Camp Trollfjorden, Year 3

In 2009, our family attended Trollfjorden Language and Cultural Camp (at Lake Metigoshe, ND) for the first time (remember?) to learn more about our Norwegian heritage.  We enjoyed the experience so much that we returned again last summer (remember?).  Thereafter, I was invited to join the camp's board of directors (remember?), which pretty much guaranteed that we'd be returning to camp again this summer (and each summer for the foreseeable future).  The overall schedule for the weekend was the same as in past years, but I do have photos, videos, and anecdotes to share of details unique to this summer's camp experience.

(Remember to click on a photo to enlarge it for greater detail.)

Scandinavian Overload

Do you recognize what these children are doing?

Sons of Norway District IV Convention, Day 1

After doing committee work yesterday and attending opening events last night (remember?), I was ready to begin serving as a lodge delegate during the convention's business sessions starting this morning.  Since this is my first Sons of Norway convention, I didn't know quite what to expect, so it was a day of "Oh, that's how they run this" moments for me.  For Susan (who, as an alternate, simply sit in the back of the room and observed), it was a day of working on her latest Hardanger project.  And for the girls, whom we signed up for the children's activities offered by convention organizers, it was a day of fun in Missoula.

Committee Service, Memorial Service, and Alcohol Service

The Sons of Norway District IV convention (remember?) officially begins tomorrow, but I had to be here today because I agreed to serve on a committee for the Board of Directors, and the committees' work is done the day before the convention.  So, although this is just my second year of Sons of Norway membership and my first time at a district convention, I was put to work considering and responding to resolutions to be brought forth on the floor during the convention tomorrow and Saturday.  Trial by fire!

Potluck, Patriotism, and Piano

Yes, Faithful Reader, I know what you're thinking: Yet another weekend without a Scandinavian Saturday supper! But, like last week, we opted for a Scandinavian Sunday instead. Today we traveled to Richardton, ND for our monthly Sons of Norway lodge meeting, which was followed by a potluck supper at which we knew we'd be getting plenty of Scandinavian food. Yesterday Susan and I prepared the dishes that we brought today to the potluck, so technically we did do some Scandinavian Saturday cooking . . . but we left the actual ethnic culinary experience for today.

Yesterday Susan made a roaster full of scalloped potatoes with ham, and I made a batch of Scandinavian meatballs in gravy that we brought in a crock pot to the American Legion hall in Richardton. There were three tables full of food: cold salads (including a tasty German potato salad), hot dishes, and desserts (including delicious homemade riskrem [rice in whipped cream served today with lingonberries] and vaffel kaker [thick cookies made in a heart-shaped waffle iron]). Before we ate, our family sang a capella the table prayer that we learned at Norwegian camp last summer.

Although for me the highlight of the afternoon was the meal (ha!), it was in fact preceded and followed by other events. First was the business meeting, at the end of which Suzanna sang a solo for the group: "Gjæter-livet" ["Herd Life"], a song about herding the cows, goats, and sheep "when May days are calling" once again. Suzanna has never herded these animals, nor does she get the urge to do so once May rolls around; but we felt it an appropriate song for a lodge meeting held in May.

Then lodge member Paul read aloud some information on the history of Syttende Mai ["May 17th"], Norwegian Constitution Day--the Norwegian national holiday analogous to Independence Day on July 4 in the United States. (Today's potluck was to celebrate Syttende Mai.)

After the meal, we all planned to drive out to the Schnell Recreation Area (just three miles outside of Richardton) to meander the hiking trails, view the wildlife, and enjoy the beautiful weather. Our lodge president had arranged for a gentleman who works at Schnell to join us at the Legion hall beforehand, and he gave a presentation on the types of birds and other wildlife likely to be seen and on some of the history of the area.

However, as everyone else was getting into their vehicles to drive out to Schnell, the Mobergs packed up to head back to Dickinson so that the girls could perform in a piano recital. At the end of each school year, Mrs. Vold (the girls' piano teacher) has all her students perform in a "musicale" (remember last year's?) at which she also presents any awards that they have earned at various piano contests. Although Suzanna and Abigail earned trophies at this spring's piano festival (remember?), Mrs. Vold kept those trophies until now so that she could present them tonight. And she had had the plate on each trophy engraved! So nice.

