Tina Nordström - Tina Nordström’s Scandinavian Cooking: Simple Recipes for Home-Style Scandinavian Cuisine

Skyhorse and Skyhorse Publishing are registered trademarks of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., a Delaware corporation. www.skyhorsepublishing.com 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file. ISBN: 978-1-62873-651-9 Printed in China Ramlsa Forever! I WILL NEVER FORGET the day I held my first finished cookbook in my hands. It was like holding my newborn for the first time. I had a feeling of having made something that would last and live on forever. After that first book, things took off at lightning speed.

I wrote a book a year for the next five years. Those first two books sold more than a million copies combined. Incredible to say the least! There were mile-long lines outside the bookstores where I was signing, and I remember sitting and writing Merry Christmas from Tina until my fingers were throbbing with pain. My sixth child has taken some years to complete, but its the most comprehensive book I have written yet. Its deliciously thick and sturdy, with its own distinct personality. Its not your typical, basic cookbook, although it does contain many classic recipes and foundations.

Rather, I see it as a milestone. It contains the recipes Ive carried with me and developed over the years; I consider it to be my foundation. Thus far, that is. Many of the flavors are from my childhood, but just as many come from other kitchens and traditionseven if Ive given them my own interpretation. This book is a tasting key to my own kitchen! The recipes for this book were written, tested, and photographed in a very special place. Ever since 2009, Ive been renting this beautiful 19th century house at Ramlsa Park outside Helsingborg in the south of Sweden.

This house is very special to me because I grew up in it as the child to a pair of restaurant owners! My current office is in my parents old bedroom. From my office window, I can look out over Ramlsa Park, where I ran wild as a child, where I peed my pants, lost my teeth, fell in love, and broke up with boyfriends. Its an important place for me, and not simply because my roots and my professional foundation are so incredibly entwined here (something I didnt fully realize until this book was photographed and completed). Its in this environment, on these worn-out wooden floors, that I renew my strength and energy. This somewhat ramshackle old house that holds so many memories for me ended up being the obvious backdrop for the photographs and the recipes for this book. I hope it has given this book a soul.

This place makes me creative. This is where I have the people around me that I trust the most. Family and friends visit all the time, and I always have a pot of coffee brewing for anyone who shows up at my doorstep. My parents, Gudrun and Bjrn Nordstrm, bought Ramlsa Tavern when I was a baby. Back in the day, fine ladies and gentlemen came to the springs at Ramlsa to drink straight from the source. My parents bought the tavern in 1974, and two years later, Mom and Dad acquired the Ramlsa Spring Hotel.

It was an enormous investment. I was three years old at the time, and my brother, Peter, was five. There was a little pink house next to Ramlsa Tavern that once served as a makeshift cell for drunks who couldnt make it home after a night out; this was renovated, and my grandparents moved in. My grandfather worked the bar at the restaurant, kept track of the liquor inventory, and mixed the Glgg for Christmas. My grandmother was the epicenter of the family and the safe haven to which we kids ran for comfort. She was the one who helped us with our homework and the one to take us to gymnastics or soccer practice.

And she was the one who cooked the most amazing day-to-day dishes. Sure, our dads food was great, but that we considered to be more along the lines of delicacies. Regular, everyday meals, such as green cabbage soup, and custard, were grandmas territory. Mom and Dad during one of their many events outside Ramlsa Spring Hotel, 1976. Dad riding a horse in Ramlsa Park, 1976. My brother and I were almost always at Grandma and Grandpas since Mom and Dad had to work almost all the time.