Happy Holidays to one and all and thank you for making it a great year. I have enjoyed sharing my passion for genetic genealogy and gardening with all of you. I am endlessly surprised by how much I love writing these posts and look forward to a new year of blogging after this short vacation.

So today I am going off topic to talk about holiday food.

Every Christmas morning when I was a child my Dad would make us Norweegies aka Norwegian pancakes.  Sadly, I was unable to find the recipe he gave me when I went looking for it the other day. However my 2nd cousin Dick Larkin had given me a wonderful Norwegian cookbook, Flavors of the Fjords, years ago; so I found the recipe in that book and made those pancakes for myself and my husband on Christmas morning. They were outstanding! The secret ingredient is cardamon and, of course, lots of sugar. When I posted this on the Norwegian genealogy facebook group, I discovered that pancakes are not the traditional Christmas morning fare in Norway! Apparently they are just a tradition among us Norwegian Americans.

From my mother’s German side came the holiday marzipan fruits from the Elk Candy Store in the Yorktown area of New York City on 86th St. It has long since closed, but happily it still exists online; so I send some every year to various family members and myself. It is so much fresher than any other marzipan I have found.

Then there was the stollen baked every year by, first my grandparents cook Anna, and then for many years by my wonderful Aunt Trudi. This was the first year that she did not make it. Her failing vision makes cooking quite difficult. However while looking for the Norweegie recipe, I found the stollen recipe, so maybe next year I will try it?

Here is the Stollen recipe:

Hmm, pretty labor intensive … on second thought I will go buy stollen, there must be a German bakery in El Cajon, after all they host an Octoberfest every year.

A Munson side first cousin, upon reading my facebook post, promised to send me the family Norweegie recipe from her Dad, so I will post that here when I get it.

Here is the family Norweegie recipe from our cousin Gay Friel, Herman Lee’s daughter:

Norwegian Pancakes..

• 1 1/2 cups milk.
• 1 cup flour
• 2 whole eggs( beaten)
• 1 Tbsp.sugar
• 1/2tsp.vanilla
• 1 tsp. salt (opt)
• 2 Tbsp.melted butter or margerine
• [Ed note: 1/4 tsp cardamon was secret ingredient in book recipe]

Mix the milk, eggs, and vanilla.
Add liquid ingredients to dry mixture (flour,sugar,salt) in small amounts
[Ed note: Alternately create the wet mixture in blender and slowly add the dry mix then let sit for at least 30 minutes]
While whisking, add melted butter mix.
On hot griddle, ladle pancakes,turn over when a few bubbles form..remove..
I usually roll them up with butter and blueberries inside..serve with maple syrup.
[Ed note: for us they were filled with jam and then powdered sugar on top after they were rolled up]

And a Happy New Year to you all!