Food = Love and Potato Lefse
With a few of her children and grandkids at Star Wars.
This weekend we celebrated my Mother-in Law’s 80th Birthday. Her real birthday is not until Christmas but we always make an effort to celebrate early so that her special day doesn’t get completely mushed into Christmas.
Grandma Jean is truly amazing for too many reasons to number, but here are just a few:
- she went to work outside the home for the first time when she became a single Mom of seven children
- she does not have a grey hair on her head
- last time we played a family baseball game, she could still hit one passed the reach of her grandkids in the field
- she babysits the 2 1/2 year old Wee One once a week, taking her for walks and spending most summer days at the playground
- each person who spends Christmas in her home gets a special gift, even if they were a last minute invitee
I could go on but you get the picture…..
This year she gave her children and her grandchildren something truly extraordinary- a handwritten recipe book! D’s has 39 pages and 156 recipes including many of her own Mother’s and Grandmother’s. D was salivating as he flipped through the pages last evening, remembering delicious family suppers and the abundance of shenigans and laughter around the table.
I was invited to her Christmas table some 34 years ago and tasted her Potato Lefse for my very first time. When the Wee One eats them, she is the sixth generation to taste the recipe.
- 5 cups boiled potatoes, drained
- 5 T butter
- ½ c cream
- salt to taste
- flour-see note below
- Mix all ingredients well and then cool a while.
- Add ½ c flour for each cup of potato mixture.
- Flour counter and roll out about ⅓ c of dough, very thinly.
- Add a little more flour if needed.
- Bake on a 350 degree, flat grill until brown on both sides.
Think on this: 156 recipes x seven children and fifteen grandchildren=3,432 hand-written recipes! The project took her two years to complete. Now if that is not love, then what is?
Kath’s quote: Grandma Jean to her children & grandchildren-“If anyone’s marriage happens to break up, take the recipe book”.
Love, that is all.
Sounds like she’s figured out the keys to happiness! Unbelievable. The most amazing to me is that she watches Wee One weekly. That is truly special and not easy!