"Will Anything Happen"

Some more footage of the Heart Of Glass performance on 1/4/08. The sound quality is better than the footage on my Picasa page. Plus, we're all up on the YouTubes!

First Project of '08

After spending Nov-Dec making holiday gifts, I wanted to put myself on the project list in the New Year. Here is my first offering - a wrap shirt designed from a Vogue pattern that I bought for $0.25 at the Scrap Exchange. It came together very easily, despite me not quite understanding the mechanics of the wrap part at first.

"And You Don't Stop"

Oh, "Rapture." Timeless as ever! Heart Of Glass had two shows this month, and I'm hoping more down the line. My bandmates totally rock! If you missed it (a) I feel sorry for you but (b) you can click on any picture to go to my Picasa album with some video footage of the show at the Local 506. Beware - the sound quality is poor and the volume defaults to 11.

LOCAL 506 - January 4th



Hillsborough St - January 12th

Debbie (aka Abby) rockin' the one-sleeve ensemble

Lefse - The Process (Day Two)

Step 4. Divide mashed potatoes. Mix in flour.


Step 5. Create little balls of potatoes - these will become the lefse. An ice cream scoop is handy for this.


Mmmm. Potato Ice Cream.
4 cups of potatoes - approximately half of the 5 pounds - yields 20-25 balls.

Step 6. Preheat lefse griddle

Step 7. Using a corrugated rolling pin equipped with a lefse sock, roll out the balls on a very well-floured pastry cloth.



When you can read the writing underneath, it's thin enough.

Step 8. Transfer to griddle using lefse stick.




Step 9. Cook until brown spots begin to form. Flip. Cook other side.




Step 9. Transfer to cooling rack, where your "little helper" will brush off the excess flour.


Step 10. Apply butter & sugar. Roll. Eat.

Lefse - The Process (Day One)

Step 1. Peel and boil 5 pounds of potatoes. My preference: Kennebecks

Step 2. Mash the potatoes with cream, a good amount of salt, and butter/margarine. Grandma uses Fleischmann's, so I use Fleischmann's.

Step 3. Cool potatoes overnight.

Lefse - The Equipment

LEFSE GRIDDLE AND POTATOES

Bethany Homes certainly has the market on lefse accessories. Side note: there is a very noticeable difference between MN potatoes and NC potatoes, the latter being much more dry and producing much drier lefse.


Top: Corrugated Lefse Rolling Pin

Below: Lefse Sock (covers rolling pin) and Pastry Cloth - again, note Bethany Homes branding and the inclusion of "lefse" as one of the stipulated items

Left: Lefse Stick - these are always, always, painted in the same manner. If you're Swedish, you have a blue & yellow one. Grandma also used a yardstick with a tapered end.

GRIDDLE

Showing signs of use. I recommend placing a heatproof cutting board underneath, because this baby runs at full power (500 degrees) at all times. Just ask Rob's mom's counter top ...

COOLING RACK AND BRUSH


APRON

The OFFICIAL Barnesville, MN Potato Days Lefse Cook-off Apron. Please try to contain your jealousy.

A Few Words About Lefse

I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't blog about lefse. For you non-Minnesotans/Norwegians, lefse is traditional Thanksgiving and Holiday fare. I can't call it a "dish" or "dessert" or "bread," because it's none of those things. Some call it a potato tortilla. My grandma calls it a "treat," so that's what I'm going with. A purist applies butter and sugar, rolls it up, and eats it. It also makes a good vehicle for leftover turkey dinner and various jams/fruit butters. The sky is the limit with lefse!

I was fortunate enough to learn how to make lefse from a seasoned pro - my grandma. Every year, around the middle of November, she would retreat to her basement kitchen and make lefse. All day. Where was my grandma when she heard JFK was shot? Making lefse. There was never a Thanksgiving or Christmas without lefse, so much so that I definitely took it for granted. Only after I moved away and contemplated her advancing age, along with the fact that no one else in the family knows how to make it, did I realize that the future of holiday lefse might depend on me.

(Incidentally, in addition to Lefse HQ, Grandma's basement housed her sewing and knitting machines and larder filled with home-canned goods - I'm merely the proverbial apple that fell from her amazing tree.)

Here I am, three years and several batches later. After a few flops early on, MANY 5lb bags of potatoes, and a truckload of flour, I think it does my grandma's recipe justice. Lefse-making has become part of the Christmas Eve tradition with Rob's family, and I think this year's vintage was the best yet! Hmmm ... All this thinking about lefse has made me VERY hungry for it. Perhaps it's not too late for more.

PJ Pants Part 3

Kathy: harnessing her chi in some comfy cat pants.


Fabric detail - Audrey Hepburn meets cats! I knew this was the right choice.


Light switch cover in action in the "Pepto Lounge," home of The Copycats!

Happy New Year!

We might have to get dressed up again to recreate the New Year's Eve outfits, as this is the only photographic evidence I have of them. Jackets from goodwill, spiced up with a little flavor from The Prisoner.

Here's to a great 2008! May we all find some time to focus on our respective crafts.