Make this one a day ahead and refrigerate. You can also double this recipe. Reheat before Thanksgiving dinner.

Scalloped Corn

1 can whole kernel corn
1 can cream style corn
1 c. sour cream
1/4 c. butter or margarine, melted
1 package corn muffin mix
2 eggs, beaten

Mix all ingredients together and place in a buttered or sprayed casserole. Bake 350 degrees for 1 hour (longer if you have doubled the recipe. Check center to make sure corn is done. A knife inserted in the middle should come out clean.)

Cranberry Sauce (You can make this several days ahead)

12 oz. fresh cranberries
1 1/2 c. water
1 1/2 c. sugar

Rinse cranberries (discard bad ones). Heat water and sugar to a boiling point and boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in cranberries. Return to boiling and cook another 5 minutes until cranberries pop. Pour into a container and refrigerate. These are delicious! Be sure to order your lefse for the holidays.

Short on time on Thanksgiving morning to get everything ready for the big day? Try some of these recipes. In fact, I'll add one new make-ahead recipe every day. This comes to us from my friend, Maxine who does this every year and swears by the ease of serving and preparing for the day of Thanksgiving. Here's our first recipe: Do Ahead Turkey. P.S. We know that you've already ordered your Thanksgiving lefse, right? So all you have to do is the rest of the dinner now.

Do Ahead Turkey

One to three weeks ahead--thaw and rinse your turkey, keeping the neck and giblets for gravy. Roast your whole turkey until done. Do NOT stuff.
Remove turkey from oven and pour off the pan drippings (to use in gravy)--put in cup to let fat separate. Let turkey sit for 10-30 minutes before carving.

Line a disposable aluminum pan with heavy duty aluminum foil--leaving 10-12 inches extra on each side. Be generous. Carve the turkey into serving slices and place in the pan.

Pour chicken broth over the turkey, but it doesn't have to completely cover the meat. Place pats of butter over the top of the turkey. Bring top edges of aluminum foil together and roll to seal on top of the meat. Place in the freezer.

To thaw: take out of freezer the day before Thanksgiving and place in refrigerator. Warm in 300 degree oven for several hours until heated through (leave foil on meat during heating). Place hot, juicy turkey slices on your serving platter and enjoy!

Watch for another recipe each day of the week until you've collected them all.

Memories of Juneberries and Juneberry Picking

As one drives for about an hour west from Fargo across the wide, awesome openness of the Red River Valley suddenly the land drops away into tree carpeted hillsides, forested glens and patchwork fields.  This is the Sheyenne River Valley.  This is where I grew up.

One of the memories I have of growing up in this beautiful oasis is seeking out and picking juneberries on remote, secluded hillsides.  It was a community event…aunts, cousins.  We’d each get a Karo syrup metal pail and when full enough we’d contribute to the larger milk pail.  Many hands picking made the accumulation hopeful, as the berry by berry handpicking was slow at best. 

The fruit was heavenly.

We could hardly wait to get home to pour cream and sugar over the delicious fruit and consume them fresh.  Or our mother would make this incredible sauce out of juneberries and rhubarb.  Then there were the jams, the syrups.

Now, well into my mid to late adulthood, this annual summertime ritual has resurfaced.  Most if not all of the juneberry haunts are gone, victims of overgrazing.  Most of my friends and co-workers have never heard of juneberries.  There never was any opportunity to purchase juneberries at the super market. 

I was hankering for this fruit of my youth.

Growing Juneberries

Juneberries are in the rose family, related to the apple.  They are known by many names: amelanchier, shadblow, serviceberry, saskatoon.  Obviously, they are native to this area.  In fact, my Native American friends have talked about how juneberries were an integral part of their diet, mixed as part of pemmican or a cooked side dish.  Juneberry trees, or more accurately bushes, grow anywhere from 3 – 25 feet in height.  They are relished not only by humans, but also by rabbits and deer.  And it takes special vigilance to get the fruit before the birds do.

About eight years ago, I was at my favorite local nursery, Sheyenne Gardens and I ran into a man whose pick-up truck had The Juneberry Patch painted on its door.  Dan Kelner told me about his acres and acres of tended juneberry orchard near Velva, North Dakota.  He was attempting to establish juneberries as an industry in the state, and he would be willing to get me started on my own juneberry patch.  That set things in motion. 

I worked up an acre of land of my Dad’s farm, and on Memorial Day weekend, 2004, family members and I planted 1,000 beautiful juneberry “cultivars”, started in Canada and delivered by Mr. Kelner.  I planted two types: Smoky and Honeywood.

Farming is Risky Business--but the Birds Love it!

I’m more than willing to share all the ugly details of the past few years, but let it suffice to say that it reminded me why I was never tempted to go into farming as a means of self-support.  Yes, juneberries are loved by deer and rabbits alike.  In fact, there were times when I would ask to the air: would they not just leave a few to me?  And, yes, you only net the bushes in which you wish to harvest the berries.  Bird intuitively know when the berries are just right and will literally swoop in and devour a whole orchard within hours.

