The delicious aroma of baking cookies wafted from my kitchen as I lounged on the sofa, feet elevated, a pillow behind my head. I wasn’t the baker. My daughter was. She’d come for a weekend visit and surprised me by bringing a krumkake iron. On Saturday afternoon she got busy baking a batch of these delicacies.
Krumkake is a Scandinavian treat, funnel- or tube-shaped, sweet and crisp but painstakingly labor intense. As a young bride, these cookies were new to me, but it didn’t take long to become a huge fan.
Every Christmas, Grandma Nelson, my husband’s grandmother, fired up her krumkake iron and literally made hundreds of these treats which she gave to family members.
Grandma Nelson was no stranger to hard work. She’d come to this country at age 18, all alone. She found work as a seamstress. She married but was widowed and left alone with a little boy. Eventually, she remarried and went on to live a good life.
Every Christmas, for as long as she was healthy, she made hundreds of these cookies, one by one. When she died, her krumkake iron was passed on, and one niece kept up the tradition for several years, but eventually, the custom faded into history. I was as much to blame as anyone. I loved krumkake but wasn’t willing to do what Grandma Nelson had done—spend days in the kitchen.
So, when my daughter pulled out a krumkake iron she’d purchased at Amazon and told me not to worry, she’d make them, I took her up on it and watched as she capably took over my kitchen. The end results – cookies every bit as good as Grandma’s. An all-around wonderful surprise.
My next surprise came in the form of plant life. If you’re like me, you have numerous houseplants filling your windows, brightening winter days. My favorite plants are my two Christmas cactuses. In December, while many houseplants are drooping, Christmas cactuses thrive. However, several days ago I noticed that while one was blooming profusely, the other wasn’t.
When I complained, my ever-practical husband suggested I move it to the south-facing window of my office. I gave it a try, figuring maybe to get a few blooms by New Year’s.
To my surprise, only two days after relocating the huge plant I spotted pink buds already forming. Another nice Christmas surprise.
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