create an entertaining lefse limerick. Check this out:

There once was a Norsky named Niles
He endured a rough month with the piles
He ate lefse — was cured!
So please rest assured
On those who love lefse, God smiles.

There, that wasn’t so bad! I dance along the border of the true limerick with mention of “piles” in the second line, but I never cross the line. You must admit, the limerick could have gone decidedly south after that. But it didn’t, and we end up with smiles.

A Lefse-Love Limerick

For the 2nd Annual Lefse Limerick Contest, you must write a limerick about lefse and love. After all, Valentine’s Day is approaching! Here’s one I just made up, for example. I couldn’t resist being part of the fun.

There once was a woman named Joyce
Who was faced with a difficult choice:
Pick lefse or Bob
And try not to sob
”Sorry, Bob, the lefse looks moist!”

Ok, your turn. Write a lefse-love limerick—including lefse and love is mandatory—and enter the contest. Keep it clean, remember! Check out this site on how to write a limerick. Do your very best with having eight beats in the first, second, and fifth lines with the last word in those lines rhyming. Then five beats in the third and fourth lines, with the last word in those lines having a different rhyme than the last word in the first, second, and fifth lines.

Send your lefse-love limerick or limericks to glegwold@lutefisk.com. Submit as many lefse-love limericks as you want until midnight on February 10. Winners will be announced February 14. Oh, winners will receive:

1. First place: all-walnut lefse rolling pin and stand—made by me!

1. Second place: Keep On Rolling Holly & Brass Cozy—Red Trim.

1. Third place: autographed copy of my latest Book: Final Rounds: On Love, Loss, Life, and Lefse.

1. All limericks of note receive a 2022 Let’s Make Lefse! Calendar.

In my classes — and perhaps in your kitchen — the biggest problem lefse makers have is with sticking. Nothing is more frustrating than to roll a beautifully round and elegantly thin lefse … and then tear the round because it sticks to the rolling surface! Not only does it ruin the round, but it also creates a trouble spot on your rolling surface. That darn spot will cause sticking throughout your lefse-making session.

My solution is to go big and go blue. Use a big 23 1/2-inch Keep On Rolling Pastry Board and cover it with a Blue Pastry Board Cover. With the big board — as opposed to the 19-inch board commonly found on the market — you’ll use less flour and have less sticking. You can use the whole board, rolling at the periphery versus just the center. I instruct my students to start rolling their round until it is about half the size of what they want the final round to be. Then turn the round and move it to a different spot on the board to finish. That way, they are not grinding away at that same spot typically in the center of the board, which will cause sticking sooner or later.

With the bigger board, you simply have more room to not only turn and move the round but also to use less flour — which makes for a cleaner kitchen. You move your round to a spot where you can see there is plenty of flour on the board already. How can you see? The blue cover contrasts with the the white flour (see photo), and you immediately see that the darker spot has potential to be a sticky spot that you avoid. So without re-flouring the board, you move your round to where you can see there is more flour than that dark blue spot. Things are not so obvious when you have a white pastry board cover under white flour.

So go big and go blue for less sticking and more satisfaction in lefse making.

I was watching a YouTube video on making lefse. The recipe called for 6 cups of riced potatoes, which is twice the amount of riced potatoes in my basic recipe. OK, not a problem so far. But the video recipe had half the amount of butter and cream as what I use in my 3 cups of riced potatoes. Twice the potatoes but half the good stuff? They were skimping.

Yes, you can make lefse by skimping, and it will look like lefse and sorta taste like lefse. But why? Cost? Concerns about fat in your diet? Ok, you can save money with less butter and cream in your dough. And yes, you can cut back on the butter fat.

But don’t. Just don’t. Lefse is once or twice a year, and you want to go all in on making the best-tasting lefse you can. And when you consider the butter fat content per round, it’s not much at all. If anything, go a little strong with the butter and cream to not only bring out a richness in the flavor, but also to make the lefse tender and moist.

I recently switched to Kemps Simply Crafted Heavy Whipping Cream (pictured). It has 20% saturated fat, more saturated fat than the cream I was using previously. I immediately noticed a difference in the tenderness and taste of my lefse, and I am sticking with this cream. You may not have this brand in your stores, but I highly recommend going with a cream with the highest fat content.

So don’t be a skimper when making lefse. Not with your butter or cream, and by all means go ahead and use a rounded tablespoon of sugar instead of a leveled tablespoon. This is lefse, not less se!

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.

At one market years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Rev. Charles Colberg of Minneapolis, who lifted my lefse making 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 high 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.

Bottom line is I will never go back to another flour. Try King Arthur Flour and see how your lefse improves. Mix it into your dough and let the gluten work for a good 10 minutes. Then roll. Your edges will not look like the coast of Norway. They won’t be jagged, and your round won’t fall apart when moving it to the grill.

For my second lefse book, Keep On Rolling! Life on the Lefse Trail and Learning to Get a Round, I interviewed Bonnie Jacobs (above) of Jacobs Lefse Bakeri and Gifts in Osaka’s, Minnesota. It was a wonderful day learning about how to make a massive amount of lefse to feed the lefse-loony masses at the holidays. At the end of the interview, I asked for her best lefse-making tip. Without hesitation, she replied: “Do it more than once a year.”

It gets a laugh when I repeat that line in my lefse classes, but it is the best advice. You learn best when doing, and the more you do the better your lefse gets. After learning from your grandmother or in a class, you make lefse making your own the more you do it. You fine-tune the recipe, maybe make a substitution that improves the flavor. You get better at rolling and grilling, which make your lefse better. You become more confident and satisfied that you are making an excellent food and carrying on a fine tradition.

So make lefse, and do it more than once a year.

