Treasures from the Trunk

A paper I wrote that corresponds with a plate hanging in our hallway, which has the original lefsa recipe in my grandma's writing and pictures my ancestors.

Treasures from the trunk:

Ideas often originate from research. A person looks for information that inspires. During my research for this project I was able to travel back in time to the early 1900’s to see my family history. The plate depicts my ancestors from their favorite food, struggles during the depression and the celebration of marriage.

My grandmother was a wonderful woman who kept a daily journal, wrote on the back of photos and kept many artifacts throughout her life. My father’s mother, Dorothy Irene Nelson (Ekern) grew up in North Dakota moving around during the depression. At the age of 18 she married Walter Nelson and they had six kids. She lived a happy and healthy life and served her family as a housewife and mother.

Last June my grandmother passed away at the age of 82. She left behind a family of 59 and growing, along with many great memories. Growing up I loved spending time with my grandma, especially when she made root beer floats. Dorothy loved to talk over afternoon coffee and could tell you the family tree for many generations before her.

In October her children had an auction and cleaned out the house as my grandfather had passed in 1999. Everyone in the family got to pick their favorite items. The day of the auction everything seemed sentimental and the rat-pack inside me wanted to keep it all. Those items are still in a box in my closet. In today’s society it is very easy to get caught up in the world. Forgetting other things that are important and losing sight of your past. I hope I will be able to tell my grandchildren who their ancestors were.

My aunt now has my grandmother’s trunk with her wedding dress and boots, high school diplomas, hundreds of photos with descriptions detailing people and place at the time of the photos. Going through the trunk was a step back in time before technology took over. I can’t explain everything that I saw for most of it was emotional and wonderfully me. It was incredible to read letters written over 70 years ago about my great grandmother’s interest in young lads. Everything in that trunk is deep inside me for wherever my career in pastry takes me I will still be a North Dakota Norwegian.
The recipe featured on the plate is Lefse, a potato flatbread usually eaten with butter and sugar. Every Thanksgiving my family still brings out the grills and we all get together to make a big batch to last long enough to be served at Christmas.

Bread Showpieces

This if for my Dad

Chocolate Showpieces from JWU

Showpieces in Chocolate....you can see by the first one I wasn't a born natural but found how to be creative and had so much fun forming the chocolate on the chef and even more with sugar and pastillage on the last showpiece for my senior final.

Personal introdction from Cakes class

Every person comes to a turning point in their life when they have to decide where they want to go. I was standing at the crossroads during my junior year of high school after I received many brochures about colleges and universities. Picking a major could have been the most difficult decision I had to make on my own. Not wanting to sit in a classroom and write notes for four more years I decided to go after the one thing I knew how to do hands on. Unsure that I even had a passion I chose something that I simply enjoyed.

Johnson and Wales just happened to be the university that concentrates on Pastry without having to be involved with Culinary that still offers a college experience. Once I found the right school I was very impatient. Enrolled in the access program within the month, with my bags packed I flew to Rhode Island to explore a new opportunity.

Interested and somewhat overwhelmed I came to like the tour more and more. Unable to enroll for access, I finished high school and flew up the next year. Finding myself, exploring the “big city”, falling in love, making friends and so much more I really enjoyed myself with the first year here. It wasn’t all glamour with five mice in my dorm room, fights with roommates, long nights doing homework and being homesick but all in all it was definetly a great experience.

This year I am back to finish my Associates and I am glad to be back in school. I found that this is really what I want to do especially working over the summer and I want to concentrate as much as possible. I have six months of labs and then Co-op so I am looking forward to seeing a new part of the country and another great experience.

Growing up in North Dakota I never knew any chefs, nor were chefs anybody famous or respected. I learned most of what I know from my grandmother helping her make everything from cookies and bread to lefsa when I was little. My grandfather cooked on holidays but I never liked meat much.

My father’s parents farmed many acres and it stayed in my father’s blood. With a full time job in the city as an Energy Management Specialist, we always had to help on the farm. I have an older sister and a younger brother, both separated by two years. My mother is a secretary and keeps us all in order. Family is a very important thing and sometimes it is hard to be this far away.

