In my family, nothing says the holidays quite like krumkake. It’s a crispy, Norwegian cookie that’s rolled into a tube, and filled with cream or Danish pudding (not pictured).
I actually own a krumkake iron, but I didn’t fire it up for the holidays because it was packed away in a storage unit beneath a pile of ex-girlfriend stuff. Here it is, along with the conical mold used for shaping the hot cookies while they’re still bendable.
Note the fine Scandinavian rosemaling waffle design.
Another signature family food, harking back to the days on the farm in South Dakota, the oven-fried pancake. It’s also called oven pancake fluff.
It’s called "oven-fried" because you bake it in a pan that already has a full stick of melted margarine. Then, to eat it, you slather it with more margarine. Or jam, but why skimp on a good thing?
I swear, the Fiesta grocery has greatly improved the amount of variety in my life. Here’s a series of impulse purchases:
Head cheese:
Hawthorne apples, which have about five pits per fruit and taste kinda like pears:
From the "elotes" stand outside the Fiesta:
My front teeth aren’t quite solid enough to eat the corn off the cob, but it’s still pretty delicious in a cup, each kernel cooked to a plump al dente. Served with cayenne powder and mayo.
There’s a new taco stand in my neighborhood. I don’t like the salsa as much as I did with the previous taco stand, but the barbacoa is delicious, tender, and fatty.
I finally passed by Jalapeno Joe’s on Airport at a time when they were open and I was hungry. The two-taco chicharron plate was under $5.
I imagine that the sloughed face-skin of Nazis staring into the Ark of the Covenant would be every bit as tender and juicy as these delicately stewed pig-skins.
