50 Shades Of Lefse

Oh what a wonderful day it was yesterday!  I had my first glass of stevia sweetened iced coffee from the batch I'd made the day before.  The coffee concentrate is made 2 quarts at a time using this recipe.  I baked frosted sugar cookies for upcoming Easter and then decided kind of at the last minute to make a batch of lefse.  I had about 4.5 pounds of russet potatoes that I needed to use up and set to work making some lefse.  It was a beautiful warm sunny day and I got to stare out the window and deck door at the pond while I was baking.  We even got a mild thunderstorm last night.  Bliss.

 I really appreciate lefse and realize that many who eat it do not understand the ins and outs of it.  The dough is simple and delicious.  You roll it out paper thin and can see the eyes of the potatoes as flecks in the dough.

 It is baked on a 500 degree griddle and as soon as it is transferred onto the heat, it blisters and bubbles up, shrinking at the edges.

 It is turned once and the first surface is freckled with brown spots where the bubbles rested on the griddle.

 Then it is flipped onto a dish towel to cool and the other side has a shinier surface and darker brown freckles.  The wonderful scent of potato bread wafts from the griddle and it is hard to not eat from the pile!  My go-to recipe for lefse is 5 pounds of russet potatoes peeled, cooked and riced twice.  Allow to completely cool before adding 1/2 c. butter, 1/2 c. cream and 1 1/2 Tbsp. salt.  Stir in 2 cups of flour, portion out, roll, cook.  Num num.

Here is a photo of my new herb dish towel I got at The Afternoon when Melissa and I went in February.  My herbs are starting to wake up for the year.  The chives are sprouting through outside.  My sage has survived the winter on my window sill but the leaves were the size of my pinkie nail all season.  This last week, they've started getting bigger and longer which I find truly miraculous.  How does the plant know to do that?  How does it know it is spring?  Does it realize it is receiving the magic number of sunny minutes in a day?  I'm waiting to see if my rosemary goes crazy too.