Even so I would like to travel doing seasonal work for a few years before I settle down in a career. Hopefully sooner than later I will be settling down and marry my boyfriend who I am very much in love with. My biggest problem is relaxing and enjoying life for what it is really worth rather than running around from here to there to fit everything in.

BPA 1400 AM
Chef Ricci

Pumpkin Bread with Cranberries and Almonds

This is a very simple recipe I found on Food Network. I added almonds and orange peel.

Cranberry Pumpkin Bread
Recipe courtesy Bill Kelly
Show:
Sara's Secrets
Episode:
Sara's Thanksgiving Secrets

4 eggs
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 cup vegetable oil
4 cups sugar
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In bowl combine eggs, pumpkin puree and oil. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Add cranberries and mix well. Divide dough into 2 (8 by 4-inch) loaf pans. Bake for 50 minutes.

Macaroni Hotdish

Macaroni Hotdish
- One of my favorite growing up that Grandma Dorothy made

2 cups Medium Egg Noodles- cooked
1 lb hamburger
1 can tomato soup
1 can cream style corn

1. Brown the hamburger.
2. Add remaining ingredients and mix together.
3. Spray a casserole dish and bake at 325 for 45 minutes until bubbly.

Mom said "You can make this bigger or smaller I usually do 2lbs of hamburger and make up more than 1 casserole when making the mess."

Tater Tot Hotdish

1 lb beef
2 cans cream of potato/chicken soup
1 cup milk
1 can crean style corn
Salt
Pepper
Lawrys Seasoning

1. Brown the beef - drain excess grease.
2. Add soup, milk and corn
3. Add seasoning

Bake Tater tots in oven until crispy and garnish on top of hotdish.
Mom says You can bake the tater tots separate in toaster oven and just keep the hamburger mix in the fry pan or you can pour the hamburger mix in a cake pan and top with tater tots and bake together.

Passionate about Passionfruit

Passionate about Passion Fruit

A new ingredient is on the market: inviting, invigorating and refreshing. Have you noticed a change in flavors at your favorite restaurant, your juice at breakfast, your yogurt at lunch? Perhaps you picked it up in the scent of your new lotion? This strikingly, excitingly and mysteriously different fruit, native to Brazil, is the latest foreign fruit in local farmers markets and grocery stores. Following in the path of mangoes, papayas and guava, passion fruit is the newest exhilarating flavor on the market. Exotic to the United States, passion fruit is familiar to many immigrants making their home in the “melting pot.”

Knowing Your Passion
Contradictory to the ways America marketers present this new flavor – connecting it to lust, passion, or portraying it as an aphrodisiac - passion fruit was once sought after for the reference to Christ. According to the Food Lover’s Companion, passion fruit gained recognition because the symbols of Christ’s crucifixion are found in the plant’s flowers.
Peak season is from March to September, although the passion fruit is gaining popularity and will eventually have year round availability. Many varieties are grown natively but two forms are commonly found around the world, a yellow version, better known to Brazil, and the purple version available in the United States. The fruit is grown in South America (where it originated and is called granadilla), as well as in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, California, and Florida. In Hawaii, the lilikoi variety is grown.

Getting your passion
Looking for a way to eat your five a day? According to a March 1997 article of Men’s Health, passion fruit has “17.5 calories, 0.4 grams of protein, 4.2 grams of carbohydrate, 0.1 grams of fat, 5.4 milligrams of vitamin C, 126 I.U. of vitamin A, 63 milligrams of potassium, and 2.2 milligrams of calcium.” When eating fruit becomes a chore, change your tactics. Plunge into something new.
Choosing your Passion
Pick a firm, heavy fruit, however don’t be perplexed by the surface when you find the flesh wrinkled, it is still firm; the oval fruit, deep purple in color is ready to use and most deliciously ripe, wrinkled. Another option is buying the fruit with tight skin and keeping it in the refrigerator for up to ten days. The pulp and juices freeze well without losing gusto in flavor.