It was an emotional evening because it was also a goodbye for Mrs. Vold. She and her husband will be moving away, so this was her last recital with her students in Dickinson. She has been an excellent teacher for the girls, and we will miss her and will have a difficult time finding another teacher to replace her. Mrs. Vold focused on proper technique and had the girls learn theory and vocabulary and read about composers and so much more than just having them play a new song each week (well, this is further evidence of her high standards for, and confidence in, the girls). She was trained by excellent professors of music herself, and she took pride in passing along to her own students what she had learned from her esteemed teachers. Thank you for everything, Mrs. Vold; we wish you well.

Here is Hillary with Madeline, her best friend (and our neighbor), who just started taking piano lessons from Mrs. Vold this year.

A goodbye hug from Mrs. Vold for Abigail, Hillary, and Suzanna.

Hardanger and Heifetz

It was another whirlwind day! While Abigail and Hillary attended Sunday school this morning and Susan tended to her Sunday school director duties, Suzanna and I participated in the second of three weekly classes on Martin Luther as part of the church's pre-confirmation program. This morning we learned about Luther's childhood, John Tetzel, indulgences, Luther's 95 theses, etc. Then it was on to church, at which the girls' choir sang a beautiful song in Latin featuring the little Mobergs in beautiful harmony. My eyes welled up in pride, I must admit.

This afternoon we had a Sons of Norway lodge meeting followed by a memorial service for lodge members who passed away in the past year followed by an anniversary dinner in celebration of the Hardanger Lodge's 12th anniversary followed by a program on St. Patrick and the Norwegians in Ireland (i.e., the Vikings on both exploratory jaunts and pillaging raids). Yep, we were there 3.5 hours! Just as at the last lodge meeting, I helped Suzanna with her duties as lodge musician by joining her at the keyboard for the national anthems of Canada, Norway, and the United State of America at the start of the meeting. The lodge president had a plaque engraved for the keyboard, and she affixed it today so that people will know why the lodge is fortunate enough to own the keyboard (remember?).

After the meeting, we moved to the next room for the memorial program, a simple but sincere service to honor three departed lodge members, including Susan's grandpa Elmer. Susan's grandma Laura (Elmer's widow) used the shuttle service from the nursing home where she lives and joined us for the memorial service and supper afterward (crudités, roast pork, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, green beans, and ice cream with mint syrup for dessert). Susan and Hillary sat on either side of Laura, holding her hands as she wept through people's impromptu stories about their memories of Elmer.

Hillary, Abigail, and Suzanna with their great-grandmother Laura. The family of each departed lodge member received a long-stemmed rose.

Some lodge scrapbooks and archival items were on display on a table in the back of the meeting room. This wooden plaque with rosemaling on it happens to have been painted several years ago by Laura herself!

Annika, a lodge member who wore a traditional Hardanger bunad for the service, sang some lovely songs in Norwegian and English (including, following the St. Patrick's-themed program at the end, a pretty Irish blessing).

As if our day hadn't been busy enough at that point, we still had a concert to attend this evening! Less than a month after the last concert (remember?) in the series, tonight's performance was by Jasper Wood, a violinist whose program was called "A Tribute to Heifetz." You can see video and hear audio of his past performances by clicking on his name in the previous sentence. One of our favorites tonight was "Banjo and Fiddle" by William Kroll. The piano accompanist was David Riley, who was not only impressive to hear but also fun to watch (his facial expressions and body movements while at the keyboard reflected his interpretation of the music and his sensitivity to the soloist's dynamics and tempos).

Much as we enjoyed the concert, we all felt as though we could have hunkered down in our seats and taken a lovely nap after such a busy day. (That would have been particularly tacky, though, given our penchant for sitting in the second row at a concert, well within the performer's field of vision.) So we're ready for bed and wondering why, in our household, the weekend is just as busy as the work week . . .

Valentines and Vegetables

Now that we are officially officers of our local Sons of Norway lodge (remember?), it's time to start fulfilling our duties at the monthly meetings, of which we had one this afternoon. As newsletter editor, Susan prepared her first one and had it mailed out in time for people to read it and know all the details in advance about today's meeting and the social program to follow. As youth director, she planned some Valentine-themed craft projects for the children to do during the business meeting to keep them entertained and occupied.

Jack, Hillary, and Madeline, with their backs to the camera, work on crafts. Suzanna is visible between them, and Abigail is mostly obscured by Hillary.

As vice president, I . . . let the president run the meeting and the other officers do their duties. I did help Suzanna with her job, though. As musician, she was called upon to play the Canadian, Norwegian, and American national anthems at the start of the meeting. However, the songs in the Sons of Norway songbook are a little beyond her skill set, so I played the keyboard alongside her--I played both hands, and she played just the treble line with her right hand.

