Bison and Ducks, Oh My!

We’re now at the halfway point of summer. It’s at this point that a great many festivals are planned.

If you’re tired of sitting around the house or office complaining about how hot it is, or how rainy it is, or how dry it is, here is a list of some festivals in your area or someone else’s area:

In New York City, the New York Pizza Expo is happening; Seneca has their 14th Annual Garlic Festival. Did you know that 70 to 100 different strains of garlic are cultivated in the Finger Lakes? Rochester is having a Festival of Food. No specifics there.

If you want to take a long ride, Rockland, Maine is having their Maine Lobster Festival; Camden, NJ has planned their Third Annual New Jersey Tomato Festival.

For those more ambitious, Raleigh, North Carolina is hosting a BugFest, which includes a selection of gourmet bug and insect dishes and a critter cook-off.

Morgan City in Louisiana is having a Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Festival. Now, there’s an interesting combination. South Dakota is having a Great Plains Bison-tennial Dutch Oven cook-off; Gueydan, Louisiana is having a Duck Festival. They should join in with the BugFest people.

And in keeping with stereotypes, Los Angeles, California is having their 11th Annual Tofu Festival with a tofu-eating contest, and a tofu Ninja photo opportunity.

If you want to use up some frequent flyer miles, London, England is going to be having a jolly good time at their Great British Beer Festival; New Delhi, India is hosting both a Banana Festival and a National Conference on Pulses (that would be lentils and chickpeas and not heartthrobs); Melbourne is having a Taste of Slow Festival which should go hand in hand with their Duck Crawl Convention.

Cairo, Egypt is having the Sahara Agricultural Festival. This one stumped me. The last time I looked, the Sahara was a desert. And though I’m pretty sure you could have a dessert in a desert; I’m not sure you could have a farm in a desert.

In terms of event planning, some do better than others. The Barnesville Potato Days festival in Minnesota will be having a Miss Tater Tot Pageant, a Mashed Potato Sculpturing Exhibit, and will be serving potato soup, potato dumplings, potato pancakes, potato donuts, potato sausage and potato lefse. Lefse is a Scandinavian flat bread made from potatoes.

The Flint Hills Beef Fest in Kansas will be having a barbecue cook-off and a Cow Chip Toss AND Catch.

And the food festival that wins my prize is the ACFSA International Conference in Savannah, Georgia. What is ACFSA, you ask? ACFSA is the American Correctional Food Service Association. Prison food, folks. Anyone up for going to the prison food fest with me?

Norwegian Lefse
4 cups leftover mashed potatoes
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon salt
About 3 cups flour
Vegetable oil for frying

In a large bowl, add butter, milk and salt to the mashed potatoes; mix well. Gradually, add enough flour to form a non-sticky dough. The less flour you use, the better the outcome. Place in the refrigerator to thoroughly chill and make it easier to roll.

Divide the dough into 24 pieces. Roll each piece out, using flour to keep from sticking. Use care to press lightly with the rolling pin when forming into rounds as they are much more tender than pie dough. The weight of the rolling pin is almost enough to flatten them. Each piece should roll out to size of a tortilla, about 10 inches.

Heat a cast iron griddle over medium heat and add enough vegetable oil just to coat the bottom of the griddle. Place one lefse in griddle. Lefse will bubble. Cook on a griddle until each round feels dry but not crisp, turning frequently.

Cool on a clean dishcloth and cover with an additional towel. Stack pieces on top of each other as they are cooked. The steam released will create a more tender lefse.

Serve rolled up with butter and a sprinkling of sugar. Some people like to use cinnamon sugar, and others spread their lefse with jam before rolling. Makes 24.