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Please pass the bread
Summer/Fall 2026
Cranberry Pecan Peasant Bread
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Danish pastry (Wienerbrød)
Fall/Winter 2025-26
Danish pastry, a much-loved delicacy around the globe, suffers from an identity crisis like no other baked good. A bit of history tells us why. In the mid 1800s, Copenhagen bakers went on strike and were temporarily replaced by bakers from Vienna. The Austrians brought their technique of laminating butter between layers of dough to Copenhagen and people loved it. When the Danish bakers returned to work, they incorporated the Viennese methods with their own variation which was richer and sweeter. Ironically, what is called Danish pastry, or “Danish” outside of Scandinavia, is known in Denmark as wienerbrød, which directly translated means “Viennese bread.”
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Very Slowly, My Friends
Spring/Summer 2025
Time! It nips at our heels every moment of every day. Even this sentence is laden with references to time. Chronos, which runs our human experience, makes me burst with speedy actions and hurried steps. If I don’t take on some tasks at full throttle I won’t make my deadline, whether it’s preparing a complicated dinner for a group, or putting together a simple supper at home. But right now, (another reference to time), let’s consider a slower cooked meal that allows for greater savoring of what we’ve prepared.
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A simple savory slow cooked meal
Fall/Winter 2024
We were invited for a 24-hour visit to a place I’d never been, with hosts I met only once at a reunion of my husband’s Swedish cousins. I had no idea what to expect. When we arrived, the air was chilly and damp and the salty breeze let us know we were close to the sea. We stepped into a pretty white house and were warmly greeted by Tina, Tomas, and the delightful fragrance of roasting meat that stirred memories of my favorite Chicago barbeque joint. Immediately I knew we had landed in a very good place.
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Semlor
Spring/Summer 2024
Imagine it’s Fat Tuesday (Fettisdag), the day before Lent begins, and you are visiting Sweden. Be prepared to experience Swedish food culture at its best. Head to the konditori (bake shop), take a number and stand in line. When it’s your turn, order an extraordinary Nordic pastry; a semla, and of course, a strong cup of coffee.
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Lemon chicken and roasted vegetables with cumin-scented couscous
Fall/Winter 2023-2024
As relative newcomers to Lund, Sweden, my husband and I have scrambled to set up our household and especially our kitchen. Thanks to Facebook Marketplace, secondhand stores, and IKEA, we’ve collected cookware, baking dishes, pans, serving bowls, utensils, and a few small appliances. Our Swedish apartment and its kitchen are slowly coming together.
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Quiche
Spring/Summer 2023
If any food has ever suffered unfair slander, it’s quiche. Hard to say whether that’s due to its cutesy two-hundred-year old moniker from a remote corner of Alsace, or to the fact that it’s nearly impossible to find a truly excellent one at a restaurant, or because in the eighties an author who satirized masculinity claimed quiche was strictly ladies’ food. Some of you may remember Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche (1982).
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Classic chocolate mousse
Fall/Winter 2022
The undulating rhythms of life are spelled out on the pages of our calendars and also by the expressions of nature in each season. In Ecclesiastes 3, Solomon sketches seasons for every activity under heaven: “A time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant, a time to uproot…a time to mourn and a time to dance…a time to keep and a time to throw away….”
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Gougeres share the aroma of welcome
Spring/Summer 2022
The title of this column has always been Taste and See, but for a moment let’s consider another of our five senses that is paramount to cooking and making others feel welcome. Let’s focus on our sense of smell.
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Persistence and Dacquoise Torte
Fall/Winter 2021
In the kitchen, persistence and patience are as indispensable to the cook as a good sharp knife. However, I humbly admit this is something I’ve been slow to discover, and even slower to live out.
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A French chemist, caramelization, and a summer galette
Spring/Summer 2021
A highly anticipated miracle appears every springtime outside our dining room window on the south side of our house. Mind you, we live in Minnesota, where the earth thaws much later than I think is reasonable…but that’s another story. I’m grateful that sometime in April or May when the ice breaks up on the lakes, we peer out our window to spy the wrinkly sprouts of rhubarb bravely poking up to grab all the sunshine they can find. Occasionally a late snow hinders their progress, but we know the rhubarb will prevail.