Preparing your Passion
Place the fruit lengthwise in front of you on a cutting board. With a sharp knife, carefully slice through the stiff shell-like membrane over a bowl. Scoop out the pulp, juices and seeds into a bowl or a sieve, depending on your purpose. (The seeds are edible or can be strained according to preference). With its fragrant and pungent flavor, passion fruit can be eaten as a dessert in itself, added to ice cream, yogurt, or beverages.

Tasting your Passion
The fresh flavors of passion fruit are related to other tropical fruits and accompany mango, papaya, lychee or peach very well. The tang is original, intense, and unmistakably rich. Stringy pulp, concentrated yellow color and black crunchy seeds (similar to watermelon seeds in size, but edible) add to the complexity of this fruit.
With historic value and increasing popularity this fruit is easy to prepare, keeps well in the freezer and has an incredibly tangy and unique taste. Take a look in your local produce aisle.

Pizza Memoir

This is a paper I wrote for a Food Writing class in 2006

When the Doorbell Rang:
A Night of Pizza, Family and Cards

I thrived off Monday nights as a child; bleach blonde hair and starving for attention. Assigned to my weekly task of setting the dinner table, I carefully counted out the forks and placed the pop (soda) coolers on the table. Paper plates were my mother’s favorite china. The ding of the doorbell jolted me to the door, even though I was preoccupied with the television show Full House. Tonight my grandfather would have that box, steaming with familiarity, in his hands.
I grabbed it out of his arms and rushed back into the house to place it in the center of the table. The family gathered around, clasped hands, and we bowed our heads to say grace. After a slight squabble over who would dish it up, a cheesy aromatic slice of pie landed on my plate. The first bite was perfect, crisp and sizzling. After the piece was devoured, I salivated and stared down the table to the smaller box that was making its way towards me. Breadsticks were my favorite part of the meal, crispy and seasoned on the outside and chewy on the inside.

A glass of ice-cold water was my beverage of choice. Other members of my family sucked down their addictive Mountain Dew, while my grandfather drank half a glass of milk and my grandma sipped a beer.
After giving my plate exclusive attention, I eventually raised my head to tune in to this week’s family bulletin of gossip, shared between my grandmother and mother. As I listened in I asked for a second slice, savoring every bite before the heat evaporated. Seated at the head of the table, I soaked up the attention. Whatever discussion didn’t involve me I made an attempt to change. When that didn’t work, I passed the time catching someone dazing off, made a face at one of my siblings or secretly slunk down my chair to kick my brother. (All behavior is due to Middle Child Syndrome.) During this time I was also able to share with my grandparents upcoming school activities in my elementary days, or grades to be put on the refrigerator. I spoke so fast that my grandfather nicknamed me livewire, as he couldn’t understand most of what I said. Eventually, I surrendered my fork and sat back to recap, not able to eat one more morsel.
After dinner we moved to the living room where I performed a reoccurring solo act of dancing and singing, occasionally coercing my siblings into roles of back-up singers. Around the age of ten and eleven, I started baking brownies or cookies for dessert. After a few years, baking became the outlet for attention. Monday nights developed into my time to decorate the table and make a presentation for my grandparents to be impressed. Another new tradition started with a card game called Canasta. It is a game of strategy involving teams, which led to my siblings arguing over who got to have grandma on their team. Our suppertime soon extended late into the night, with cards, frustration and laughter.
This tradition has been alive for many years in my family, even before I was born. My aunt recalls the time my parents’ announced they were expecting; it was during Monday night pizza. Visiting relatives would occasionally join in on the fun, livening up to our tradition. The local pizza chain cuts our pizza slices in a special shape known only to the Nelson family. Eventually, my mother simply had to say no more than Nelson pick-up as she phoned in our order. All the staff members still know my grandfather by name, and are ready and waiting for him most of the time when he arrives to pick up the pizza.
Occasionally, my grandfather would call us for a contract-- running an errand which made us feel extremely important as kids-- to sit shotgun in his truck to pick up the pizza. During the winters I frequently volunteered to go with him because I knew I would get to hold the steaming box on my lap as we drove back to my parents’ house. I would hold my hands over the vents on the box, not understanding who invented the slits that were making my pizza cold. The truck soon filled with a mouth watering aroma that is vivid in my mind still today. The box kept my legs so hot I thought the pizza might burn a hole through my pants. My grandfather parked and helped me jump out of the passenger side to reach the ground.
Fortunate enough to grow up near my grandparents, I developed a close family bond as well as a love for pizza. Today, I am many miles away from my family and those beloved pizza nights. I have found ways to consume the food at least once a day. Could I be homesick, possibly? Nevertheless, next time I go home I know my seat, at the head of the table, will be waiting for me and the doorbell will ding.

