Valentines Meal 2008
Every year, my family gets together to do a Valentines meal. Mom started it just for fun when we were little… I first remember it when I was 5 or 6 years old and I’m 2nd to the oldest of 6 children. We pretty much had the same menu every year until the last few years, when we started varying it. But, this year, we decided that next year will be the traditional menu again that we had growing up. I’m really looking forward to it!
Now, back to this year…
This was a place setting… uh, yeah, we did have a couple fires start from those little tea light candles beside the plates!
In the red tulle is a snack mix combo…
The cupcake dessert is strawberry mousse in a white chocolate cup…
And here is our menu…
Pizza… the first ones were staying warm by the fire while the others were in the oven.
Breadsticks… I had a hard time getting a good picture of these, and I’m adding the second picture because I think the dish is SO neat… isn’t it?! My sister-in-law got it at Kohls I think she said, for those of you who would ask in the comments. 
Salad… there is lettuce under all that good stuff!
Layered finger jello…
A couple things that made us laugh during the meal…
1. Every other goblet had a strawberry on the rim and every other one had a lime slice. One of the guys happened to get a lime instead of a strawberry and said, “I’d rather have a strawberry than a pickle on my goblet.” After we all laughed, one of the other guys said, “I don’t see what’s so funny. Mine does have a strawberry, but I’d rather have a strawberry too.”
2. There were 2 fruit pizzas and one was on a Pampered Chef pizza stone. As it was being passed, one of the guys (not one of the ones in laugh #1) said, “What is this on? A concrete platter?”
And just some bonus pictures yet…
The pizza crew…
The salad-maker and her husband…
10-day-old Nicole in her Valentines sleeper…
The table… although this picture doesn’t capture the effect and lighting very well at all, and you can’t hear the fireplace crackling…
My dau Tiffany ‘wow’ing over her Valentine from Grandpa.
Traditional Scandinavian Christmas Eve Dinner
This was definitely a highlight of 2007! Seth and Kris and Seth’s sister Melinda cooked a Scandinavian meal for our family on Christmas Eve. Seth and Mel are part Norwegian.
Starting at the top is Swedish Meatballs…
These were really good, and tasted pretty ‘American’.
Next (going clock-wise) is Lefse…
We spread butter on it, like you do on bread, rolled it up and ate it. I could’ve eaten more of this!
Next is Swedish Tea Ring and cheese…
These were as good as they looked, comparable to glazed cinnamon rolls.
Next is Fauteemons (the English term for that is ‘love knots’)…
This was a pastry-type thing with powdered sugar on. Tiffany ate several of these! They were really good!
Next is just a piece of cheese from the tea ring plate.
Next is Christmas Potato Casserole…
This was my favorite! I’m not sure if it is a Scandinavian food, but Kris said her MIL makes it along with the meal. I don’t know what all was in it, but it was SO good!
Next is Cream of Mush…
This was really good too, but a little more bland. It’s rice and a bunch of milk, simmered for a few hours. The rice gets so soft that the grains aren’t recognizable anymore. The dish is coated with thick cooked cream, then the mush is poured in and butter drizzled over.
And in the middle is Lutefisk…
The first clue that you might not want to take alot of this is the smell! 
I took a very small portion and wasn’t tempted at all with seconds! It’s a very strong fish flavor. It seemed pretty common that people don’t like it until they acquire a taste for it.
Butter, butter, butter!!!!
This was a dish of melted butter on the table to drizzle over the lutefisk (it needed all the help it could get! 
) and over the cream of mush. Lots of butter was used with this meal… mmmmm!!!
And 2 more things that I didn’t get a picture of with the rest of the meal are the orange salad…
and the Triple Layer Chocolate Silk Pie…
These were not traditional, they were just to go with the meal… like we needed more food! 
I think Kris actually invented the silk pie recipe.
Just a couple extra pictures yet…
The table is set.
Cooking the meal… Seth and Melinda. I didn’t get a good picture of Kris, who actually made most of the meal.
Are any of you familiar with any of these foods? I’m thinking about moving over to Sweden or Norway! 
