Mother's Day

Hello Readers!

I realize I'm a day late, but yesterday was Mother's Day so let's talk about that today. First though, happy Mother's Day to all the moms! Now that that's been said, let's continue. My mom loves when we go out to brunch for Mother's Day. Of course, my grandma enjoys it too, but Mother's Day is one of the few days of the year, besides birthdays that we go out to a restaurant to eat. In this case, we went to this mansion turned hotel for brunch. We used to go to the Ramada Inn because they served a Mother's Day brunch, but when they stopped doing that, we had to find a new place. I think we've finally settled on this place though. It seems like in past years this place hasn't really had a whole lot of food options, which is strange because they have a fairly large selection of food. This year though, the food was pretty amazing.

Slight tangent, but I swear it's related. So there was this commercial playing for Mother's Day that I think was supposed to be for Hallmark, but I didn't really pay attention to that part. This family though, a father and daughter, were baking cupcakes and making them look like dirt to put in flower pots with flowers. I thought it was super cute, so I wanted to make some for the moms that are in my life. Especially since they all like flowers. So last week, I rushed out with a friend of mine, E, who was just bored and agreed to go with me. He actually ended up driving too. I needed to get everything early, because Mrs. I's birthday was last and since I had class on the same day, I wanted to bring her the cupcake flower thing a day early. So after rushing like crazy, I made it to the school where she works. I was scared that she'd left early, so I ran around all over the place looking for her when finally, I found her in the copy room. I managed to surprise her with both being there and the cupcake. Apparently though, she had been having a bad day and visiting her had made her day. I'm really glad that I had the chance to get there while she was there. It made my day to see her brighten up. But then I had to hang on to the cupcakes for a few days until I could prep them on Sunday.

So Sunday morning, I woke up to go to church with my mom and grandma. I went into the teen group mainly because I hadn't see them in a while. I found out that two friends of mine, M and his wife T, are moving back to Brazil. M is a year away from getting a Master's degree, but he's moving to help his dad expand the family business. I found out that a goodbye party will probably be held for them in a week or so.

Anyways though, after church, we all went out to brunch. After that we came home and gave gifts to my mom and grandma.

How was your Mother's Day weekend? What did you do to celebrate?

With Love,
PolarBearMoose <3

PS, I caved and finally made an Instagram. Find me as OriginalPolarBearMoose. I'll add a link to the side bar soon.

Learning to Make Lefse: Part 2

As promised, I had some family members take some pictures!

So we had to add flour to the potato dough:

Then we had to roll it into balls and then roll it out:


Next we baked/grilled!
 
 

They had to be cooked individually, but the finished product was cooled and put into zip lock bags.


There were of course, some shenanigans in the kitchen during the process:

Selfie!

With Grandma <3

Someone decided to put flour on my face. I have to admit, it was amusing. So I retaliated and put some on my mom's face.

 

 

And that was basically, my whole Saturday. What kind of shenanigans do you get up to while cooking or baking?

 

With Love,

PolarBearMoose<3

Learning to Make Lefse: Part 1

So, before I begin, I should start by catching you all up on the week. So, Keegan had his birthday party with all his friends on Wednesday at Pump It Up. Well, he decided that he wanted both little AND big Nathan to be there. So NH (aka Big Nathan) was there, with Gluten free cupcakes for some of K-2 (aka Keegan)'s friends that are gluten intolerant. So that was fun.

Today, my G'pa and G'ma Oregon came down from, you guessed it, Oregon. They came to both give Keegan a gift and teach both my mom and me how to make Lefse, a Norwegian bread. It's a potato bread instead of corn I guess and it's supposed to be a lot like a tortilla or flat bread. Well, anyways, today was a lot more prep for mixing and rolling out the dough. So we boiled the potatoes, peeled them, added a few other ingredients, and then it got fun. See apparently, the mixing is something you do by hand. Which means I got to stick my hands into this really goopy potato mix. It was essentially mash potatoes at that point, but I got to play with it! I wish I had taken some pictures, or at least had someone else take some pictures. I think tomorrow I will. Anyways, the mix has to be refrigerated all night, so I get to continue this tomorrow! I'll definitely have some pictures of the results at least, though I hope to have some of the rest of the process.

Other news of the day: I had a math test that I'm pretty sure I failed. Also, apparently, The Book Thief, a movie I've been waiting for since mid September, isn't coming to my area until November 15th, which sucks!! I got the book for my birthday after seeing a preview for the movie and going, "Oh, hey! That looks interesting!" So I read the book within the week of getting it (I'm a fast reader) as well as 5 other books I received. I absolutely loved the book. I really liked both the narrator and the fact that the story was not entirely chronological. It forced me to go back and re-read to try and figure out what I was missing and it definitely captured my attention. But anyways, the movie is being released today. I can't wait for it to start showing around here. Seriously. So excited.

Oh yeah! I almost forgot, but also on Wednesday, the dean of students (I think) and two coast guard members came to visit my anthropology class, as well as I guess the mayor? It made for a very interesting day. I guess they were having some sort of veteran's ceremony in the main quad since the campus will be closed on the actual Veteran's Day. I don't know. I couldn't stay for it, unfortunately. With Keegan's thing going on and me being a driver, I had o get home so I could shower and change into Kindergartener appropriate clothing. Meaning something that could survive wear and tear.

Anywho, how was your week? For those of you that know a lot about the culture you came from, do you have a favorite dish that your family likes to make? Let me know!

With Love,
PolarBearMoose <3