A portrait of the festivals, specialties, places, and people behind the state's great food traditions, with over 150 recipes

Through a variety of personal anecdotes and flavorful recipes, Viestad shares his philosophy of cooking as he shows us the best way to cure gravlaks, make our own butter, prepare a midsummer night's feast of poached salmon, even how to flambe a pork tenderloin with Scandinavia's favorite spirit-aquavit.

If folks had told me years ago that I'd own a restaurant and then that Esquire magazine would call it "one of the USA's ten best," that it'd be featured on "NBC Nightly News" and in the New York Times, and that I'd have to teach crazy David Letterman how to make a pie, I'd have done nothing but run around in circles wondering how I'd ever make that come about!

Ojakangas offers us true Scandinavian home cooking that features the best of what is in season. Scandinavian Cooking provides traditional menus for different occasions and seasons-from a Farmhouse Brunch with Buttered Potato Soup to an Old-Fashioned Christmas

"This elegant book showcases the food of an area that has been unjustly neglected in the rush to embrace ethnic cuisine of all sorts. Ojakangas provides three dozen menus for Scandivavian holiday meals and celebrations, from a Misummer's Picnic to a Name Day Feast. The variety of dishes and occasions makes for an inviting introduction to Scandinavian cooking." - Labrary journal

An expert on traditional holidays and the special baked treats that mark them, veteran chef and cookbook writer Beatrice Ojakangas presents recipes for twenty-one seasonal occasions and cultural holidays. She takes you from spring to winter with recipes such as heart-shaped coffee cake for Valentine's Day, Austrian carnival doughnuts for Easter, and cinnamon-walnut kamish bread for Rosh Hashanah.

Food is the heart of a Scandinavian home: scrumptious pies, delicate pastries, millions of cookies, and of course, savory breads. In this mouthwatering collection, Beatrice Ojakangas calls on her own Scandinavian heritage and wide-ranging knowledge of baking to produce the definitive cookbook for this rich cultural heritage.