Christmas Road Trip: Day 6

Road Report
None; we stayed in Omaha today.

Notable Events
Sandy had made plenty of homemade lefse for us to enjoy with our meals this past weekend, but she also kept her lefse griddle and related equipment handy so that all the ladies could make some lefse one day while we're all together.  Susan and our daughters have some experience making lefse (remember?), but this was my sister Cathy's first time:

Lefse rounds are supposed to be, you know, round.  Cathy has succeeded in making lefse shaped like the continental United States.

Oh, that lefse round looks much better!  Cathy has an attentive eye on the griddle and is ready to flip the lefse as soon as it is time.

Nice!  Cathy's a quick learner.

Suzanna served as lefse fry-er for a shift and here is moving a completed lefse round from the griddle to the table to cool.

Suzanna's birthday is this upcoming Thursday; but we will be leaving Omaha tomorrow, meaning that her aunties wouldn't get to see her open her gifts from them if we didn't do it early.  So today Suzanna opened several awesome gifts from Cathy and Sandy!  Clearly, she's spoiled rotten.

Suzanna is turning 13, so the theme of her gifts was "things that a young lady might like," including this personalized tote and some lovely jewelry, among other items.

Because this past Saturday was Christmas Day and Sandy had a special menu planned, I was off the hook for making our family's weekly Scandinavian Saturday supper.  However, I did offer to make a Nordic meal for my sisters, and tonight was the night for that.

• This morning I sliced some hothouse cucumbers and put them in a brine of vinegar, sugar, white pepper, salt, and fresh dill so that they could sit in the fridge all day and become agurkesalat ["cucumber salad"].
• Susan cut up some parsnips, rutabaga, potatoes, and carrots; drizzled them with garlic-infused olive oil; sprinkled them with salt and pepper; roasted them in the oven; and them drizzled them with balsamic vinegar so that we could serve ristede rotgrønnsaker ["roasted root vegetables"].
• Meanwhile I browned some chicken legs, onions, and mushrooms with salt and white pepper in butter before adding chicken stock and sherry and letting them simmer.  When they were done, I added heavy cream, chopped parsley, and shredded gjetost ["goat cheese"] to thicken the sauce and served it all as Bergen Påske kylling ["Bergen Easter chicken"].
• To top off the meal, we ate the ladies' freshly made lefse.  Delicious!

Proof that I was actually in the kitchen, although you can't see the chicken that I'm frying . . .

Two of Sandy's friends (Trisa and Tina) stopped by this evening to say hello to us all and catch up a bit with Sandy.  Afterward Susan joined my sisters and me in the kitchen for late-night beverages and reminiscing; we shared lots of stories from our childhood, lots of fond memories of our mom, and lots of laughs in the process.  Wonderful!