Here are some of the officers visible at the far end of the table: our president Cathy in the center, our secretary Lynette to Cathy's right, and our marshal Paul to Cathy's left. Other officers and members are to the right and left, out of camera range.

We had invited our neighbors Chuck and Reba (those are their kids, Madeline and Jack, in the photo above with the girls) to the meeting as potential new members, and they sat patiently through the business meeting and then joined us for the food and program to follow. The program director had arranged for one lodge member to make Valentine-themed table decorations, and there were Valentine candies sprinkled in the middle of each table, too. She asked everybody to come up with a Valentine sentiment containing a fruit- or vegetable-related pun (e.g., "We make the perfect pear" or "If you carrot all, you will be my Valentine," etc.). Two lodge members were appointed to judge who had the best puns, and Hillary won one of the prizes! Abigail and I had our names drawn to win door prizes, so our family left with a small collection of Valentine's candy at the end of the day.

Next month's meeting will precede a memorial service for lodge members who died in the past year, and that happens to be Susan's grandpa E. J. (remember?). Then we'll eat a special supper in celebration of the lodge's anniversary, which will be followed by the program: a play written by one of the lodge members. There's lots going on in our little lodge!

The White Meal

"White on white" was the theme for this meal . . . yes, it tasted as exciting as it sounds.

That photo is a mere foretaste of the feast to come. But first: some words about the daughters.

They've been s' social this weekend! After swimming at the Community Center Thursday, the girls waited in the lobby for me to finish my shower and come out of the locker room. I found Suzanna seated next to Andrea, a friend with whom she wanted to spend the night. On the telephone later that night, though, Andrea reported that she had since learned from her parents about a planned weekend outing at the lake, so that put the kibosh on a sleepover. For Suzanna, at least.

On Friday Hillary's friend Lexi phoned to invite Hillary over to spend the night. Then Abigail's friend Cailie phoned to invite Abigail to spend the night. So Suzanna had a quiet Friday evening at home with her parents, but then on Saturday her friend Sheena phoned to invite Suzanna over to play in the afternoon. Suzanna rode her bike over there and, a short while later, Sheena's little brother Reese phoned to invite Hillary over to play with him. Sheena and Reese's dad picked up Hillary while Abigail spend a quiet Saturday afternoon at home with her parents, and then Hillary and Suzanna came home together (Hillary on foot, Suzanna on her bike).

Got all that?

Besides Sheena and Reese's dad, Susan did most of the hauling to and fro; but Suzanna and I did pick up Abigail from Cailie's yesterday, and then I took them both grocery shopping for last night's Scandinavian Saturday meal. It was Susan's turn in the rotation to be my cooking partner, and she agreed to my proposal: to cook an all-white meal.

That's what often comes to mind anyway when people think of Scandinavian cuisine: bland colors (mostly white, except for the browns of bread, coffee, and cooked meat and the faded-by-boiling colors of cooked vegetables) and a bland palate (although salt is usually paired with its spicy partner: ground black pepper!!). It suits the stereotype of the Nordic appearance: pale skin, light eyes, blond hair.

Now, just as there are brunettes and people of all skin colors in Northern Europe, there are also some fantastic flavors in Scandinavian food. But for last night's supper, I was inspired by a few recipes that seemed to perpetuate the stereotype, and Susan played along.

appetizer

røkesild ["red herring" or kippers]

Susan has been told that, as a wee tyke accompanying her parents to the grocery store, she used to request kippers as a snack (whereas most children might ask for a cookie or a candy bar). She doesn't remember that, but I thought we'd have kippers for an appetizer in honor of Susan's being my co-chef last night. Kippers are salted, cold-smoked herring that have been cleaned and canned. Susan removed them from their tin and served them on whole-wheat crackers. Tasty! (The brown tones don't strictly adhere to the white theme--but brown is about as exciting a food color as white, so we went with it.)

main course

blomkål med reker ["cauliflower with shrimp"]

torsk i fløtesaus ["cod in cream sauce"]

Susan cleaned and steamed the cauliflower while I cleaned and chopped the shrimp. Then I made the sauce, which consisted of such bold flavors as flour and butter, cream and vegetable stock, and salt and white pepper. This dish could have been even whiter had I boiled the pink out of the shrimp and used fish stock instead of vegetable stock (fish stock is not available in our grocery stores, and I wasn't about to make it from scratch--get real!). But I love that the recipe itself called for white pepper--wouldn't want diners to be shocked by the presence of black flecks in their creamed cauliflower!

