OVANDO & SEELEY LAKE – Margaret Bauer said her family likes to make gingersnaps. She said, “We like the smell; it fills the house. Everybody likes to eat them for snacks and we give them as gifts.”
Shawna Jarrell said her grandma’s punch always makes Christmas Day special. It’s a concoction of Hawaiian punch, Kool-Aid, 7-Up and orange juice.
For Ovando’s Fly family, Christmas dinner is always surf and turf – some kind of seafood and steak.
For Sharon Jacobs it’s apple pie that makes the Christmas meal special. She added proudly, “I make the apple pies for Christmas!”
Kathy Teague’s daughter and family are coming to her house for an early Christmas dinner. Kathy is making their favorite: Mongolian stir-fry.
Renee Bernstrauch said sweet potatoes are a must for her Christmas dinner. Steven chimed in to say he loves the smell of the sweet potatoes cooking along with the ham and the bread. “It’s cozy and festive and just makes you think of family,” he said, “and that’s what it’s all about. Just having family over and celebrating together.”
For Andi Bourne, Christmas just isn’t the same without the Norwegian goodies lefse, rømmegrøt and rømmebrød.
Bourne spent her Christmas breaks in college learning the fine art of making lefse, a thin potato bread, with her grandmother Helen Olstad. It turned into more of an internship, as Bourne was not allowed to roll the lefse until her third year of helping.
Since the Olstad family was poor, their rømmebrød deviated a bit from the traditional recipe. By adding rice to the pudding made of cream, sugar and butter, they made the sweet treat extend farther.
According to Bourne, one year when her grandmother’s family was making rømmegrøt, it boiled over onto the surface of the wood stove. Instead of wasting this precious Christmas treat, they let it cook and flipped it to cook on the other side. Thus was created the special bread the family now makes each Christmas. Bourne’s young cousins used to call it “cream bread.”
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