Norwegian Dinner

There are quite a few Norwegian people in this area, and every year I read in the newspaper about a Norwegian supper that the Badger Lutheran Church has been doing since 1906. I've always wanted to go.

This year my friend Terri and I finally went. We got there when they started serving at 4:30 and were given numbers 400 and 401! We were seated 2 hours later at 6:30. They told us they usually serve 600-700 people.

It's all very organized. You wait in the sanctuary where they have a big screen showing pictures of their work days making all the food. They call numbers on a speaker. Then you're taken to a smaller room until your table is cleared and ready.

The menu consists of lutefisk which means lyefish, potato lefse (round and thin almost like a crepe), boiled potatoes and melted butter, meatballs and gravy, green beans, cranberries, flotbrod, brown bread, gumma, fruit soup, spritz, rosettes (I've made these before), kringla, krumkake and coffee served family style, all you can eat for $20. The recipes have been passed down through generations.

We didn't care for the lutefisk. They say you either love it or hate it. We were very lucky to have Norwegian people sitting around us and could ask them questions. The couple across from us mainly has this meal at Christmas time although she bakes kringla all year round. Many people in this area still make kringla and you can buy it in some of the groceries.

The couple next to me were born in Norway and still have the accent.

The fruit soup was thick, cooked fruit like prunes, raisins, apples and sometimes lemon and orange rind. It was cold and the color of prunes. I liked it but Terri didn't. The lefse is eaten different ways. The people with us spread soft butter on it, sprinkle with sugar and either fold it or roll it up and eat it. Some spread it with jam. The woman across from us ate one with butter and sugar but also puts one on her plate, then potatoes, then fish and then pours melted butter over all. There were 2 kind of big pitchers of melted butter on the table. She also very highly recommended that we put butter on our kringla which we had not heard of! It was better that way! We observed that they eat a LOT of butter evidently! (maybe Paula Deen is Norwegian?)

As we left, the woman at the ticket table asked us if we liked the fish and we honestly said "not really". She said that younger people seem to not like it so we asked if she thought the tradition would continue. She said that they have about 7 work days/nights to prepare for this and the young people as well as the old come to work and learn. They say that the lutefisk is tricky to cook just right. Could be that it will eventually be a meatball dinner? We both said that we probably won't go again but it was fun, and we're very glad we went went this year!

Next is a German meal in Humboldt on Dec. 3rd!