The Girls' avatars

[upnorth]

Our Christmas tradition is home made Cavateli (Frank if your reading this you cant make fun of my spelling) on Christmas Eve the then Christmas Day the usual feast but not before my sister make some crazy contraption for an appetizer.

So....what is Cavateli? Sounds Italian?

[Lisa Almquist]

My family doesn't do lutefish at this point. After all the grandparents passed away, only my sisters, their families and my mom get together now. I just don't have very many elderly people left in my family. Which is really sad, isn't it?

Is cavatelli an Italian dish? Guess upnorth beat me to this question!

[DeeDee]

Yes it is and its SUPER YUMMY. Homemade pasta and sauce. My Dad is the kinda guy who like to put everything in his sauce, and the pasta pretty much takes all day to make. It has a couple different names.

[fishinchicks]

My in-laws used to make lutefisk for their Christmas Eve supper. One year my m-i-l put it in the oven, covered it with foil, and left for church. They came back, uncovered the pan fresh from the oven to find...nothing! It disintegrated in the oven!

I will eat pickled herring over lutefisk anyday!

[glenn57]

i think lutefisk is for minnesotans that cant catch sunfish, walleyes or even slimers!

[upnorth]

i think lutefisk is for minnesotans that cant catch sunfish, walleyes or even slimers!

I don't eat snot rockets either!!

[glenn57]

WHY?

[Iambjm]

There is a craft show in Two Harbors that used to have a lutefisk tossing contest, don't know if they still do. You would have to tie me up and use the jaws of life to force my mouth open before I would eat that stuff, and I am the one who loves to eat bass.

[Lisa Almquist]

Oh funny Barb! It's the Heritage Days Lutefisk Toss which was a couple weeks ago! That's my hometown but I've never participated in the toss.

[reelemin]

you would think that with grandparents named "Ingrid and Oscer Jensen" that i would have tried lutefisk, but I haven't and I won't -

[upnorth]

Personal taste. I have tried smallmouth too and don't like them either.

[reelemin]

I will only eat small mouth from a very cold northern lake.

Pike lake just outside of Grand Marais, has some great smallies, those I have eaten and their not bad.

[hopeforfish]

OK, I am one of those who like Lutifisk. We have it every Christmas Eve and I am sad if we don't. When my Grandfather made it he boiled it all day in a cheescloth sack. His house did smell really bad and it was like white runny jello. Now we nuke it for a couple of minutes and it is rather firm. Add melted butter and cream sauce and it is good.

Hope

[Gary Crichton]

I thought you had to be 75 or older to enjoy this so called food.

Like was said a lot of churches serve it. I think they feel sorry for the salesman trying to get rid of it, and buy it up.

If you don't like it and you volunteer to help serve a dinner at your church and you find out the meal is Lutifisk, it makes for a long long long long long nite. Smelling that stuff for a few hours is a good remedy to not wanting to eat for a while. This stuff is nasty.

I really think that if your over 75 your taste buds go away....

G.C.

[reelemin]

ahhh Hope, I'm so sorry for you, that you like Lutefisk, that is so sad - J/K

[upnorth]

I will only eat small mouth from a very cold northern lake.

Pike lake just outside of Grand Marais, has some great smallies, those I have eaten and their not bad.

Every time I have tried Smallies they have tasted like mud. That is not to say from the right lake, under the right conditions they wouldn't be palatable, same goes for snot rockets, just the times I have tried them I just didn't find the taste appealing.

I am pretty sure that there would be no circumstances short of a last gasp effort to not die of starvation would Lutefisk seem appealing

[DeeDee]

I am pretty sure that there would be no circumstances short of a last gasp effort to not die of starvation would Lutefisk seem appealing

I think I would search for grass or grubs...

[Cicada]

Ahh, lutefisk. Any time the folks wanted to be alone, they'd cook up a pile of that stuff and all of us kids would vacate the premises. They even found time to eat the stuff.

[upnorth]

I just can't resist, here is an Ode to Lutefisk song.

Oh Lutefisk

by Red Stangeland last verse by Robert L. Lee

[sung to the tune of 'O Tannunbaum]

Lutefisk... Oh Lutefisk... how fragrant your aroma

Oh Lutefisk... Oh Lutefisk... You put me, in a coma

You smell so strong... You look like glue

You taste yust like an overshoe

Put Lutefisk ... come Saturday

I tink I'll eat you anyway.

Lutefisk ... Oh Lutefisk ... I put you by the doorway

I vanted you to ripen up ... yust like dey do in Norway

A dog came by and sprinkled you ... I hit him vit an army shoe

Oh Lutefisk ... now I suppose

I'll eat you as I hold my nose.

Lutefisk ... Oh Lutefisk ... how well I do remember

On Christmas Eve how we'd receive ... our big treat of December

It vasn't turkey or fried ham ... it vasn't even pickled spam

My mudder knew dere vas no risk ...

In serving buttered lutefisk.

Lutefisk ... Oh Lutefisk ... now everyone discovers

Dat Lutefisk and lefse makes-Norweigians better lovers

Now all da vorld can have a ball ... you're better dan dat Yeritol

Oh Lutefisk ... vit brennevin

You make me feel like Errol Flynn.

Lutefisk ... Oh lutefisk ... You have a special flavor

Lutefisk ... Oh lutefisk ... All good Norwegians savor.

That slimy slab we know so well ... Identified by ghastky smell

Lutefisk ... Oh lutefisk ... Our loyalty won't waver.

Lutefisk...Oh lutefisk...When my poor heart stops beating

The pearly gates will open wide, I'll see the angels eating

From steaming platters of the stuff, and there will always be enough

O piece of cod that I adore, O lutefisk forevermore!

[Iambjm]

Upnorth that is great! I know I have heard it before but couldn't remember the words.

[upnorth]

Iambjm, you have to have grown up in the northland to really appreciate the tune I do have some Scandinavian(Swedish and Finnish) in my ethnic background and I married a Norwegian girl, so I have been exposed to Lutefisk yet still proud to say it has never touched nor passed my lips

[Iambjm]

Hope, I love the avatar Upnorth, grandma came here from Sweden in 1917, married a Peterson, so I am half swede and half Irish. I do not like most swedish foods, with the exception of lefse and swedish pancakes with lingonberries. My favorite food other than fish.....Chinese,Japanese,Mexican. Go figure.

[upnorth]

Swedish Meatballs is about the only Swedish dish I remember. But my wife, my daughter and sister in-law make Norwegian cookies every Xmas as a carry over from my mother in-law. Sunbakkles, KrumKaka and futimen(sp?) Great cookies. I too am partial to Chinese and Mexican, along with a few others.

[Lisa Almquist]

I LOVE how this thread reverted to lutefisk! Too funny!!

I got myself a new avatar...anyone else have something to show off?

[reelemin]

just looovvee the new avatar Lisa