By Dick Herfindahl

The ice is on the lakes and &8220;hard water&8221; fishing is picking up. We still have to be careful of the fact that we had some warm weather with a snow cover and then the cold so there may be places that are still not safe for much more than foot traffic. There are a lot of portable fish houses showing up on both Fountain and Albert Lea Lakes. &8220;Tis the season!&8221;

In getting with the spirit of the season I will soon be taking my first fishing trip to one of the local grocery stores. It&8217;s time to go trolling through the meat department for that tasty treat &8212; &8220;lutefisk!&8221;

Although this fish is a much-maligned delicacy I will not be deterred. I can almost smell it boiling on the stove right now. OK, so that&8217;s maybe not the smell dreams are made of but there&8217;s still something about that fish that says it&8217;s Christmas.

I started eating it as a rite of adulthood and the claim of being of true Norwegian descent. I have often told of the family Christmas&8217; and the right to move from the kid&8217;s table to the adult table by devouring a helping of this delicious treat.

Every fish eater has his or her own way of eating the fish. My Dad&8217;s side of the family, where I sampled my first morsel, always served it with boiled potatoes scooped onto the lefse to which the fish as then added and topped with butter. Somewhere along the line one of my Norwegian elders discovered that you could melt the butter and pour it on the fish which was placed on top of the lefse along with potatoes that were mashed with your fork. Top this all off with a generous portion of salt and pepper and you had a feast fit for King Olav himself.

Now this is truly a meal worthy of most any Norwegian worth his salt (pun intended). Some may say that we were disguising the fish by adding all the extras but to that I say: &8220;Whatever works.&8221;

On my wife&8217;s side her dad was a real fish eater and the &8220;fish&8221; season usually started at Thanksgiving and carried right on until the New Year. Their family would put the fish and butter on the lefse but not the potatoes, that was a side dish. My sister&8217;s father-in-law, Bernie would pile the fish on his plate and eat it without lefse or potatoes. The first time he ate a Christmas meal with us we ran out of fish because the man could definitely put it away.

On my mom&8217;s side the Winjums, it was pretty much anything goes. They were of the potatoes and fish on lefse group but my uncle Orv wasn&8217;t beyond &8220;loading up.&8221;

One year my cousin Tom and his family came home from California for Christmas and we had the annual Christmas feast. As we were eating he began coaxing his uncle Orv to load his lefse with cranberries potatoes, corn and fish. This was pretty extreme but my uncle had no trouble devouring it and proceeded to make another. I can&8217;t remember if he also put some of the traditional homemade Swedish sausage (Potaitis Korv) on it or not. My cousin Tom is now a vegetarian but still makes lefse every year. He is missing out on the fish but I know he will load up with everything else.

Piling the fish, potatoes and melted butter on a lefse was always the true test of a &8220;well-made&8221; lefse. My dad always said that you could tell if it was a good lefse if you were able to roll up you sleeves and pick it up with two hands and it held together while the butter was running down your arms. I always thought of

my dad as a true fish eater because he always had a little butter dripping from his chin and sometimes even a small portion of the meal would stick to the corner of his mouth.

Today we still have the traditional lutefisk and lefse with meatballs and gravy for the future Norskies and those that can&8217;t quite bring themselves to take that bite of tradition.

Christmas memories &8212; how sweet! My mouth is watering just thinking about the upcoming fishing (see lutefisk) season.

With the passing of Evel Knievel last week I am reminded of a story by Joe Souchrey, a columnist for the Star Tribune and in it he was talking about the late Evel Knievel who had us all glued to the TV watching many of his stunts back in the &8217;70s. When Evel made the big Snake River Canyon jump Joe said he hadn&8217;t seen anything that exciting since his Norwegian neighbor Evil Knutson tried jumping over three barrels of lutefisk with his roto tiller. I have to say that Evel was part snake oil salesman, part daredevil and all showman but he gave us a lot of entertainment in those days. I think I still have one of the boys&8217; old Evel Knievel toy motorcycles somewhere in the attic. Thanks for those memories.

Until next time play safe, enjoy the outdoors and watch out for thin ice! Remember to keep the troops that are away from their families during the holidays in your thoughts and prayers. They are the reason we enjoy all the freedoms that we have.