Christmas 2010

Well, as usual, we are a little behind on the blogging. But, nevertheless, here is some information regarding our most recent trip to the frozen tundra. As most of you know, Laurie and I made the trip back to lovely, warm Minnesota for the Holidays. We ended up freezing for ten days in Minnesota and returned to DC (and 50 degrees) on New Years.

PART I

Our first stop on our whirlwind tour of Minnesota was Mankato. We spent several days in Mankato to see Laurie's family. The Sellners are a blast, especially with little Max running at full speed. Everyone in Laurie's family made the trip to Mankato including Scott, Lana, Hannah, Emily, Keri, Dave, and Max. We also spent some time with Laurie's aunt Deanna and her Grandma. We had a blast! It was a full house at Bonnie and Gene's, which made for some fun entertainment. One can only imagine...

The days at the Sellner "Homestead" were primarily spent playing games with the kids, building snow forts, watching movies (Despicable Me gets 4 stars), eating tons of great food, and watching our youngest nephew Max run, and run, and run, and then run some more. I needed at least two cans of Mountain Dew a day to keep up. This little guy is destined to be a track star. The snow fort that Scott, Dave and I built ended up turning into a small city, with a couple of hills for sledding and several tunnels. Hannah and Emily, the supervisors of the construction, were pretty impressed.

Our next encounter with the Sellners will be in March, when Laurie and I meet Bonnie and Gene in Fort Myers to watch a few Twins Spring Training games. Only 22 days until pitchers and catchers report! I will be sure to let all you Minnesotans know how warm it is in Florida...

PART II

Next on our whirlwind tour was a stop in lovely Perham, MN. The short five hour drive from Mankato to Perham was much better this year than in the last two years, given we didn't run into any snow. The highlights of our Perham visit included lots of sledding, playing games with the kids, watching a lot of hockey and swim meets, and of course, eating at number of fine establishments such as Mrs. B's, Pizza Ranch, Zorbaz, and Taco John's. My entire family made it back to Perham as well. We had a blast...it was really hard leaving. That list includes Tammy, Paul, Zach, Hayden, Ana, Brenda, Tony, Faith, Bryce and Ty. As you can see in the photo below, there are no barbers within a 20 mile radius of Perham. Zach and Hayden...that was directed at you...

Here are some pics from the day spent at Perham Hill...

We were also able to watch our nephew Hayden play a few hockey games. Nothing beats watching hockey, except watching basketball, unless your nephew, who loves checking people, is playing, then I guess hockey is pretty fun. All kidding aside, Hayden played great and it was a blast watching him spend several minutes in the penalty box.

We also made it to Brainerd to watch our nephew Zach swim. Zach did great in all of the events he raced in. He has already qualified for sections in the 200 individual medley, the 200 butterfly, the 200 breaststroke, and the 400 relay. I can hardly wait to see how he does at Sections and see if he can make it to State. Oh, and ladies...grab a number...look at those pipes!

PART III

After a few days in Perham, Laurie and I made the trip back to Minneapolis and Saint Paul to visit with friends. I met a bunch of buddies at Joe Senser's in Bloomington for some beer, food, and sports, while Laurie met up with some of her old high school friends for another Chirstmas party. The next day was spent preping for the night ahead...New Years. We went with a bunch of friends to the middle of nowhere in Wisconsin and it was a blast! Here are some pics from the night...

I still don't know why Laurie was laughing so hard...I look good!

And, as a finale, this was our buddy Brian the next day at lunch. Priceless.

That's it for now. Stay tuned! You never know when another posting could pop up out of nowhere!

- Bobby

Merry Christmas

Well, Christmas is almost here! We are getting ready to head back to Minnesota for ten days of visiting family and friends. While we have had our tree and our decorations up for nearly a month, here are some pictures to share:

Also it is that time of year to make lefse, a Tostenson family tradition. First I assembled all of the necessary equipment (all of which was a wedding present from fellow Norwegians):

Also required is the famous family recipe, as recently published in the Norseland Lutheran Church Cookbook:

Sorry, I didn't take pictures of the labor intensive instant potato preparation.

After some initial dough rolling issues due to lack of flouring the board, I was on my way.

The all important lefse 'stick' in action:

The completed product:

I planned to make 30 sheets of lefse and ended up with about 23 that passed quality control. My Hilton coworkers got to taste test it today, which was interesting because no one had ever heard of it before.

