My Latest Thrift Store Find - An Electric KrumKake Iron

Most of my growing up and adult years were spent in Stoughton, Wisconsin.  I lived there from 1957 until 2002 except for a short time during the late 1960's when we lived in Madison, Wisconsin.  Stoughton was then and probably still is a very Norwegian community.  Norwegian heritage is very important to a lot of the families who live there or are from Stoughton.  I'm not Norwegian, but living in Stoughton gave me the opportunity to eat specialty Norwegian foods.  Some I liked and some I think you have to be exposed to from birth.  The lutefisk was not my favorite.  Lutefisk is dried cod that has been soaked in a lye solution for several days to rehydrate it.   Then it is rinsed with cold water to remove the lye, and boiled.  It is served with butter.  It tasted like fish jelly.  Lefse was another food that I never made nor cared for.  Lefse is a soft flatbread.   It is made out of flour,  milk or cream (or sometimes lard) with potatoes added and cooked on a special lefse griddle. It looks like a big tortilla.  I always said you could put butter and sugar on a toasted paper towel, and it would be about the same as lefse.  The one thing I loved was Krumkake.  Krumkake is a waffle cookie made on a special decorative two-sided iron griddle similar to a waffle iron.  When warm they are rolled into a cone or cylinder.  You can fill the cone with whipped cream or eat them plain with powdered sugar sprinkled on.  I learned to make them on a krumkake iron that fit over the stove burner.  The trick was getting the temperature just right so they browned but didn't burn.  I usually ruined the first few until I got it right.  Imagine the thrill I had a couple weeks ago.  We hadn't gone to a thrift store for a very long time, so we took a couple hours and went to a couple stores.  I found a brand new, still in the plastic, electric Krumkake iron.

 
I haven't used it yet, but I hope it works well.  It takes the guessing out of the process by putting the batter on the iron, shutting the lid and pushing a button.

 
When it is ready, the ready light comes on.  They sell for $50 on Amazon and I got it for $7.  I will post the recipe and finished product in the future (if they turn out).  I'm looking forward to trying.

Update:
http://www.thecabincountess.com/2015/12/my-krumkake-will-not-go-to-waste.html

Let's Turn The World From Pink To Multi-Color

I am going to deviate from my usual blog today.  The whole world has turned pink today.  For this next month it will be that Breast Cancer is the only cancer that matters.  While I agree that it is sad and unfortunate that anyone gets breast cancer, it isn't the only one.  There are many different types and each is just as devastating to the person who has it.  The Susan G Komen foundation has become a huge business with many paid fundraisers, and they have done a tremendous job of bringing awareness.  It's just too bad that breast cancer is singled out as the most important.  September is gynecologic cancer month, but I bet most people don't know that, or that November is lung cancer awareness month.  It is kind of like the ice bucket challenge.  It made all of us more aware of ALS.  It is great that people opened their hearts and pocket books for this cause, but there are tons of great causes and just because the squeeky wheel gets the attention, it doesn't mean it is more important.

I wrote about my cancer journey in a previous blog, so I won't go into that again.  I just want more attention and funding made for all cancers and diseases.  Let's turn the world MULTI-COLORED to represent awareness for all cancers.  Some say a lavender ribbon brings awareness to All Cancers.   Better yet lets make a ribbon that includes all the colors. 
http://www.thecabincountess.com/2013/04/cancer-has-many-colors.html

Crockpot Lasagna

It's Tuesday recipe day already.  Today's recipe came from a Facebook post that my cousin Kim posted.  I didn't know what to make for supper tonight, and then I remembered this recipe.  I had all the ingredients on hand. The lasagna noodles are not pre-cooked, and the finished noodles seemed slightly starchy but not bad.    I will definitely make this again because it's so easy.  It doesn't cut in perfect squares because of the shape of my crockpot, but it holds together nicely without any eggs in the recipe.

Crockpot Lasagna

Ingredients:
1 pound Ground Beef
Lasagna noodles
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 1/2 cups cottage cheese
1 1/2 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
Brown the ground beef and drain.
Spoon 1 Cup spaghetti sauce in bottom of 4 quart crock pot.
Mix remaining sauce with beef.
Place 2 uncooked lasagna noodles on sauce in crock pot.
Spread 1/3 meat mixture on top of noodles.
Spread 3/4 Cup cottage cheese over meat.
Sprinkle 1/2 Cup mozzarella cheese over cottage cheese.
Add another layer of uncooked noodles, 1/3 meat mixture, the remaining cottage cheese and 1/2 Cup mozzarella cheese.
Place another layer of uncooked noodles, meat mixture, and mozzarella cheese.
Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over top.
Cook on low for 4 hours.