A Swedish Kitchen: Recipes and Reminiscences

To many Americans, Swedish cuisine remains a mystery. From the Baltic Sea, the 100,000 lakes, and numerous rivers comes a wealth of fish and shellfish. Abundant forests provide game, mushrooms, and berries. These mild delicacies, combined with staples like potatoes and other root vegetables; grains such as rye; and herbs and spices, including dill and cardamom, make up husmanskost, or classic Swedish home cooking. The stories and recipes in A Swedish Kitchen celebrate this cuisine.

A Swedish Kitchen: Recipes and Reminiscences is the story of an American woman's 25-year love affair with the land, people, and cuisine of this Nordic nation. Sharing her love of food and cooking, Judith Pierce Rosenberg leads readers to markets in search of wild strawberries and smoked reindeer, and to cafés for a cup of strong Swedish coffee and a kanelbulle (cinnamon bun) or mazarin (almond tart). Among her culinary adventures are dinner at a wilderness lodge, a medieval banquet, and a Christmas smorgasbord with all the trimmings.

Throughout this culinary memoir, Rosenberg interweaves the historical and cultural context of Swedish cooking, explaining the history of waffles and the traditions behind Saint Lucia Day. A Swedish Kitchen includes 80 recipes that highlight traditional Swedish flavors and ingredients, such as red currants, cloudberries, and cardamom, Recipes are designed for use in the American kitchen, enabling readers and cooks to easily prepare such Swedish favorites as rabarbersoppa (rhubarb soup), prinsesstårta (princess cake), and Janssons frestele (Jansson's temptation).

Born in Kichita, Kansas, Judith Pierce Rosenberg is a freelance writer, ESL teacher, and the author of A Question of Balance: Artists and Writers on Motherhood (Papier-Mache Press, 1995). The mother of two grown children, she lives in California's Silicon Valley and in Stockholm, Sweden.