Even if you haven’t been to Devil’s Tower, you have seen it if you watched the movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Every year, around the 4th of July, we take a road trip to visit my husband’s family. Some years, we have gone up through Canada, (always beautiful), other times we have taken a direct route through Montana, (my old stomping grounds), and one year, David came up with a different idea; to see where the deer and the antelope play. We dropped down through Wyoming and the Black Hills of South Dakota before arriving to his family’s homestead in Tolna, North Dakota, (their address was actually Hamar, ND, but changed to Tolna when the Hamar post office closed).
The trip started off with plenty of fantastic sightings of wildlife; elk, deer, lots of antelope, even a doe with twin fawns. Our first site seeing stop was at America’s first national monument, Devils Tower.)
Next we visited Deadwood, SD where I shopped for Black Hills Gold jewelry. Our visit to Mount Rushmore did not disappoint. The National Park Service does an amazing job here! We finished our site seeing day at the Crazy Horse Memorial site.
After a few great days of seeing the sites, we were finally on our way to visit David’s parents. They live on the same farm that David’s great-grandfather, Ole Hoveskeland, (born in Norway in 1857) homesteaded. It is located in Dayton township of Nelson county and was farmed by his grandfather, Obert Hoveskeland, (1894-1984) and father, Don Hoveskeland. This is a place steeped with history and tradition, (and from an outsider’s point of view, a bit unusual), brimming with Norwegian culture.
Nelson County History Volume I and Volume II
Julebukking
David has shared his memories of a Norwegian tradition known as Julebukking. Sort of Halloween trick or treating for grown-ups, usually taking place sometime between Christmas and New Years. People would visit their neighbors’ homes in disguise. They might check out what sort of food was in the fridge, maybe snoop in the cabinets or closets or invent some other form of mischief. They would disguise their voices or not speak at all. The “hosts” were supposed to guess who these intruders were and then provide them with treats– an adult beverage may have been involved.
A collection of photos from our travels through Wyoming, South Dakota and North Dakota.
A Few Things To Know
Tolna is a tightly knit community. It’s a place where everyone has each other’s back. The people who live here are authentic, honest, hard working, and friendly, but most importantly, they are TOUGH. A weaker lot, (like myself) probably wouldn’t survive one of their winters.
If you come to North Dakota, there are a few things you should know:
They have different names for your daily meals here; breakfast is breakfast, lunch is dinner, a late-afternoon meal in the fields is called lunch, and dinner is called supper. A couch is called a davenport and if they say that something is next to the “B”, they aren’t referring to a buzzing insect, it is a tractor. They have different names for commonly known dishes; a casserole is referred to as a hot-dish, what I think of as a roll they call a bun, and Sloppy Joe’s are known as Bar-B-Q. An “uff da”, (also spelled huffda, uff-da, uffda, uff-dah, oofda, ufda, ufdah, oofta, or uf daa), is an exclamation which expresses surprise over a fairly substantial mishap. It is similar to the Yiddish phrase “oy vey”.
There is so much more to share about this endearing place, but I recommend that you take a road trip and discover if for yourself. (One last tip: don’t forget your bug spray!)
Lefse Making Lesson with Don and Diane
Lefse is a Norwegian staple and a must have for holidays. It is a simple flatbread, sort of like soft tortillas, made mostly out of mashed potatoes, (with a little cream and flour mixed in to form a tender dough). They are usually served with butter and sugar, or rolled up with jam.
The Annual Driving Lesson
Here are a couple of my mother-in-law’s “go to” recipes, commonly shared at local pot lucks. ENJOY!
Diane's Pizza Hotdish
Ingredients
- 7 cups potatoes thinly sliced
- 1 lbs hamburger
- 1 can nacho cheese soup
- 1 cup milk
- 1 can tomato soup
- ½ cup onion chopped
- 1 tsp granulated sugar
- ½ tsp dried oregano
- 1 pkg pepperoni
- 1-2 cups mozzarella cheese shredded
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place 7 cups thinly sliced potatoes, (lightly salted), in buttered 9" X 13" pan.
- Brown and drain hamburger.Combine nacho cheese soup and 1 cup milk in pan and heat through.In mixing bowl, stir together; 1 can tomato soup, onion, sugar, and dried oregano.Sprinkle beef over potatoes.Pour nacho cheese mixture over beef, followed by tomato soup mixture.Arrange pepperoni over the top.
- Cover and bake at 350°F for 75 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Uncover and sprinkle mozzarella cheese over the top and bake an additional 5 minutes, until melted.
Diane's Hydrox Dessert
Ingredients
- 1 pkg Hydrox or Oreo cookies crushed
- 2 egg whites
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup water
- dash salt
- ¾ tsp almond extract
- 2 cups whipping cream
- green or red food coloring
- ⅓-½ cup walnuts or pecans finely minced
Instructions
- Crush 1 and ½ rows cookies for top and about that many for bottom, leaving the white filling inside.Beat egg whites until they stand in peaks.Boil sugar, water and salt until it spins a thread (2-5 minutes)With mixer running, add hot sugar syrup to egg whites and beat well.Add almond extract and allow to cool a little.Whip cream and add chopped nuts and food coloring of choice.Fold together cooled egg white mixture with whipping cream.
- Make a layer of cookie crumbs in the bottom of a cake pan.Spread cream mixtureTop with another layer of cookie crumbs and place in freezer. Freeze until firm.
