It is all about what we want to do!

Brian, James, and Ashley spent several days in Thailand! A friend of Brian's stopped to visit him a few weeks ago. He had previously asked Brian if he was interested in going to Thailand. At first, Brian didn't think he would but then ended up going. On Sunday, James an Ashley joined him.I will have them post some photos and tell about their trip. Perhaps they took a video and can include that too.

Brian left to return to LA after spending eight days here. He was busy most of the time he was here with workshops and doing makeup. He had planned to be here through Sunday but received a call to be on standby for a commercial which was cancelled.

It was a joy having him home. Last Saturday, he had a booth at Diva Days in the Roseau City Center, which was very successful with many sales. He has many clients who have taken his classes, sometimes more than once. They love his Makeover Cosmetic product line, as do I!
Last night it rained and so he is driving back to Grand Forks to fly out in icy conditions. Our deck windows are iced over and I am praying for rain so they clear off. There is a big storm that is suppose to come through. This is what brought the rain. Hopefully his trip is safe.

We have four little two month old kittens, cute as can be. I plan to have a person take them to the human society in the cities, but will put up a photo on Facebook, something on Craig's list, and a poster in the city center. Hopefully they will go to a good home. Our female cat has been spayed now, so our kitten worries are over.

 I hope three of these little ones will soon find a home. We plan to keep the brown one.

The Presidential election was held on Tuesday which ended with the reelection of Obama. I feel our country will soon be in a world of hurt, but those who voted for him will not be aware of it until it is too late. Romney is a wonderful man with high skills in business management. He is wealthy due to these skills. Apparently our many of our citizens do not understand that they work for big business, often one of the ones he started, such as Burger King, Staples, Domino Pizza. The sad thing about electing Obama is that almost immediately after the election several companies announced they would be laying off people soon. Boeing is one of these companies. Unemployment will soon be going back up. Many say it is because of the cost of Obama care. Could that really be true? If so, I am about to see an increase in my health insurance.

Someone made a comment to me about it will be wonderful when the troops come home and start the economy rolling again. I was surprised at this comment as so many of our military personnel are home and unemployed; adding more to this mix will not improve our economy. I do want to. See the troops come home, but we will still need a strong defense, without it, we open ourselves to terrorism and leave other countries without open to terrorism also. Romney's skills may not have been in those areas but he has many connections who would be great cabinet members. I need to stop writing about what has happened as it is a done deal now and we as a country must work under the Obama regime for another four years and pray for him, our congressional leaders, others who will be developing policy that they will make better decisions for our countries future. Number one: Get us out of debt!

Yesterday, the Ya-Ya Gang spent the day in the Rose Lutheran Church kitchen making lefse for the Holiday Happenings on the evening of November 19. Lots of fun cooking and having coffee and lunch together.

 One large ice cream scoop of dough makes a lefse round.

Roll it quite large and transfer to the griddle using the wooden stick laying on the left.

The best food was enjoyed by the group.

Lunch is a time to visit and rest from all our labors!

Use a large ice cream scoop for each lefse round and refrigerate until you are ready to cook them.

Roll very carefully and quite thin.

Package the lefse in threes to a quart size Ziploc bag.

As you can see by the flour on their clothing, we were all very busy!

Wrapping the rolling pin with a special cloth allows you to use more flour for rolling. It also helps keep the lefse from sticking to the pan. 

Brush off extra flour prior to frying, do not grease the griddle.

When done top with some butter and sugar or sugar and cinnamon like this one. Roll up and enjoy!

Here are a couple of the lefse recipes we used:

LEFSE Micky Slater
3 cups cooked (add salt) and riced potatoes
After you have cooked them and while hot, add and mix in 3 TB oil and 2 small tsp sugar
Set aside to cool in refrigerator. When ready to fry the lefse, add 1 cup flour to potatoes and mix with a spoon. Roll out on floured, covered board. Fry at 500 degrees on lefse grill.


LEFSE Gwen Gross
8 LBS potatoes peeled, cooked and riced. While hot add 1 stick butter, ½ c cream, 1-2 TB sugar and 1 ½ TB salt. Mix well. Cool. When they are cool and ready to Roll them I measure 8 cups potatoes AND 1+1/2 CUPS OF FLOUR.
Roll out on floured lefse board and cook on hot ungreased lefse griddle.

It is very quiet now, no one but me in the house. Time to make some egg salad.