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

Gettysburg, PA

This past weekend, Laurie and I joined our friends Briggs and Lynn on a day-trip to one our favorite historical sites, Gettysburg, PA. To begin, the weather was absolutely perfect: 65 degrees and sunny. How was the weather in MN this past weekend?

We started the day at the Gettysburg visitor center where we watched a quick movie, viewed the famous Cylcorama painting, and toured the museum. The world famous Gettysburg Cyclorama was completed in 1884 and depicts Pickett's Charge, the turning point of this historic Civil War battle. The picture below doesn't begin to show how amazing this painting is. You stand in the middle of the 360° cylindrical painting where the intended effect is to immerse the viewer in the scene being depicted and includes the addition of foreground models and life-sized replicas to enhance the illusion. The completed original painting was 22 feet high and 279 feet in circumference. The version that hangs in Gettysburg, a recreation of the original, is 27 feet high and 359 feet in circumference. Believe me, it was very impressive.

After spending a couple of hours at the visitor center, we made our way into town. It was lunch time, which happens to be my favorite time of day. We found a great sports bar named after the famous hall-of-fame pitcher Eddie Plank, who won 324 games for the Philadelphia Athletics. Lynn and I both decided to have the double-header, a must have if you like burgers. After a great lunch, we started our audio tour of the various battlefields, which stretch a total of 24-square miles.

Alright, here is a quick history lesson of one of the most historic battles on American soil:

The Battle of Gettysburg, which was fought on July 1-3, 1863, was the battle with the largest number of casualties in the Civil War and is often described as the war's turning point. Union General George Meade's army of the Potomac defeated attacks by Confederate General Robert E. Lee's army of Northern Virginia.

The two armies began to collide at Gettysburg on July 1 as Lee urgently concentrated his forces there, with an objective to engage the Union army and destroy it. Low ridges to the northwest of town were defended initially by a Union cavalry division, which was soon reinforced with two corps of Union infantry. However, two large Confederate corps assaulted them from the northwest and north, collapsing the hastily developed Union lines, sending the defenders retreating through the streets of town to the hills just to the south.

On the second day of battle, most of both armies had assembled. The Union line was laid out in a defensive formation resembling a fishhook. Lee launched a heavy assault on the Union left flank, and fierce fighting raged at Little Round Top (see below, a view from Little Roundtop), the Wheatfield, Devil's Den, and the Peach Orchard. On the Union right, demonstrations escalated into full-scale assaults on Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill. All across the battlefield, despite significant losses, the Union defenders held their lines.

On the third day of battle, fighting resumed on Culp's Hill, and cavalry battles raged to the east and south, but the main event was a dramatic infantry assault by 12,500 Confederates against the center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge, known as Pickett's Charge. The charge was repulsed by Union rifle and artillery fire, at great losses to the Confederate army. Lee led his army on a torturous retreat back to Virginia. Between 46,000 and 51,000 Americans from both armies were casualties in the three-day battle. That November, President Lincoln used the dedication ceremony for the Gettysburg National Cemetery to honor the fallen and redefine the purpose of the war in his historic Gettysburg Address. 

Oh, and before we wrap it up, we have to give a shout out to the 1st Minnesota Regiment. The men of the 1st Minnesota are most remembered for their actions on July 2, 1863, during the second day's fighting at Gettysburg, where the regiment prevented the Confederates from pushing the Federals off of Cemetery Ridge, a position that was to be crucial in the battle. General Hancock ordered the regiment to assault a much larger enemy force telling the men to take the enemy's colors. The fateful charge bought the time needed while other forces were brought up. During the charge, 215 members of the 262 men who were present at the time became casualties.

The unit's flag fell five times and rose again each time. The 47 survivors rallied back to General Hancock, but not without great losses. The 82 percent casualty rate stands second to only the 1st Texas Infantry regiment, which suffered 82.3% casualties at the battle of Antietam. The unit's flag is now in the Minnesota Capitol's rotunda.

Despite the horrendous casualties the 1st Minnesota had incurred, it continued the fight the next day, helping to repulse Pickett's Charge. The surviving Minnesotans just happened to have been positioned at one of the few places where Union lines were breached during that engagement, and, as a result, charged the advancing Confederate positions one last time as a unit.

Here is an impressive memorial in their honor:

Here are few more photos from the day:

What a great day! Anyone who loves U.S. history should make a trip to Gettysburg, or at least watch the movie!

- Bobby

3:24

As many of you are aware, I have always enjoyed running. I ran the Twin Cities marathon in 2006 and decided it was time to try another race. With that said, I signed up for the 35th Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) in Washington DC, which was held this past weekend. The weather was fantastic! The marathon was very well organized, there were thousands of fans, and I finished with a new personal record. What else could you ask for? My official finish time was 3:24, which was good enough for 789 out of approximately 32,000 runners. I am still pretty sore from the 26.2 mile hike, but the feeling of crossing the finish line is like no other and was well worth the four months of training.

Here is a little information about the MCM. The MCM was established in 1976, and as of 2009, the MCM became the fourth largest marathon in the U.S. and the eighth largest in the world, with runners from more than 50 participating countries. The total participants for the 2010 MCM was estimated at approximately 32,000. The MCM is known as "The People's Marathon" because it is open to all runners ages 14 and above and is the largest marathon not to offer prize money. As you can see in the photo below, I was not only idiot dumb enough to run 26.2 miles!

The course was amazing, especially if you love history. We started the race in Arlington right next to the Arlington Cemetery. After a few miles in Roslyn, VA we went across the Potomac River into historic Georgetown, which was packed with fans! We then made our way along the Potomac River into downtown DC and the Mall area. The sights of the Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Capitol and the Washington Monument were wonderful sights, even after running 14 miles. After the Mall area, we went back over the Potomac River in Crystal City, VA and pass the Pentagon. Finally, we finished at the base of the Iwo Jima memorial, which happens to be my favorite monument in DC.

I have to give a shout out to Laurie. She was amazing during the race as she met me at five different spots to give me water, sports beans, and some extra motivation to finish strong. In fact, she nearly ran a half marathon herself trying to meet me at those various points. She was awesome!



Overall, the weekend was amazing. I had a great time and really look forward to fattening up over the course of the next few weeks. Beer never sounded (and tasted) so good! This will probably be my last marathon, but the idea of half-marathons, 10-milers, and 10-k races already sound appealing! Here are a few more photos from race day...

- Bobby