Flatbread and Turning Hearts

In December 2003, Josh and I began dating seriously. One day in December, we attended a ward service project setting up luminaries at the Wasatch Lawn Cemetery for their annual Christmas light display. Josh wanted to see if he could find his great-grandparents' grave while we were there. It was a warm December that year, but it felt like we searched for almost an hour trying to find them. When we finally did, we cleared the debris from the marker, then stood talking and holding hands. I looked at the marker, then checked the date on my watch, then looked back at the marker. Today was their wedding date in the Salt Lake Temple many years ago! It was a special experience for both of us as we stood there looking at their marker, and feeling his grandparents near us in spirit. Every Christmastime, I remember the experience that day in the cemetery. It reminds me of a scripture in Malachi 4:5. 6. "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers..."

One tradition Josh has had in his family is making "Norwegian Flatbread". His great-grandmother immigrated to Utah from Norway, and Christmas Eve meant a big Norwegian meal to include her flatbread. Little did we know, her recipe was one she had to adapt from what she had on hand, which at the time was wheat and water. Josh learned the art of making Mor's flatbread, and our first married Christmas, I got to sample it for myself. It's paper thin, crisp and tasteless. Then we heard news that this year the extended family had requested to skip the flatbread this year (because nobody liked it), and have Lion House Rolls instead.

That made me a little bit sad and it sparked my curiosity about flatbread (or Lefse). I started searching the Internet for an authentic recipe. I found a blog that said that they ate their Thanksgiving leftovers in lefse. I knew the cracker bread I had sampled would never hold anything heavier than butter without crumbling to pieces, so I read on to the ingredients: potatoes, flour, heavy cream, butter, sugar, salt! Now we're talking. I found the same recipe on a cooking site with dozens of five-star comments saying things like, "This recipe is just like I remember my grandmother making!" "I lost my recipe and am so happy I've found this one!" "I'll use this one from now on." I thought it would be fun to give it a try and share some for Christmas Eve dinner.

We borrowed the special rolling pin, turning stick and griddle from his grandparents, bought a Potato Ricer, and I did a trial run a week before Christmas. They require a lot of skill in rolling it out to the right thickness without sticking, and I could tell it was definitely a learned art. Mine were okay, but a bit on the thick side. They remind me a lot of Gorditas - a soft, spongy texture much like a crepe, but thicker. The second batch we did Christmas Eve, and Josh kindly offered to "give it a try". He quickly mastered rolling them out and tossing the thin circles of dough onto the griddle. All that practice in rolling out the wheat/water flatbread paid off! I took charge of the cooking and flipping, and we had a regular Lefse production going on in our kitchen! We were able to share it with everyone at Christmas Eve dinner, serving it with strawberry jam, butter and cinnamon sugar.

It was such a fun experience working side by side on a project. Once again, I felt that connection to our family, and to our heritage. As we stood there carefully cooking and measuring and doing trial and error, I couldn't help but think of how many hands before us had done the same thing in similar kitchens for either a special occasion or their "daily bread". I thought a lot about Mor, and her conversion story, and coming across the ocean to settle here alone as a teenage girl in Utah without her family. I never had the chance to meet her, but am grateful for her testimony, hard work and determination. Hopefully making flatbread can be a new family tradition that we can treasure and share for years to come!