I brought back from Minnesota...

[Left Is Write]

Six pounds of Caribou coffee, four Minnesota-themed refrigerator magnets, a northwoods cabin sign, scads of tax-free new clothes, a few more of my mother's recipes, and several hundred pictures.

:)

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. And lefsa?

If you didn't get lefsa, then you failed in a trip to Minnesota.

[Left Is Write]

6. No, my adorable one.

I *make* lefse.

[Rabrrrrrr]

16. Well, then - that's okay!

I *****LOVE***** Lefse!!

Fucking awesome!

I'm so glad you know how to make it. Now I like you even more!

I didn't know you were from Minnsesota. Where'd you go?

I love Minnesota. Have some relatives in the Twin Cities, and have gone to their cabin way up nort past Duluth a number of times.

Almost as nice as Wisconsin.

[Left Is Write]

21. I love lefse too.

I make enough in November for Thanksgiving through the rest of the holidays. I don't have it year 'round because then it wouldn't be as much of a treat. I have a lefse griddle from Maid of Scandinavia (it's a Bethany Heritage grill - the best), and a turning paddle my uncle brought back from Norway for me. I learned how to make lefse from my mother, who learned from her mother, who learned from her mother (and so it goes). I also taught my husband how to make lefse.

And yes, I am from Minnesota. I was born there. I was raised in Burnsville. My parents lived in Burnsville from 1964 to 1992, then they moved to Eagan. They retired three years ago and are now living in St. Cloud. I moved to Wisconsin at age 26 to do radio and lived there for three years. I moved to Idaho almost five years ago. I spent 31 of my 39 years in Minnesota.

:)

[Rabrrrrrr]

27. St. Cloud, eh?

never been in that area. I've only done the twin cities and north, and then also zipped across the south a couple times heading out to the dakotas.

Do you and I share a birthday?

[Left Is Write]

30. I don't think so. I just had one a few weeks ago.

[Rabrrrrrr]

31. Okay. Not sure what triggered the question, but all of a sudden

I had a thought that you were one of the DUers I shared a birthday with.

I can never remember these things.

Happy birthday, then!

[Left Is Write]

33. Thanks...

I've been 39 for about five weeks. ;)

[Chichiri]

2. Maybe you should have just stayed here.

It's not quite as appallingly hot here as it is elsewhere in the country, as I understand it.

[Left Is Write]

8. I'd love to. I was born and raised there.

My daughter cried for two days about leaving because she hates the long drive between where her grandparents and cousins live and where we live.

[GOPisEvil]

3. I visited Minnesota in April.

OK, so I switched planes in the Minneapolis airport, but still. I didn't have time to buy swag from there though.

[Left Is Write]

9. That's okay.

I got enough stuff for both of us. :D

[GOPisEvil]

14. I wanted to buy stuff from MN for all my friends to mess with their heads.

"But, but...I thought you went to Boston..."

Yeah, I'm a stinker sometimes.

[ewagner]

4. Lukefisk?

Actually....you're going to have "tuna fish casarole with crushed potato chips on top" withdrawals in about three days..

I lived there with an old Norweigan family for a year.....

[Left Is Write]

10. I come from an old Norwegian family.

LOL!

(But it's not tuna casserole...it's tuna hotdish.)

[ewagner]

17. Ohhhhh....I forgot

forgive me on that one...

The day I interviewed for a job over there the air temp was minus 20F....and outside the interview room they were holding HOCKEY PRACTICE!

[Rabrrrrrr]

20. Well, shit, minus 20 isn't even getting properly cold yet.

When I loved in NYC, my friends just simply could not believe the cold I learned to endure, and my lack of bundling up in NYC. "Why bundle up? It's only 30 degrees. It's barely freezing. You don't wear gloves or button your coat in this weather, it gets too hot."

[Left Is Write]

22. I remember some winters when zero was a heat wave.

[ewagner]

28. Same here...

I can't remember if it was '76 or '77 in Ashland Wisconsin that we went something like 30 days straight where the "high" for the day was -20F. We were only 76 miles from Duluth, MN.

[MN ChimpH8R]

36. Sounds like the responses I got

from southern and Cali friends when I was in law school.

Me: "No, it is NOT cold out. Boston does not GET cold. When it gets into double digits below zero with a nasty wind, THEN it's cold."

They looked at me like I had three heads. :)

[KitchenWitch]

5. What about Cremettes and Old Dutch?

:D

[Left Is Write]

11. So here's the thing.

I was going to go to Cub on Monday and stock up on the Creamettes and Old Dutch, but we were so busy cramming in more stuff with my family on the last day of vacation that I completely forgot! I'm lucky I remembered to stock up on the Caribou.

I thought about the Cub stuff last night. At the hotel in Billings, Montana. Oops.

[KitchenWitch]

13. Bummer

You will have to have your mom send you a care package! :D

[Left Is Write]

19. Exactly!

I did eat Old Dutch last Friday. We went to my husband's aunt and uncle's house. They live on a lake, and we went out on the party barge with some Old Dutch sour cream & onion and dill pickle chips.

[KitchenWitch]

23. I LOVE the dill pickle chips

:D

[Left Is Write]

25. Me too...an irresistible vice.

It's probably a good thing they aren't sold here.

[KitchenWitch]

26. LOL

I hear that...I have a little reservoir of Dill Pickle chips around my midsection :rofl:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

38. What about the Byerly's Parmesan salad dressing and the Nut Goodies?

That's what I used to take back to Oregon with me.

http://www.candydirect.com/bars/Nut-Goodie.html

The recipe for one variety of Byerly's Parmesan dressing is here:

http://www.byerlys.com/shared/Recipes/default.aspx?id=1177&return=true

[Left Is Write]

39. I did have a Nut Goodie last weekend.

It's probably also a good thing THOSE aren't sold here!

[indigo32]

7. if ya didn't bring any mosquito bites home on ya

then ya didn't officially visit

[Left Is Write]

12. I was a veritable all-you-can-eat buffet for the little monsters

the whole time I was there.

[indigo32]

15. All the damn rain we got

really brings them out

[RetroLounge]

18. It's just like Wisconsin but with a few more lakes

:hi:

RL

[AlGore-08.com]

24. Uff da!

[Wapsie B]

29. No Hotdish?

And you call yourself a Minnesotan.

;-)

[Left Is Write]

32. No need to bring back hotdish.

I make it pretty often around here. :)

[grannylib]

34. Did you get to hear any loons??? Can't be a visit home to Minnesota

without hearing some loons...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

35. I beg your pardon!

Loons are a NORTHERN Minnesota bird. I've been back in Minneapolis for two years, and I haven't heard a single loon.

[MN ChimpH8R]

37. Hope you enjoyed your little sojourn to da Nortland

Now you see the other act in our theatre of seasons - 90+ and humid. :P

Must agree with earlier poster (even though I am German with some Scots) - homemade lefse rocks. Scandinavian tortillas! :9

[Left Is Write]

40. I've seen every act in the Minnesota theater of seasons.

For me, it is the homeland. :)