A tribute to my great great grandmother...

I'd like to introduce you to Johanna Holmgren. She immigrated to America with her husband from Sweden back in the 1800s. She was a pioneer woman and I am sure a very good cook. In her honor, my daughters and I attempted to make some Swedish pancakes for breakfast this morning. While growing up, my grandmother used to make a traditional Swedish dinner every year for either Christmas Eve or New Years Eve. We had Swedish meatballs, fruit soup, rice pudding and other yummy dishes. She used recipes passed down from her mother and grandmother. I thought it would be fun to try some Swedish cooking with Bethany and Sarah since it you know, "runs in the family." Well, I sure wish one of these ladies was still living so they could have lent us a hand. You'll understand when you take a look at how our first pancake turned out.

Oh don't worry, we eventually got better at it. After we made a mess of the first, oh, maybe 3 pancakes. First we burned a little butter in a pan while melting it. (It's easy to get distracted with 2 hungry two year olds underfoot in the kitchen you know.) Then we made a few ummm "pancakes". Yeah...well, I think I have decided that I need to purchase a crepe pan if I want to keep making these things because these babies were a little difficult to flip! But don't worry we ate the messed up ones anyway. Nothing goes to waste in our kitchen!

Bethany helped with filling them with jam and rolling them up...

Jared assisted in sprinkling on the powdered sugar. (Did I mention that my kitchen was covered in white powder before we were finished?)

And Jesse helped eat them faster than we could crank them out! "More mom!"

Oh yes, I forgot to tell you that Amelia Bedelia joined us for breakfast as well. Okay, not really...but look at what my Sarah did when I asked her to please put a package of hot cocoa mix, one into each of 4 mugs, for her and her sister and brothers! Silly girl! (Sarah loves to read Amelia Bedilia and I guess it is beginning to show in her sense of humor.)

So here is what our final pancakes looked like. And I tell you they were delicious and enjoyed by all. Okay....so maybe they look a little like burritos instead of Swedish pancakes a.k.a. crepes. But we'll get better with practice. I promise!

Next item up on our Swedish menu....rice pudding! And we won't forget to add the one raisin! The person that is served the dish with the raisin in it is promised good luck all year long! (Or so my grandmother used to tell me.)