For the first time EVER I made Christmas cookies this year. Shameful, I know, I'm in my mid-40s (mid goes till 49, right?) and have never once made Christmas cookies.

Anyway, when I decided to do it, I wanted to make the ones my Norwegian grandmother made when I was growing up - krumkake, rosettes, berlinerkranzer. I had the irons for rosettes, my mother had given them to me years before. I bought a krumkake press. I have a Norwegian recipe book as well as my grandmother's old recipes and my mother's modifications to those.

I made krumkake first and they were really quite easy and turned out very well. Emboldened by this success, I made the berlinerkranzer. They were fairly easy and tasted fine, but my skills at forming wreath shapes need some work. Also, I "decorated" the wreaths with little cinnamon candies which proceeded to melt while baking. OK, well, still I did pretty well here and know I can make them just fine next time.

The hard ones were the rosettes. First my cookies were sticking to the irons even after cooking. We finally got that sorted out by heating the irons till everything cooked off of them. Then I made a batch. The flavor was fine, but they were a little soggy. I cooked them in peanut oil, in a large deep frying pan. I figured the problem was that the oil was not hot enough (I tried to keep it at 365). My mother says the problem is the peanut oil. She claims that I must use lard to make them come out crisp. I didn't want to use lard, so I made another batch. This time I used my deep fryer, set the temp as high as possible (375), and still used peanut oil. They were crisper than the previous time, but never turned a nice golden color, remaining somewhat pale. I did re-use the oil from the day before, which my mother also thinks is a no-no.

So, although the second batch was pretty good, I do think they should still be crisper. So, is good old mom right? Must I use lard? And fresh lard each time? Plus, when I stored them overnight in a closed container they became more limp - should I keep them in the open? Are there any Norwegians out there who can help me with my new hobby? Of course, now I won't be making more till next year, but I want to ask the questions and make notes now so I'll be ready to go.

Thanks for the help!

Ann