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.

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

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.