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Weather brings the holiday mood

By Andrea Winkjer Collin, Editor, North Dakota Horizons

After the weather challenges North Dakotans endured during most of this year, the beautiful fall we have enjoyed has been much appreciated.  I have walked outside later this year than during any other fall in memory, and with no permanent snowpack on the ground yet, we may be walking after Thanksgiving dinner next week.

It has been hard to grasp that Thanksgiving is next week -- who is thinking about it without the winter weather that usually has greeted us this time of year?

When the temperatures dropped to below 30 degrees this week, the holiday baking bug finally hit me.  Because we associate holidays with cold weather, I ask again, who is thinking about that when it has been so nice?

So last night I got going with a batch of flatbread.  Despite the great food I ate during the Germans from Russia Heritage Tour I wrote about in the fall issue of North Dakota Horizons, I was not ready to try anything new. I turned to the same Norwegian recipes that spell tradition in my family.

Although we always try to make lefse, last night I decided to do flatbread, that crispy cracker-like bread that is as addictive as popcorn. Made like lefse, flatbread is easier to put together because it isn't made with potatoes.  It's easier to roll out and bake, too. 

Pictured here are the fruits of my labors last night.  If I make nothing else, I will be able to hold my head high at Thanksgiving dinner with this traditional contribution.

I hope you enjoy your preparations for the holidays, whatever they may be.  I suppose we could also be putting up our Christmas lights during this still-mild weather, but nah, that would be too easy!

 

 

 

 

 

A Number 1 Day!

By Andrea Winkjer Collin, Editor, North Dakota Horizons

Today is a Number 1 day -- the only time in this century that the month day and year will all be composed of ones.

The fact that today is also Veterans Day makes it even more special. Some of us are fortunate to have the day off work, but regardless, all of us should be taking the time today to remember what our country's veterans mean to us and our country.

Today, like every Veterans Days, I am remembering my father-in-law, the late Everett Collin, who was a very deserving member of the Greatest Generation.

Ev served in the Eighth Air Force from 1941-45, and was stationed in England from 1943-45. He flew and helped planned B-24 bombing missions over Nazi Europe. One of the missions he was involved with was the August 1943 raid on the Axis oil fields in Ploesti, Rumania. He lost several friends on that raid, where some 50 B-24s were shot down and more than 500 airmen were killed or missing. When we got him to talk about this raid in the late 1980s, he teared up as he remembered that day.

Ev, who died in 1998 at the age of 82, is shown above center with cohorts at the age of 26 in the Western Zone of Germay in May 1945.

He was awarded the Bronze Star, which his children knew nothing about until they discovered it buried in a box in their Minnesota basement in 1978. Ev said those who really deserved medals like that never made it out of the war.

Regardless of their age or the conflict in which they served, I hope you all have veterans in your families or lives who today can be an inspiration to you as you observe Veterans Day. I try to remember them more than once a year on this day.

Happy Veterans Day to all on this Number 1 Day!

 

Happy Birthday North Dakota!

By Kylie Blanchard, Staff Writer

Today marks the 122nd anniversary of North Dakota's statehood. In honor of this day, I did a little digging into the newly released 2011-2013 North Dakota Blue Book and found some interesting information on our state's beginnings:

"On March 2, 1861, President James Buchanan signed the bill creating the Dakota Territory, which originally included the area covered by both Dakotas as well as much of Montana and Wyoming. Beginning about 1877, efforts were made to bring Dakota into the Union as both a single state and as two states. The latter was successful, and on November 2, 1889, both North and South Dakota were admitted.

Since President Benjamin Harrison went to great lengths to obscure the order in which the statehood proclamations were signed, the exact order to which the two states entered is unknown. However, because of alphabetical position, North Dakota is often considered as the 39th state."

The name Dakota was taken from the Sioux Indian language which means "friend" or "ally." (And many will tell you this rings very true of our state and its residents.) Along with "Friendly," the Blue Book also explains the many nicknames North Dakota has collected since officially becoming a state.

The "Roughrider State" honors Theodore Roosevelt's time in the Badlands; the "Flickertail State" refers to the characteristic tail flick of the many ground squirrels across North Dakota; and the "Peace Garden State," which was formally adopted as the state's nickname by the 1957 Legislature, honors the International Peace Garden between North Dakota and Manitoba.

All of this information and much, much more can be found in the 2011-2013 North Dakota Blue Book, which was officially released on Monday in a ceremony in the state capitol's Memorial Hall. The latest edition of the Blue Book profiles "North Dakota Fossil Resources," but the core of this biennial publication has remained the same since 1995.

The book contains information about the state not readily found in other publications such as statistical data and information about the state's symbols and awards, elected officials, agencies, judiciary, legislative, federal-state relationships, education and elections.

Fifteen editions of the Blue Book are also now available online through both the homepages of the North Dakota Secretary of State, www.nd.gov/sos, and the State Historical Society of North Dakota, www.history.nd.gov. The Blue Book also includes a DVD and sells for $20 at the Museum Store at the North Dakota Heritage Center, online at www.history.nd.gov or by calling 701-328-2666. 

So, today, celebrate North Dakota by grabbing your copy of the 2011-2013 North Dakota Blue Book (and maybe even a piece of birthday cake) and learning even more about our great state, its great people and its bright future.

Happy Birthday North Dakota! For 122 years old, you are looking pretty good!