The cod recipe called for the fish to be poached and then covered in what amounted to a Béchamel sauce. Susan microwaved the cod instead and then set to work on the sauce, which required lots of stirring until brought to a slow boil. The sauce ingredients even sound "white": butter, flour, oil, white wine, white onion, milk, white pepper, and salt. The non-white ingredients were nutmeg and "a very small dash of cayenne pepper" (I love the sense of caution that tempers the addition of such a daring ingredient!). The recipe suggested giving the sauce "extra zip" by adding chopped green onion or chives (both of them quite bold flavors, no?), so that explains the vibrant green floating atop the bowl of otherwise white cream sauce. The cod is in there, too . . . it's just submerged beneath an ocean of sauce. The recipe made approximately 37 times the amount of sauce necessary for the portion of fish that it was meant to accompany.

This photo will allow you to appreciate the sight of the grayish-white cod in its cream sauce, the white cauliflower in its pale sauce, and the brown kippers and crackers, all on a white plate, of course:

The only real stand-out flavor in the meal came from the smoky kippers. Everything else had flavors that were, shall we say, on the "subtle" side. The fish was good, and the wine and onions were distinct flavors in the sauce. The cauliflower was fine, and the shrimp tasted like shrimp. And it was all predominantly white, so let's call it a success.

dessert

sandbakkeler med honningost ["sandbakkels with honey cheese"]

Next Saturday, August 15, our family will participate as Sons of Norway members in the Northern Plains Heritage Festival (called the "Northern Plains Ethnic Festival" by the local newspaper--hmmm). Members of our local Sons of Norway lodge have been asked to bake and bring either sandbakkeler or krumkaker to be sold at a booth of Scandinavian treats. A krumkake ["curved cake"] is a thin cookie made in a hot specialty iron (that presses a delicate design into it) and then rolled up onto a dowel to cool into something that resembles a waffle cone. Recipes vary, but butter, white sugar, eggs, flour, cream, vanilla extract, salt, and cardamom are typical ingredients. Time-consuming but not difficult to make so long as you have the requisite krumkake iron, which we don't.

A sandbakkel ["sand tart"] is a thicker cookie pressed into a fluted tin to come out, once baked, as a star or diamond or any number of other shapes. Again, recipes vary, but it's essentially a buttery sugar cookie with almond flavoring (either almond extract or almond flour), although sometimes I've had sandbakkeler with cardamom in them. Again, time-consuming but not a difficult cookie to make so long as you have a set of sandbakkel tins, which we don't.

However, another member of our Sons of Norway lodge offered to lend Susan some of her own multiple sets of sandbakkel tins! So yesterday morning Susan and Suzanna baked about six dozen sandbakkeler--and they turned out just like my grandmothers' and my mom's used to. Susan set aside several to serve as last night's dessert.

A sandbakkel is not frosted or powdered with sugar or decorated with sprinkles or any such thing; and, although it is cup-shaped, it is not filled with anything, either. It's just served plain with black coffee (which, in many Scandinavian-American homes--and certainly in most Lutheran churches in this region--amounts to brown hot water with just a hint of coffee flavor). But I had to jazz things up while still retaining the whiteness of the overall meal. I made a filling by whipping together mascarpone, honey, vanilla extract, cream, and white sugar and added a dollop to each sandbakkel. I made coffee for Susan and me (using an appropriate amount of grounds--my coffee tastes like coffee, thank you very much) but whitened it by adding Irish cream to each cup.

Should we ever wish to repeat the "White Meal" theme for a future Scandinavian Saturday, I'm certain that we could find numerous other options from the cookbooks of my Norse ancestors (and the abundant resources of the Interwebs). But, as expected, last night's supper wasn't bursting with flavor--and we're a family who enjoys a flavorful meal. Still, it was an interesting chapter in our weekly ethnic food experiment. And next Saturday (as mentioned above): The ethnic/heritage festival! Stay tuned!

Midsummer's Eve Picnic

Our Sons of Norway lodge, Hardanger 4-652, invited the nearby Dunn County lodge, Vang 4-674 (remember them?), to join us today to celebrate Sankthansaften ["Saint John's Eve"], or Midsummer's Eve. Would you like to know more about how and why Scandinavians celebrate Midsummer's Eve? Then see this, this, and this. Bonfires, processions, and music are important parts of midsummer celebrations in Norway. If I understand correctly, our lodge usually gathers at Lake Ilo outside Dunn Center, ND for a picnic and bonfire each Sankthansaften (this is our family's first summer in the organization, so I'm sketchy on the details), and that had been the plan for today, too.

