http://www.kidsstuffcentral.com/kids-crafts-goo/
Tell most people who are looking forward to a Christmas dinner of lutefisk, usually receive a look of disgust. Or compassion. Or "What is lutefisk? "First, let's say I'm not in the pro-train lutefisk. I have been subjected to the stench every Christmas I can remember.
Our Scandinavian heritage dictates that serve this dish (I use this term only in honor of my dear mother). I'm trapped in the fervent search for this venerable tradition, but somehow Thus, it would not be Christmas without it.
For the uniformed, lutefisk is that cod soaked in lye (yes, the caustic poison), then soaked again in water to remove caustic poison above. I will not bore you with a lutefisk history lesson, but that is the description of Reader's Digest. Being Minnesota, is undoubtedly a familiar place in supermarkets and meat markets around Christmas, although I seem to have become less prominent advertising and displayed as it had was when I was younger.
Maybe this is just another example of how to be biased memories and perceptions as we age. Or not. I'm not surprised at all if the lutefisk per capita consumption is declining rapidly as the geriatric market that is drying, and our loved ones pass. This is not intended to be tough, but let's face it: lutefisk is not in the forefront of the culinary arts. At least I have not seen the secret ingredient on Iron Chef.
Thus that the big day is here: Christmas. We celebrate the birth of our Savior and our waistlines expand. Mom has been cooking and baking for weeks. Meatballs Swedish potatoes, sauces, Lefse, herring, crackers, bread, coffee, and all the other Nordic Christmas staples. And then there's lutefisk. How can cooking and eating lutefisk?
Well, we tried a few methods, none of which are successful (if by success you mean a food product.) Traditionally boiled, but beware, it has a tendency to collapse in a liquid mass of goo. Therefore, it is wrapped in gauze. Now you have a liquefied mass Goo intact. We cooked. Goo. Microwave it. Goo. I think the preferred method in the past has been the microwave. Not sure, I try to avoid this step.
They say that if cooked well, you do not get the gel-like consistency that we have come to know and not love. I guess I've never seen it cooked. Some people put a sauce white cream on it. We do not, because it masks the natural viscous product quality.
There is a process of my brother has perfected. You get some lutefisk on your plate. Mash up some boiled potatoes with him. Soak the whole mess into the melted butter. Butter which must be real. Nothing wrong to disguise the taste of residual bleach. Then salt and pepper. After taking a bit of potato on a fork, then a little fish. They say if you put butter melted over everything that tastes good, but personally I have not found this to be true.
When mom brings out the first plate of lutefisk, you can almost hear the thousand and aah about the table. The plate moves quickly for those of us non-believers, waiting patiently for Swedish meatballs. In passing from person to person, the omnipresent stench (I mean smell) under our noses gusts like a freight train.
Inevitably someone comments on how good that sounds this year. Of course, also someone yells, "Where are the straws?" Ok, I'm guilty. That's usually me. The list of jokes and comments to continue until dinner is over and we are confident of another year.
Learn more about Christmas traditions around the world by visiting Christmas Ways Around the World and find the best gifts for your loved ones at the Christmas Ways Gift Shoppe.
Craft Demonstrations for Power Lab VBS — Oozy Slime
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Lotions, Potions, and Slime $9.45 Activities, crafts, and recipes, all of which have a wet and goopy stage in their production process. Readers will learn how to make such things as Electric Jello, Monstercide, and Crash Cookies. Illustrated with line drawings. |
