Buttery Scandinavian cookies, tasty Swedish meatballs, a river of gravy, lox sandwiches and hearty pea soup.
Plus, rosemaling, Viking displays, Fjord horses and Norwegian hounds.
And dancing. Always attend for the dancing at the annual Nordic Festival in Edgewood.
Saturday’s festival, hosted by the Daughters of Norway Embla Lodge No. 2 at Mountain View Lutheran Church in Edgewood, offers a broad slice of Nordic culture with something new every year.
This year’s addition is a new-to-the-festival caterer with an arsenal of Nordic family recipes. The Swedish meatballs, gravy, red cabbage salad and pea soup come from the recipe box of Ellie Carr, who co-owns and operates Carr’s Restaurant and Catering in Lakewood with husband Chris.
“We are using a few recipes that my mom and grandma have had,” said Carr, recalling the Scandinavian spreads her mom and grandmother would make for Christmas Eve every year. The recipes descend from her grandfather’s side of the family. Her mother continues the Scandi tradition every year.
“I remember sandwiches with lox and lots of dill. We always have Swedish meatballs. Good lingonberries. Potato sausage, which is a favorite of mine. We always have lefse because everyone loves lefse,” she said. “Oh, we always have lutefisk. I can’t stand it, but my mom loves it.”
Ellie and Chris will divide the cooking duties with kitchen manager Scott Coles for Saturday’s event. They’ll cook the traditional plated Swedish meatball meal, pea soup and a few new a la carte options never before offered at the Nordic Festival. Here’s a look at what attendees will find:
Plated meals: “They’ll have meatballs, gravy, boiled potatoes, lingonberries and red cabbage,” Carr said. The adult dinners will be $8.50 with senior/child portions at $6.
The meatballs “are half pork, half beef meatballs” served with “sour cream brown gravy” made with a beef base, she said.
Served with a roll, a scoop of Felix brand lingonberries and traditional Nordic red cabbage salad.
“It’s boiled red cabbage with red currant jelly, apples, onions, cloves, and it’s got a little bit of apple cider vinegar to give it a little tartness, and a tiny bit of honey,” Carr said.
She said it smells up the kitchen as it’s cooking, but “it’s so good.”
Soup: A cup of pea soup with a roll will be sold as an a la carte item. This one’s safe for vegetarians, Carr said.
Cucumber salad: This new a la carte item is a typical Nordic cucumber salad made with dill, vinegar, sugar and sweet onion. $2 for a small cup.
Mini lox sandwiches: Also a new a la carte item, the sandwiches will be made with dill cream cheese, capers and lox on either rye or pumpernickel. $2 for a single, $4 for a double.
Lefse: Lodge members have been making lefse — potato flatbread — for weeks to build up a supply that won’t run out.
“We’ll have 200 more packages of lefse to sell this year,” said Diane Nelson, the event chair for the Embla lodge. Available in packages at the bake sale for $5.
Bake sale: Just about every year, the lodge sells out of its famous Scandinavian cookies, handmade by lodge members in marathon baking sessions. This year, members increased the baking sessions.
“We’re at 389 dozen now, and we have another baking day. Hopefully, we’ll get that up to more than 500 dozen cookies. We are trying not to disappoint people,” said Nelson last week.
Last year, members made 450 dozen and sold out.
Cookies are sold in $5 packages and include krumkake and rosettes, the fancy cookies with elaborate patterns; fried fattigman, known as “the poor man’s cookie”; buttery sandbakkels molded in fluted tins; butter spritz, those cookies shaped into a pretty swirl; and snappy, rich anise cookies.
Horses and hounds: Fjord horses and Norwegian elkhounds will make visits outside the church.
Dancing and music: Embla Lodge’s Leikarring dancers will perform as well as the Normanna Male Chorus and other bands.
Arts and crafts: Find Nordic bakeware, rosemaling, travel books, jewelry and other Nordic arts and crafts for sale. There also will be Viking displays.
For your calendar: Norwegian cooking classes at Pacific Lutheran University’s Scandinavian Cultural Center from 10 a.m. to noon Oct. 10, 20 and 23. $5. Hosted by Embla Lodge No. 2.
Nordic Festival 2018
Where: Mountain View Lutheran Church, 3505 122nd Ave E., Edgewood.
Info: 253-370-0730 or daughtersofnorway.org/events
When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday Oct. 6
Admission: $2, with free parking. Children younger than 12 free