Family Recipes
The first recipe is the one that my family uses. It comes from my mother’s grandmother, Anna. I also get my middle name from her (and ability to crochet neat things according to my grandmother). Her family brought the recipe with them from Germany in 1879, when her own grandfather immigrated to the United States. She died in 2003 just before I turned four years old. I am very glad to have these things from her.
One of them comes from a family member of my grandmother, who wrote a letter containing the recipe.
My grandmother’s best friend, Lori and her sister Traci, contributed their own family recipe to my collection. Neither Lori nor Traci had children of their own, opting to foster a set of three siblings together when they were younger whom they no longer have contact with. They have adopted my grandmother’s family as their own, always taking interest in what us grandchildren are up to.
My family is not entirely sure where the other two recipes come from.
These recipes each vary slightly. I have not made any of the recipes other than Great Grandma Anna’s. Lori’s recipe calls for instant potatoes which is a bit of a hack to save time. While my grandmother and I generally boil and rice our potatoes in order to turn them into a mush, she opts to skip the labor intensive ricing of potatoes. Other recipes use russet potatoes, my grandmother’s specifies not to use red potatoes. Some of them use flour in addition to the potatoes, while others do not. It would be interesting to make each different recipe for lefse and see what the results would be. Which would taste the best? Tradition or something I’m not used to?