Restaurants

Breakfast:
T's Restaurant - favorite local

Pizza:
Antonios - On Thayer Street, one of our favorite pizza places
Fellini's Pizzeria - Wickeden Street, our other favorite pizza
Bertucci's

Italian:
Macaroni Grill- where you learn Italian in the bathroom (also where Kevin worked)

Expensive but awesome dates:
Restaurant 10 - the best chocolate souffle!

Fallbacks:
Olive Garden- When Kevin drove me 20 minutes to eat here freshmen year I was sporting a nice cast
Subway- eat fresh, and the daily sub is a great deal!

One of my favorite books

This is a great book - I loved reading about her adventures in France and her discovering in cooking.

How she became a pastry chef....

Finding what a person loves to do may take their whole lives, lucky for me I was born with it in my blood. (Only I didn't realize what that meant right away and who the genes came from)

Even from very young I started to mix cookies doughs with my mom which turned into Saturdays at Grandma's making bread, caramel rolls and cookies. Even my grandpa likes to bake, pecan pies are his specialty. This picture (2 1/2 years old here) is taken at Tillie's (our daycare provider) in Valley City, ND. She taught me many valuable lessons in baking and even fresh pasta that we had in her famous Chicken Noodle Soup.

At Grandma's making Norwegian Lefsa, a potato flatbread

Grandma's with my sister rolling cookies
Always the creative one, I loved to spend my time making holiday creations at my parent's house. Special requests started when I was about 10 - everyone loved the cream puffs. I recieved my first cookbook in a blue binder my mom made of copies containing easy-to-follow recipes from her cookbooks.
Baking filled the days and years still at home as I planned to make dessert for every holiday, gifts to family and friends. I started to talk more about it not realizing it is how I would spend the next 10 years of life. In high school I took a home-ec class and hand carved a cantelope as part of a fruit platter. It was then I realized baking was more than cookies and doughnuts. I struggled for the next 3 years to convince my family this is what I wanted to do and that I should fly half way across the country to attend JWU to learn more about it. As I got more into it I realized my Dad's mom Dorothy had decorated wedding cakes for years and years before handing it off to my aunt and now cousin. Passed down from both parents these talents are simply me.

In Dublin, Ireland were I worked for 3 months as a part of my education at JWU.

Eventually my family surrendered and off I flew to Providence, RI where I was only going to stay for 2 years which ended up being 4 for my Bachelor's in Baking and Pastry Arts. JWU was a great opportunity for me and I took every chance I got to learn and to travel!

I met Emeril Lagasse twice!

Swiss chocolates handmade by me~!

My class working on cookie platters

I started working in Valley City, ND at Another Time Restaurant senior year of high school. Then I left for school, worked at the Athenaeum Hotel in Chatauqua, NY Summer of 2004. Next adventure was Ireland where I worked for 3 months in a castle outside of Dublin in 2005. Then 2006 brought on Switzerland and Italy - a Study Abroad program that brought on many fun adventures and new pastries- most included Kirsch.

Now I am working for Whole Foods Market. I started out in Providence and quickly worked my way up from a team member to pastry chef, then Associate Team Leader. I flew to Kensington London to help open a store there, came back to open a store in Cranston. Currently I am commuting to the store in Bellingham, MA.