Ring in 2012 with a festive board of Nordic nibbles and sandwiches - perfect "small bites" to accompany champagne or non-alcoholic tipples like Scandinavian Fruit Tea. With recipes that include Havarti cheese cookies, Gjetost fondue, both seafood and vegetarian smörgastårtas, and new potatoes with caviar, this list offers something for everyone. Happy New Year!

Nordic Nibbles image & copy; 12/31/2011 Kari Diehl, licensed to About.com.

Since today is the day for making toasts - and resolutions don't begin until tomorrow - here's a second toast to accompany my earlier blog ( "A Skagen Toast to the New Year"): here's to Gjetost! Norway's hallmark brown cheese, packaged in the U.S. under the "Ski Queen" label, is delicious when sliced thin and placed on toast (or crispbread). Yet it also lends itself beautifully to creating this non-alcoholic gjetost fondue, perfect for dipping meatballs, apple slices, chunks of rye bread, and roasted potatoes.

Nordic Nibbles image & copy; 12/31/2011 Kari Diehl, licensed to About.com.

Looking for the ideal New Year's "toast"? Forget the speeches and offer your guests Sweden's classic Skagen Toast instead. Developed three decades ago by Tore Wretman, famed chef at Stockholm's Riche restaurant, this concoction of baby shrimp, crème fraîche, caviar, and dill is simple, elegant ... and just the slightest bit salty - everything the perfect toast should be.

Toast Skagen image & copy; 12/31/2011 Kari Diehl, licensed to About.com.

When I had a very happy reunion with my biological family in Nashville a few years ago, I also had the opportunity to sample fruit tea - a wonderfully refreshing drink that I was assured was a Nashville specialty. Imagine my surprise, then, when I came across a recipe for a very similar fruit tea in an old Scandinavian cookbook! I've tweaked both Scandinavian and Southern preparations in this fusion Fruit Tea, using fresh juice rather than concentrate but also incorporating the generous amount of sugar - and Lusianne tea bags! - that make Southern iced tea so delicious. It's a wonderful non-alcoholic tipple to offer your guests as an alternative to champagne on New Year's Eve. Skål, ya'll!

Scandinavian Fruit Tea image & copy; 12/28/2011 Kari Diehl, licensed to About.com.