"Christmas traditions, particularly those involving food, often honor our ancestors. Throughout the Midwest where Swedish immigrants settled, the dishes placed on the julbord (Christmas table) tell stories about who we are, where we come from, and where we are heading. In exploring these holiday customs, Patrice Johnson begins with her own familys Christmas Eve gathering, which involves a combination of culinary traditions: allspice-scented meatballs,...

"This beautiful, fresh cookbook offers genuine insight into how Swedes eat and cook - with recipes that fit around the seasons, occasions, times of day, and appetite. Eating and cooking in tune with "lagom" means embracing food that is good for body and soul, unfussy, delicious and sustaining, and all in harmony. The Swedes understand that balance is everything - that you crave comforting food when a bitter wind is howling outside, that refreshing,...

Encompassing both traditional Swedish dishes and modern, updated, easy-to-follow recipes, Henderson combines the ingredients and scents from the past with the produce and flavor of today. The Swedish Table contains more than 125 recipes, including yellow pea soup with bacon, Aquavit and dill-marinated salmon and Swedish meatballs with gravy.

"An illustrated lifestyle cookbook on the Swedish tradition of fika--a twice-daily coffee break--including recipes for traditional baked goods, information and anecdotes about Swedish coffee culture, and the roots and modern incarnations of this cherished custom. Sweden is one of the world's top coffee consuming nations, and the social coffee break known as fika is a cultural institution. A time to take a rest from work and chat with friends or colleagues...

"Discover lagom-the Swedish idea of balance, harmony, beauty, and sufficency. Our love affair with all things Scandinavian shows no signs of letting up. Having embraced the Danish concept of hygge, we're now looking to Sweden and one of their essential philosophies, lagom. It's best described as "not too much, not too little; just the right amount," which, in practice, is balance-and isn't that what we're all looking for? In this delightful little...