However, so many of the fish at Lake Ilo died this spring that it's not a very pleasant place to be at the moment (think: stench of rotting fish), so we had the picnic at the city park in Dunn Center. We canceled the bonfire idea altogether due to the wind-tunnel-like gusts blowing us around all day. Instead we held our lodge meeting at a picnic shelter in the park followed by the potluck picnic, after which people trickled away gradually.

To the south of this picnic shelter, in the sunlight, is the new playground equipment, which the girls enjoyed after eating. The tablecloth-covered table in the front is where we piled up the potluck. Susan made a tater tot hotdish and a fresh fruit salad to share. Others brought macaroni salads, fried chicken, baked beans, cookies, and desserts. It was delicious!

The Mobergs, of course, were some of the last dogs to leave town; but we had a good visit with some of the lodge officers who hung around until the end, too. One of those officers is the lodge's cultural skills director, and during the meeting she called upon our family to give a report on our recent weekend at Camp Trollfjorden (remember?). Susan and Suzanna, having learned to knit at camp, will start attending the weekly cultural skills meetings to learn even more about knitting from this woman. Another of those officers is the secretary, and she's originally from northwest ND, as am I, so she likes to talk with me about my dad and what's going on in that area these days. (She also made an official announcement during the meeting that it's so great to have our family in the lodge: a young family that is so interested and active. "Yay!" for us!) Another of those officers is the president, and his extended family has many connections to Susan's dad's family because of having been raised in the same area of southwest ND. Small world!

After we had eaten and the girls had played on the new playground equipment in the park and enjoyed its clean, modern restroom facilities (with showers for campers' convenience) and we had stayed visiting until the bitter end, we collected the remains of our food and got in the van to drive home. On the way we decided to drive around Lake Ilo; we'd never been there before; and it's just off the highway between Dunn Center and Killdeer on the route home for us anyway, so we thought we'd drive by and take a look. We parked at a spot that featured a couple informational signs so that we could read a bit about the history of the refuge and take photos of some of the birds perched nearby.

In just a few moments, who should happen to pull up behind us but the secretary and the president, whom we had just said our goodbyes to only minutes earlier in town! They wanted to check on the status of the fish stink and so decided to drive out to the lake, too. Upon hearing that we had never been to Lake Ilo before today, they offered to drive us to a few points of interest. We took them up on the offer and ended up with quite a few great photographs of the excellent scenery and beautiful summer evening sky.

Can you see the birdies sitting on the island in the lake?

Here, we'll zoom in on them a bit.

Soon the tour ended, they went on their own way, and we drove the gravel roads from the south side of Lake Ilo back to Highway 22 north of Manning and then home to Dickinson. As it turns out, we had been on that stretch of gravel road before: it's how we got from Vang Lutheran Church to Dunn Center after the Syttende Mai festival in May (remember?). This time, however, we saw/heard something that we hadn't the first time around: a war of the words between two cattle. As we approached the intersection of two gravel roads, we heard one bovine dude in the southwest corner of one pasture bellering at another in the northeast corner of the pasture across the road. He had been bellering so long and hard, in fact, that he was losing his voice! (I made him sound like a freak of genetics when I said to our daughters, "Look, girls! A hoarse cow!")

I pulled over in front of him, opened the windows, and shut off the vehicle so we could listen to him. Susan wasn't enthused about being the person closest to him and seemed less amused than I was by his pawing the ground and giving us the evil eye as he continued to bray. She really didn't appreciate it when I pointed out how unsturdy the fence posts appeared that held the thin wires separating him from us. To be fair, I then pulled over to the other guy, putting myself in a similarly dangerous position. We got photos and video of both of them and then went on our way.

Bellering at Susan (for interrupting his bellering at the guy across the road).

Being standoffish toward me (for blocking his view of his hoarse adversary across the road).

(Update: For dinner at noon, I grilled the venison that I had marinating in the fridge since yesterday afternoon [remember?]. I turned the leftovers into the filling for what my mom called "hot meat sandwiches": a homemade barbecue sauce for simmering pork or beef before serving it on toast. It was always a delicious way to eat up leftover roast, and I figure it'll do good things for the venison, too.)