Diehl - The everything Nordic cookbook

Appendix A:
Nordic Cookbooks, Culinary Websites, and Blogs

Appendix B:
Storefront and Online Nordic Food Suppliers

Family should always come first, and so it is with heartfelt love and gratitude that I thank my best friend and husband, Peter Diehl, and our children, Eric, Anna, and David, for their willingness to play second fiddle while I finished this book. Thanks for taking over the marketing, cooking, and cleaning during the final writing stages, guys! Ill take my apron back now, please, free to prepare all of Erics Top 10 Nordic Thingsbesides meThat Moms Ever Made.

Many thanks also to my parents, Kari and Kenneth Schoening, to my sister Krista Fox, to Magga Harardottir, and to Margrit Meinel Diehl for your love, encouragement, cooking advice, and editing support. Barbara Rolek, Ellen Hinds, Hank Shaw, and the late Kevin Weeksthanks for sharing your professional expertise with me and for talking me through the rough spots. Lynn and Cheyanne Bennett, you rock. So do Shellie Stevens, Susan Amanda Eurich, Laurent Martel, the sisters of Nellie Gerdrum Lodge #41 of the Daughters of Norway, the About.com food guides, and Diehls and Horners all. Ditto to my novelist/writers group friends Janet Oakley, Sherry Brummel, Heidi Thomas, and also to Deborah Hale (for sending me the Swedish editions of her great stories). Finally, thanks to the wisest and most generous writing manager ever, Jason Reece, for giving me extended leaves of absence so that I could pursue this dream of publication. Im truly blessed in my family, friends, and associates.

SCANDINAVIA, WITH ITS HARSHLY beautiful mountains, deep fjords, isolated islands, thermal hot springs, and, perhaps most of all, the ageless sea that surrounds, feeds, and even today defines its people, has not always been viewed as the most likely candidate to produce a world-class cuisine. Until very recently, if asked to describe typical Scandinavian or Nordic food, many peopleno doubt thinking of all of that polar snow and icewould think, Well, its very fishy and white, isnt it? White cod. White fish pudding. Bergen white fish soup with white dumplings. White cheeses. White potato soups and lefse (soft Norwegian potato flatbread). White horseradish. White Icelandic skyr (yogurt). White sauce on white lutefisk. Nordic cuisineat least as it has been stereotypedwould hardly seem a contender if forced to compete with the vibrant colors and flavors of the foods of warmer regions like Italy, southern France, and Spain.

Fortunately, a cohort of Scandinavias finest chefs and food journalists, led by Claus Meyer and Ren Redzepi (founders of Copenhagens Noma, twice selected as the Best Restaurant in the World in Restaurant Magazines San Pellegrino awards), have spearheaded what amounts to a culinary revolution: the New Nordic Cuisine Movement. Utterly dispelling the stereotype, these chefs demonstrate how the foods native to Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, and Finland are just as healthy, delicious, and even as colorful as those of Mediterranean climes. Even more important, they emphasize many of the same principles that other advocates of rising culinary and dietary movements have stressed: that our modern generation, threatened by unprecedented levels of obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, needs to return to the saner methods of food acquisition, preparation, and consumption that our grandparents or great-grandparents practiced.

Thats inspiring news for many Americans and Canadians, many of whom live in snowy climates similar to Scandinavias, and who, given the increasingly publicized cases of food contamination that have resulted from the countrys widespread distribution system, are beginning to worry about the safety of foods gathered, processed, and transported by and from unknown sources. As the current generation is beginning to realize, at long last, physical health and emotional welfare can be significantly enhanced when you take an active role in procuring local ingredients in season, cook and prepare your meals from scratch, and take the time to sit down and enjoy them with your favorite people.