Love that Lutefisk! (Well, we willingly tried it, anyway)

On Halloween day at 3 o'clock, we walked 46 steps to the Lutheran church for the annual Lutefisk dinner. Lutefisk is "lyefish" in Norwegian, and it is loved, despised, or simply tolerated by all on the vast northwestern prairie, depending on who you talk to. Back in ancient times, lye was used to preserve codfish, which is "one of Norway's oldest trading commodities. It's been a lasting Norwegian tradition in this part of the country, despite the lack of seashore and codfish!

In a great hall similar to an LDS cultural hall minus the basketball hoops, several tables were set up, and at each place at the tables was a paper place mat and napkin, each declaring: "Love that Lutefisk!" The place mats also included a brief history of Lutefisk, along with simple recipes you could try at home, provided you have some Lutefisk handy. Don't have any? Just call the Lutefisk Hot-line at 1-800-882-0212. (Now 882 is a Moscow prefix. Wouldn't it be funny is someone in Moscow ID was taking Lutefisk orders and giving lutefisk tips to all of the great Midwest?!)

The place mat history also said "Today we feel that a new meaning has been given to the word Lutefisk--one that means family, fellowship, and good times." Scobey's Lutefisk dinner is served in the Lutheran Church every year on the 4th Sunday in October.

Anyway, lucky for everyone present, Lutefisk is always served with a turkey or ham dinner. To put it simply, Lutefisk is fish jello. But we had a lovely Thanksgiving meal to go with it--even ended things nicely with a slice of pumpkin pie. The service was super--grandfatherly men in red Lutefisk aprons kept our cups full of water, and our table well stocked with potatoes and gravy, stuffing, turkey, and cranberry sauce. They were like Lutheran High Priests.

I must not forget to mention the LEFSE. Lefse looks JUST like flour tortillas, but it tastes quite different. It's main ingredient is potatoes. You spread the lefse with butter and sprinkle it with sugar, top it with Lutefisk (or not), roll it up, and eat it. So lefse is always served with Lutefisk, and it sounds like it is a staple throughout the year( lefse, not Lutefisk, unless I guess you're a hard core Norwegian).

Jesse's dental assistant spends one day a year making lefse and sends some to relatives and freezes the rest for her family to enjoy throughout the next year. Yesterday was her big lefse day, and I got to join in on the rolling and grilling. She'd been preparing the potatoes since Wednesday with her husband, peeling, boiling, and mashing 60 pounds worth. On Saturday she added the flour (butter and cream went into them when they were mashed) and with a few friends and her brother (the two had grown up making it with their mother) and me, rolled it all out and grilled/baked them on big round griddles and flipped them over with long flat sticks. We did loads and loads. And boy are they good right off the griddle. Love that LEFSE!