If there is a product for our times, it is this one. The pandemic has been rough, but I’ve maintained throughout that lefse — and now the new Lefse Hoodie — can smooth things out a bit.

How can a hooded sweatshirt help? Here are four reasons to consider the Lefse Hoodie.

1. Humor — it’s funny. “LEFSE is cheaper than therapy” makes us smile, which is not always easy for Scandinavians in the best of times. Henry Ward Beecher, an American clergyman and abolitionist whose sister was Uncle Tom’s Cabin author Harriet Beecher Stowe, wrote: “A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It’s jolted by every pebble on the road.”
2. Function — it’s warm. There are notions that people lose up to 80% of body heat through their head. The US army manual from 1970 said, no, the percentage is 40% to 45%. However, more recent research says it’s really about 7%-10% lost through the head because the head is about 7% of the body’s surface area. True, the face, head, and chest are more sensitive to changes in temperature than the rest of the body, making it feel as if covering them up does more to prevent heat loss. But the real issue is people don’t want to cover their head because a covering will mess up their hair or hide their face, making them less attractive. Hey, the Lefse Hoodie is so attractive, you won’t mind flipping up the hood and pulling on the drawstring to stay warm. Also, you can keep your hands warm with the front pouch.
3. Fashion — it’s cool. This black hoodie is so cool that Amaya, my 13-year-old granddaughter who is ever so vigilant about rejecting clothing that is not IN, exclaimed immediately when she saw the Lefse Hoodie: “I want this! Oh, Papa, I want this!” Nuff said.
4. Sanity — it’s helpful. Next time you feel you’re about to lose it, slip on the Lefse Hoodie. It’ll help. Seeing the word “therapy” on the hoodie may stimulate you to call your therapist and set up an appointment. All good. In the meantime, you can make some lefse, which certainly helps your mental health. For example, say you have crippling issues with perfectionism. Lefse teaches you humility and acceptance. Or you have shame about not making lefse as good as your mom or sister. Lefse teaches patience, and making lefse builds self-confidence. Or you’re pained by how stingy and uptight you tend to be. Give away some lefse and learn about the benefits of generosity.

Lefse gets you out and with others. You are not isolated, which can make you blue. Lefse makers often make lefse with family or friends, and they have fun. So the Lefse Hoodie fits right in. And even if you do a solo act, you are not alone. You have all those great lefse-making and lefse-eating memories to warm you. Remember this last line from my first book, The Last Word on Lefse: Heartwarming Stories and Recipes Too!: “Never alone and seldom sad, the life of a lefse maker isn’t so bad.”

I’ve known Mary Lou Peterson for years. I visited her home and, as she made very good lefse, interviewed her for my second lefse book, Keep On Rolling! Life on the Lefse Trail and Learning to Get a Round. We stay in touch. That’s how lefse friends roll.

So a few weeks ago she emailed and mentioned casually that she was entering a lefse contest at the Minnesota State Fair. I had not heard of this contest, but I pleaded with Mary Lou to write up her experience for a blog. I mean, this was big time and very few lefse makers — who often take pride in making lefse that’s second only to Grandma’s — have the courage to enter such a contest and then learn their lefse is not the best. What??

Mary Lou is bold by nature, up for most adventures. So here is Mary Lou’s account of her State Fair Lefse Adventure.

I have this to say about the Covid quarantine: It plays with your brain. You get ideas and talk about them to people — who remember what the idea was and KEEP REMINDING you of them. My idea involved lefse.

I’ve been making lefse a long time, and the family brags about it. I’ve passed the talent of rolling a round lefse to my children and grandchildren. Well, I learned of the Creative Activities competition for ethnic breads at the Minnesota State Fair. The entry could be a bread from any country, so Norway’s breads were only a small piece of this division.

I had not competed in any baking contests since I was in 4-H. Back then I traveled to the Minnesota State Fair after winning at the Roseau County Fair. One year I made a potato casserole in a demonstration in front of judges, and a second year I made a Baked Alaska. I decided to enter this year’s State Fair contest because people enjoy my lefse and I have time since I’ve retired. It was time to test my baking ability by submitting four perfectly delicious rounds and then sit back and wait for congrats to arrive.

A quick lefse lesson: It starts with cooking russet potatoes with the skins on for extra flavor. Peel them easily when the potatoes are cooled a bit. You enlist your husband to do the ricing. He might as well be part of this since he eats it.

I cool the potatoes with the margarine, salt and sugar and mix it well. In the meantime, I pull out the grill, lefse stick, special rolling pin, and the board and cover used for rolling. I also have a towel ready to cover the rounds. Most important, I get butter and sugar for testing my lefse (quality control, you know).

I add flour to the potato mixture and work it well. Then I make a ball with the dough and roll it thin until I can read the writing on the board cover through the rolled out round. Using the lefse stick, I move the round to the hot grill and wait. It’s at this time the ricer husband returns to be “the hot-off-the-grill lefse tester”. It passes the test!

Lesson over, now back to the contest! I finished the rest of my batch, cooled it, and selected the four best. I took off for the fairground on Saturday morning. My entry had to be in between 9:30 am and 1 pm. I made the deadline, but the line was down the sidewalk and around the corner of the Creative Activities building! Oh oh — competition!

I handed the four best rounds of lefse ever made to the entry table and went home to wait. Thursday came and results were in. Excitement abounded as I and my husband returned to the State Fair and hurried to see my lefse entry displayed and then to collect my reward.

Sorry to say my opinion of perfect lefse and the judge’s opinion were not the same. No ribbon…

The winning lefse received third place in the competition. Baklava won and potica got second. Quite a variety  to judge! Three plates of lefse were put in the display case for viewing, and mine was one. Oh, well, there is always next year!

Mary Lou Peterson