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Tart Flambé (Alsatian or Nordic)
Fall/Winter 2020
The recent perusal of two distinct collections of books leaves me with similar thoughts in regards to each. The first is my assortment of cookbooks and the second are the 66 books we call the Bible.
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Something snappy on the side
Spring/Summer 2020
A favorite side dish that frequents the menu at our house is a classic Scandinavian holdout. Very plainly, it is inlagda gurkor, or fresh pickled cucumbers. They are so simple, on first thought I doubted them article-worthy, but obviously, something changed my mind.
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Prinsesstårte
Fall/Winter 2019
Discovering a new food anchors a slice of time in my memory like nothing else. Perhaps this is the case for you as well, but I doubt it is this way for everyone. Mnemonic peculiarities aside, it was December of my twelfth year when I first laid eyes on a princess torte.
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Homemade yogurt and granola
Spring/Summer 2019
Since you are reading this, I’ll assume you did something I did today. You got out of bed, got dressed, and hopefully ate something for breakfast.
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Chocolate Icebox Cake
Fall/Winter 2018
Imagine a cake that becomes a family legend. It all began for me when I agreed to marry Eric over three decades ago. I was informed by my husband-to-be that this cake has been the center of birthdays in his family for two generations.
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Spatchcock chicken and roasted root vegetables
Spring/Summer 2018
It’s easy to get carried away designing an elaborate menu for a special celebration. Some of us pore over much-loved cookbooks or food blogs hunting for fresh ideas to please our guests. If you’re like me, you recall erstwhile Thanksgiving or Easter feasts and decide which dish warrants repeating. We imagine holiday gatherings, the table spread with a pressed cloth, flowers arranged, candles flickering warmth. I write a prep-list and draw a picture of the dinner plate, arranging the food two-dimensionally days before it is in my hands. I consult with trusted cooks: Alice Waters, Suzanne Goin, and of course, Julia.
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Skorpa for fika
Fall/Winter 2017
Now for a truly Scandinavian classic. Skorpa may seem elementary, but it is so delicious, it would be a shame to go without. This crispy, golden slice-of-a-cookie, is a delightful marriage of flavor and texture. It’s the perfect accompaniment to a cup of coffee or cappuccino; similar to its Italian cousin, biscotti, except it is more tender and easier on the teeth, thanks to the addition of butter.
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Fresh Herb Roasted Salmon
Spring/Summer 2017
Food Ruts…we all fall into them. Even as I write, I’m chomping on one of my worst offenders … Skinny-Pop Popcorn, which if one eats half the bag, has nothing to do with “skinny.” But there are meal ruts as well: Taco Tuesday, pizza on Friday, burgers on Saturday. Or perhaps you begin each morning with the same breakfast cereal at least six days a week.
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Mazariner
Fall/Winter 2016
I shared this with Eric on our return flight, asking “Why do you think I should write about mazariner?” Grinning, he quickly answered, “Because they are good!”
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Kladdkaka
Spring/Summer 2016
What is it that causes a person to return time and again to a certain coffee shop, friend’s home, park bench, library table or even to a specific corner of the airport? Why do we feel more welcome in one place, and less so in another?
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Helena’s Swedish Apple Cake with Vanilla Sauce
Fall/Winter 2015
It’s a humble apple cake that ties me to Helena, my college roommate in Sweden. Sometimes on weekends we visited her family where her mother set a beautiful table and served incredibly tasty food. Everything about Helena’s home drew me in and made me feel alive and alert.
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Taste and See: Swedish cardamom bread…
Spring/Summer 2015
From the time I was small, I knew that cardamom bread and grandparents visiting were synonymous, rolling two wonderful things into one. Mormor would arrive with her beautifully scented bread; a sponge enabling me to drink coffee by the time I was four. How marvelous for a child to sit at the table catching bits of adult conversation while dipping slices of cardamom bread into a cup of creamy coffee.
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Taste and See: Chokladbiskvier
Fall/Winter 2014
Nothing splits the inky darkness of a Scandinavian December like a slew of candles shining over a platter of Christmas cookies.