I harvested my first crop of juneberries in the summer of 2009.  The fruit was as heavenly as I remembered them.  I sold a small portion of the berries, including some to a local coffee shop who baked them into scones.  Most of the berries we froze.  Last summer, despite my netting the bushes, the birds somehow got under and denied me any.  This summer has been the best results: 12 gallons of fruit harvested over a week’s time.  The difference in the type of berry is very obvious: the Smoky has a much larger fruit, and usually has fewer berries on the tree.  Both are equally tasty and sweet.  Maybe the distinctive flavor of the berry is the industry’s description of its almond flavored seeds (which are small and eaten along with the rest of the fruit). 

Picking is very slow as the fruit ripens unevenly, so literally one is picking a berry, one at a time.  It is best to go in company of several people to make the picking as much a social event as to get the product.

Our Favorite Juneberry and Rhubarb Pie Recipe

Juneberries are very versatile.  They can be baked into muffins, breads, scones, as I mentioned earlier.  They make great syrups, jams, sauces, wine.  And, a creamery in Bottineau makes awesome juneberry flavored ice cream.  My wife enjoys them mixed into her breakfast yogurt and also makes a great pie with my two favorite ingredients: juneberries and rhubarb.

Here is her recipe:

Juneberry Pie

3 cups rhubarb, sliced/chopped

1 cup juneberries

2 1/2 cups sugar

2 tablespoons tapioca

1 tablespoon flour

 

Mix sugar, tapioca and flour together, before tossing in the fruit.  Add to a double crust pie.  Glaze crust with a mixture of 1 whipped egg white and 1 tsp water, sprinkle with sugar.

Bake 450 degrees for 10 minutes, then 40 – 50 minutes at 350 degrees. Enjoy. And thanks for indulging my trip through juneberry memories and current events.

Barry Nelson
Juneberry Farmer (Sometimes)

(Thank you, Barry, for telling us your story about juneberry picking, eating, and baking. Brings back some great memories! )

I love it! The blueberries are here and they are scrumptious. Check out my favorite (so far) one-crust fresh blueberry pie recipe here. I've made others, but this one beats them all. Whip a little lemon curd into whipped topping and you have a wonderful blend of flavors. The lemon is a real key to making blueberry or Juneberry pie. My friend, Barry, grows Juneberries. I'll ask him to share his favorite pie recipe with us for next time.

Bake and enjoy!

Denise,

LefseStoreLady

I've had such fun the past few weeks getting reacquainted with dear friends through LinkedIn, Facebook, and that new-fangled-Twitter. But it is through the old-fashioned use of the telephone and e-mail that I reconnected with a former colleague who is a wonderful friend. Her name is Kathy, and she has a business called Virtually Solved Now (www.virtuallysolvednow.com). Kathy is a virtual assistant to clients all over the country.

Kathy introduced me to a new friend who is also a life coach named Judy Nelson. Nelson, you say? Sounds like a relative (I'm a Peterson), or at least a former neighbor, or--who knows--someone you might know from this big state of North Dakota.

Coach Judy (www.coachjudynelson.com) grew up in North Dakota and knows her lefse and krumkake, by golly. We didn't get a chance to talk about lutefisk yet, but I'm sure that's coming later.

Here are some of Judy's comments:

Re the krumkake, my loveliest memory that now brings tears to recall is standing on a stool in the kitchen while my mother cussed softlyat the ancient black krumkake iron when the handle slipped as I waited to do my job of rolling them up—but I ate more than I rolled. If you figure out a way to package them, I will be your best customer! I would even buy the crumbs….:)

And, about working with Kathy and her virtual assistant work:

Kathy is the best thing that’s happened to me in a long time. The truth is that I wouldn’t have a successful coaching and training practice without her.

Judy's words have really warmed my heart.  I love making krumkake with my family and look forward to introducing this to my grandchildren, too.

I am working on a way to get delicious krumkake to the masses. (Watch for more news in the future!) We at LefseStore.comare a little bummed because our supply of electric krumkake irons had  a defect so we're waiting for another shipment of good irons. Soon!

We're finally getting above freezing temperatures here in Fargo, North Dakota. And, with it, the streets are full of mud and levees. Spring around here means another flood from the Red River of the North, the Wild Rice River, and the Sheyenne River and just the run-off from the snow-covered fields. We expect it to hit in another 10-15 days, but everyone is preparing with sandbags and moving things out of the basement. In 1997, the city of Grand Forks, ND (just north of Fargo)  flooded. The whole city. Even today, I have friends who quake at the thought of another flood. The trauma remains with them.

Meanwhile, Easter is fast approaching. We have lefse for sale ready for your Easter dinner. I still love the kitchen smells in the spring. My granddaughters are coming over soon to make Easter eggs. This will be their first year of Easter egg hunts, too.