A Special Section Focusing on Senior Lifestyles
MATURELifestyles Positive Outlook
December 2014
New Hope church has celebrated lutefisk for 34 years BY SUE WEBBER CONTRIBUTING WRITER Some Scandinavians swear by it. Others can’t stand it. It’s lutefisk, or as one T-shirt proclaims: “Minnesota’s original sushi.” Love it or leave it, it’s hard to deny lutefisk’s popularity, particularly at holiday time. House of Hope Lutheran Church in New Hope has been hosting a lutefisk and meatball dinner for 34 years, drawing a long line of prospective diners when the tickets first go on sale weeks before the event. The dinner was started in 1981 by Nancy Elliott and three other couples: the Ken Ericksons, Norm Haugens and Floyd Olsons. Nancy and the Ericksons and Olsons are still on the committee. “My church in St. Paul had lutefisk dinners in November and February, and I suggested we could start one at House of Hope,” said Elliott, a retired nurse who grew up in St. Paul helping at church dinners from the time she was 10 years old. Barb Nelson and her husband came on board a couple of years later. “My husband and I joined after I made the comment that I thought the decorations on the tables should be more Scandinavian, not plastic flowers,” Barb Nelson said. Homemade craft items were added in the late 1980s. “In about 1990 we started running craft nights once a week in the spring and fall, mainly wooden crafts,” Nelson said. “We had a volunteer crew working like Santa’s workshop. Now we rely on homemade contributions. We even have two men that do wonderful wood carvings.” Catherine Martenson, a 45-year member of the church who is in charge of the craft sale, said she’s been on the lutefisk dinner committee for 25 years, ever
since she suggested that church members might sell a few Scandinavian crafts at the dinner. “I’ve been there ever since,” she said. “It’s a very festive atmosphere, very organized. Now we’re trying to get more younger people involved.” Elliott and Nelson team up to cochair the event, with Elliott overseeing the kitchen and food, and Nelson working on the décor, dessert trays, set up, bake sales, planning and advertising. Nelson also runs the “fry days” for rosettes and fattigmand. The committee has increased from the original four couples to 24 people. “Most of the committee does not eat the lutefisk,” Nelson said. “We are a combination of ethnic backgrounds, including Scandinavian, German, Irish and English.” The family-style menu has stayed the same from the beginning: lutefisk, meatballs, boiled potatoes, gravy, butter Potato peelers are, from left: Ron Holmquist, Mert Cooper and Dave Stedje. (Submitted photo) sauce, cream sauce, corn, coleslaw, pickled beets, lefse, cranberry relish, holiday sweets, and coffee. The woman who created the meatball recipe was once a school cook, Elliott said. “We get 220 pounds of meat from a little market in St. Paul,” she said. “We need 10 eggs for every 10 pounds of hamburger. I break the eggs at home and we measure out the spices and bread.” Planning for the dinner begins in September. Tickets go on sale at 8 a.m. the first Sunday in October. The first year, tickets cost $6 and there were three seatings. Now 660 tickets are sold each year at $18 apiece, and there are five seatings, beginning at 3:30 p.m. Organization is the key to keeping it running smoothly, Martenson said. “The same people do the same thing every year,” she said. Records are kept with explicit and complete details on every part of the Lutefisk and meatball lovers fill the dining room at five different seatings, beginning at 3:30 HOUSE OF HOPE- TO PAGE 6 p.m. on the day of the event. (Submitted photo)