Merry Christmas!
I think we’ve started a Christmas tradition of our own!
Making and decorating gingerbread men … plus! (We didn’t just stick to the men.) After the cookies were baked and cooled, but before we decorated them, I told Shannon that it never occurred to me that I don’t actually know how to do this! I hadn’t decorated cookies for YEARS!!! So anyway, don’t laugh too hard! Here are some of them…
My aunt Ruthie makes the best gingerbread cookies around, so I got the recipe from her. It actually comes from the Mennonite Community Cookbook.
Old Fashioned Ginger Cookies (Leb Kuchen) That’s how the recipe title is written… makes it seem authentic, doesn’t it?
2 cups shortening, melted
3 cups sorghum molasses
1 cup sugar
8 - 10 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. soda
1 Tbsp. ginger
1 Tbsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 cups buttermilk or sour milk
Heat molasses and sugar together. When sugar is dissolved, add shortening and stir until melted. Remove from heat. Cool to lukewarm. Sift flour, soda, salt, and spices together. Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with sour milk. Stir until a medium-soft dough is formed.
Work dough with hands for 5 min. Let chill in refrigerator for several hours. (They’re not kidding about that. It’s a soft dough. Ruthie said she usually lets it chill overnight.) Turn dough onto lightly floured board and roll 1/4″ thick. Cut with large round cookie cutter.
Glaze with a beaten egg; dip a small piece of cheesecloth in beaten egg and rub lightly over cookie. Place 1″ apart on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 20 - 25 min. (I didn’t bake them quite 20 min.) This is the soft chewy cookie that was a favorite of grandmother’s day. It is still very popular among many Mennonite families. (I didn’t write that, it says that right in the recipe.) Makes 8 dozen large cookies.
Then, let the decorating begin!
Deck the halls, er, table…
This recipe comes from the Derstine cookbook. I had forgotten about these cookies and happened to see the recipe while flipping thro’ the cookbook. I remember Mom making them when I was young. As Lexi (5) and I were making them, I told her that my mom made these when I was a little girl. And she said, “And now my mom is making them when I’m a little girl!”
Holly Cookies
32 lg marshmallows
1 stick margarine (I used butter)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 1/2 tsp green food coloring
4 cups Cornflakes
Red cinnamon candies (I used M&Ms because I couldn’t find Red Hots at the store)
Melt marshmallows and margarine in saucepan over low heat. Mix in flavorings and food coloring. Pour quickly over cornflakes in large bowl. Stir until coated. Butter hands well. Working quickly, shape into cookies on wax paper spread on a cookie sheet. Decorate with cinnamon candies before cookies harden. Ok, so she got a little carried away with the decorating!
Allow 2 days (????????) to dry. Please tell me it’s a misprint that should say ‘hours’ instead of ‘days’. These cookies may not even live to see 2 days! And they definitely seem hard enough.
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Change of subject… I was at our Walmart Supercenter today and was looking for 2 things that I couldn’t find: molasses and red hots. I looked in the baking aisle for molasses and there was a stocker there, so I asked her, and it was over with the syrup. Then I thought Duh, I should’ve thought of that. And the red hots, I looked in the candy section, the baking aisle, and the cake decorating aisle. Never did find them. Another thing that kinda surprised me a few years ago was the food coloring. I looked in the cake decorating section and in the cake mix/frosting aisle. Nope, over with the spices. That’s one thing nice about shopping online, you never have to look all over for exactly what you want… as my husband says, “Google knows everything”.
About Me
Hi! Welcome to my kitchen! My name is Kay. I'm from northern WI. I love cooking and baking. Especially baking. It's thereapeudic for me. I'm not a professional or gourmet cook by any means. I'm a Mennonite homemaker who happens to take pictures of some of the food I make. I have 2 little 'helpers'... Lexi (5) and Tiffany (2), who are young cooks in training. I don't do anything on the grill... that's where my husband comes in! He grills quite a bit, especially in the summer. So, sit back and enjoy browsing thro' the recipes. If you try some of them, I'd love to hear feedback on how you liked them!
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