With the holidays quickly approaching, the cooking and baking of traditional Scandinavian foods begins – for my family at least. This weekend my grandma, aunt and cousin will be making lefse and it got me thinking: Are we losing family-based traditions in today’s retail world?
Traditions have been continued in our family for generations. Lefse, lutefisk (eww), Swedish meatballs, spritz cookies and more are served every year, no matter how many times I say that I don’t like lutefisk. However, it seems that the number of individuals who know how to prepare them is getting smaller.
I am just as guilty as others. I have not watched my grandma and aunt make lefse. I don’t know how to use the cookie press to make the special cookies. Is it because I’m sure I could find out how online? Or I know I could run down to the store and buy it? Or am I just relying on someone else to know how?
The responsibility falls to me to observe, learn and continue the traditions that I believe are important. However, I am curious if anyone else is experiencing something similar and your thoughts on the cause and/or solution.
Photo credit: theconglomerate.org
Thanks to Dave Erickson for teaching me the style coding. NOTE: I can’t, for the life of me, figure out how to make the text wrap further up the image. If anyone has any tips, I would greatly appreciate it!
#1 by Liz Strand on November 18, 2009 - 5:49 am
This sounds exactly like my Christmas Eve growing up (dad’s side of the family)! Grandma died a few years ago, and the spritz cookies haven’t been seen since. My aunt Margaret makes fantastic lefse too though, and after years of hearing Grandma say what she made herself was never good enough, Aunt Margaret has picked up that same tradition, but it is wonderful! Unfortunately, she knows how to make lutefisk too (you should watch Andrew Zimmern’s bizarre foods in Minnesota). My dad sometimes helps & my sister has been helping a lot as well. I couldn’t make lefse if my life depended on it, but then, I can’t cook much of anything anytime of the year! I have never found a store-bought lefse that even begins to compare to the real thing, with it’s incredibly time consuming process.
I do notice that various family traditions seem to fade away a little more each year though. I don’t known what will happen when my parent’s generation is gone too. I guess I’ll be standing in line at Ingebretson’s (Sp?) in Minneapolis when the time comes…