Merry Christmas! We hope to see many of you soon!

- Laurie

German Pancakes

This seems like a good time to post the aforementioned German pancake recipe, which has been passed through Bobby's mother's family for many generations.

This simple, easy recipe calls for the following ingredients:

- 3-4 tablespoons unsalted butter

- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup flour

- 1/2 cup milk

- Lemon

- Powdered sugar

Here are the steps:

1. Grab your baking partner:

 2. Beat the eggs, add flour and milk, beat well.

3. Heat the oven to 425. During preheating, melt 3 to 4 tablespoons of butter in a pie pan on the middle rack. Make sure the butter has coated the entire bottom of the pan to avoid sticking.

4. Remove pie pan from oven, immediately pour this mixture evenly into the warm pie pan, and return to middle rack for 15-20 minutes.

5. When edges have browned, remove from oven. Your pancakes may rise a lot with big bubbles, or they may stay flat. Each one is unique!

6. Use a spatula to lift your pancake out of the pan onto a plate. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and fresh squeezed lemon.

The result - something like a combination of french toast, an omelet, and crepes. You can use different fruit toppings or jams with this recipe but we have stuck with the classic.

Enjoy!

- Laurie

Minnesota Visitors

Our very close friends Kris and Gemma paid us a visit this past weekend. They were pretty excited to step off the plane in DC where the lows for the weekend were in the mid-40s versus the mid-teens they've grown accustomed in MN.

We kicked off the weekend by having dinner at Potenza, an Italian restaurant a couple of blocks from the White House. This restaurant rocks! Kris and I enjoyed the Cherry Bombs (Crown and Cherry Coke) and Laurie and Gemma enjoyed lots of wine. The food was fabulous and was served, and cooked, by true Italians. Hands down, my favorite Italian restaurant. After dinner, we made our way to POV to have a few more drinks. POV is located in the W Hotel and is a trendy bar that overlooks the National Mall and White House. We ended up discussing politics the entire time and  needless to say, Kris and Gemma now agree with my views.

The next morning I treated Gemma and Kris to a famous Riepe tradition, German Pancakes! For those of you not lucky enough to have tried them, let me know, and I will be glad to treat you.

After breakfast, we made our way to the National Mall for some site seeing. We made some stops at the White House, Jefferson Memorial and the Marine Corp Memorial (i.e. Iwo Jima).

After taking in some of DC most beautiful sites, we decided to head to the Blue Ridge mountains and visit some of Virginia's finest wineries. We started the wine tour at Bluemont Vineyard, which is located on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge mountains. While enjoying their exceptional wines, we took in the spectacular panoramic views from the wine tasting room high above the Virginia countryside. At an elevation of 951 feet above sea level, Bluemont Vineyard has clear views of DC and the surrounding suburbs. As you can see below, Kris and Laurie are very serious about their wine!

The wines at Bluemont were spectacular. They actually name all of their wines after farm animals, which makes it easier for people like me to say their names! Here is a little more information about Bluemont: http://www.bluemontvineyard.com/winery.php#wines.

After Bluemont, we made our way to few more wineries throughout the Virginia countryside. We had no idea that Virgina was home to so many fine wineries! I guess Virginians have made wine for more than four centuries starting with the Jamestown settlers  in 1619. Not until the 1820's did wine really take off in that region, thanks to the Virginia Norton grape, which was first grown by Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.

After the wine tours, we made it back to the National Mall to take in the monuments at night, which happens to be my favorite time to see them.

Alright, now on to something more serious: football. It just happened that Kris and Gemma's visit to DC also coincided with the Vikings visit to the nation's capital. There was no way we would miss out on this! We began tailgating at 9:00am. Nothing is better at that early than a brat, burger, and some beer. We had a blast talking with the Redskins faithful and were quite surprised at the number of Vikings fans. A quarter of the stadium was wearing purple!

We also had our friends Brian and Kimya join us for the festivities. As you can see below, Kimya's Viking jersey was dirty, so she had to wear a Redskins jersey. Needless to say, she had to cook her own brats. As I am sure you know, the Vikings ended up beating the Skins and snapping that nasty 9-game road losing streak. Thank God they finally fired Childress! FedEx Field was pretty old, but still much better than the Metrodome. Outdoor football is much more fun to watch.

Here are some more photos from the game:

Thanks again Kris and Gemma for making the visit. We loved having you and can't wait to see again soon.

- Bobby