I could have just married an American boy....

...then it would have been apple pie. I know apple pie. I can make a pretty darn good apple pie.

Instead I married a Norwegian. And with it came a host of foods that I had no idea about. Foods that can seem really bizarre and tricky to make. Ingredients that are sometimes not found here in this country. Food that takes days to make. Recipes that call for you to process and ground your own almonds into a fine powder and then form into 18 rings each placed atop of each other very carefully as they are very fragile items and break easy . Yeah, those kind of recipes!

Saturday is Syttende Mai - or the 17th of May. It is Norway's Constitution day - very similar to our 4th of July. Historically it is a celebration of their independence from Sweden (although my take on Sweden isn't so terrible, the Swedes did give us Ikea and H & M). But nonetheless, Norway has been a free country since 1905.

We are hosting a party to celebrate this day and Leif has requested a Kransekake - a traditional celebration cake used at parties, weddings, baptism, ect... I've never attempted to make one of these before; but I can still picture Leif's Grandma Erna and my Grandma Hulda (neither of whom can speak each others language) in my Grandmother's kitchen the day before Leif and my wedding: there were rings, almonds, almond dust everywhere and two old ladies laughing like crazy as they tried to make 18 of these rings that didn't fall apart. My grandma - who was German - of course had no idea how to make the cakes, and Leif's grandma Erna (who was excellent at kransekake) was struck with the handicap of not being used to the differences in our flour, ect... that we have in the US. It made for a really funny, maybe a bit stressful day, of pre-wedding baking. So that thought and the fact that if you can find a Norwegian bakery here in the US that does make and sell kransekake - it is usually priced from $100-$200 USD. Yikes! That makes it seem a little more difficult than old apple pie!

So I gave myself a few days in case I needed to make several attempts.

I may need a few days and a few Norwegian prayers to get mine to turn out like this:

I should set the record straight though - aside from his crazy food requests, I'm pretty glad that I married my Norwegian guy. And am looking forward to celebrating that heritage - whether it's with or without the kransekake!