Getting bored with peanut butter and jelly now that the kids have been home a few weeks?

Next time you're at IKEA or a Scandinavian food shop, pick up a tube of Kalles caviar spread and some rye crispbread. Yes, I know the stuff looks more appropriate for toothbrushes than for crispbread, but trust me – it's so good that I'd serve it on new toothbrushes if that's all I had available.

A far better option, however, is to spread crispbread or Wasa crackers with a thin layer of butter, layer fresh lettuce leaves, hard-boiled eggs, and cucumbers on the buttered bread (or smørrebrød, as open-faced sandwiches are called in Denmark), and then squeeze the Kalles caviar spread over the top. The fish roe is just salty enough to pair beautifully with fresh vegetables and eggs … you may never go back to peanut butter!

Kalles caviar image ©2009 Kari Diehl, licensed to About.com.

Potato starch, also known as "potato starch flour," is an almost magical ingredient when used to replace flour in recipes such as this gluten-free Norwegian Blotekake, or "Wet Cake." Because the potato starch readily absorbs and retains moisture, it produces a light cake so moist that you can literally hear a sponge-like "swoosh" as you cut through the cake prior to filling it with thick layers of strawberry cream.

That's better entertainment value than Rice Krispies!

Norwegian wet cake image & copy;2009 Kari Diehl, licensed to About.com.

There's sad news from Ballard, Washington – it looks like Olsen's Scandinavian Foods, one of the nation's finest Scandinavian shops, will definitely be closing in July.

Olsen's has been an institution in Ballard since 1960, when it first opened as B.D. & D. Ultimately purchased and beautifully merchandised and operated by two Norwegian sisters, Anita and Reidun Endresen, it's a fabulous source for specialty Scandinavian foods, for cookware, and for cookbooks. Now I'm going to have to find a new source for freshly made rollepolse (lamb roll), "Kalles" caviar paste, and authentic Julskinke (Christmas ham). Uff da.

Olsen's is now selling its in-store stock at 25% off; orders from its web business will be honored.

Have bonfire? Cook trout!

All week long, Scandinavians will be celebrating the summer solstice, Midsummer's Eve, with bonfires and much merry-making – a tradition that goes back centuries. It's a great occasion to cook freshly caught trout on the embers, accompanied with dishes like new potato salad and strawberry cake.

Bonfire Trout image ©2009 Kari Diehl, licensed to About.com.

Very few people (with the possible exception of Seattleites) drink coffee with as much enthusiasm as the Scandinavians. In America, the practice of workers taking formal “coffee breaks” throughout their shifts is said to have originated in the late 1800s in Stoughton, Wisconsin, when the wives of Norwegian immigrants consented to work in the city’s tobacco warehouses only if they were allowed to take breaks throughout the day to meet with their friends and families for coffee and a snack.

In Sweden, it’s still the custom to invite friends and colleagues to fika, “go for coffee,” every two hours or so during the work day. Good company and conversation is essential, helped along by the enjoyment of savoring delicious baked goods such as cinnamon rolls (kanelbullar), chocolate sticky cake (kladdkaka), rusks, and sweet yeasted breads (vetebröd).

One taste of these cakes and sweet breads, and you, too, will take time to stop and smell the coffee!

Coffee image ©2009 Kari Diehl, licensed to About.com.

One of my favorite comfort foods is baked beans. I always thought this might be because I was raised in East Tennessee, close to the original home of the 100-year-old Bush canning company. However, it may also be because of my partially Swedish heritage. After all, it was Swedish immigrants in the 1890's who first brought brown beans to America and cultivated them here. And these special beans, tender when slow-cooked yet with a texture that can stand a lengthy warm soak in the crockpot without disintegrating, are quite possibly the best bean for use in baked bean dishes and soups – as most Swedish grandmothers who serve bruna bönor, baked brown beans, on their smorgasbord tables know already.

Jay Bush doesn't look or sound very Scandinavian in all of those great commercials of his. And the ingredient box on the Bush "original-style baked beans" can lists "prepared white beans" as the primary ingredient of their "secret recipe" rather than Swedish brown beans. Yet my bet is that Jay's grandmother, the originator of their classic recipe, might just have had a Swedish lady or two in her circle of friends.

If I ever get the chance to meet Jay Bush, I'll ask him. But in the meantime, I'm going to figure out a way to cross-examine Duke the Dog. If he answers in Swedish, my theory is confirmed!

Swedish brown bean image ©2009 Kari Diehl, licensed to About.com.

Several of my readers have asked me where they can find lingonberries, one of the key foods in the Scandinavian diet. I'm lucky enough to be able to grow them here in the Pacific Northwest - four new plants provided enough of a first harvest last year to allow me to make a generous batch of lingonberry preserves.

Do you know of a good local or mail order source in your area for fresh lingonberries, lingonberry preserves, or lingonberry plants? If so, please share your knowledge with us here!

Lingonberries image ©2009 Kari Diehl, licensed to About.com.

If any vegetable can vie for the title of “America’s most underrated vegetable,” it would be the “humble” beet. You rarely see them in restaurants nowadays, as a side dish or even as a garnish. Yet pickled beets are as ubiquitous across Scandinavia as marinated cucumbers, and for good reason. As “winter” vegetables, beets keep well for long periods of time in cool conditions, providing a valuable source of healthy antioxidants when summer vegetables are unavailable. And when pickled, both their vibrant red color and their natural sweetness is enhanced; superior as pickles when served alone, they also contribute color, flavor, and a refreshing crispness to herring salads, Swedish hamburgers (Biff à la Lindström), and open-faced sandwiches (in Danish, smørrebrød). You just can’t beat beets!

Pickled beets image ©2009 Kari Diehl, licensed to About.com.

Scandinavians are geniuses when it comes to preserving food, no doubt a result both of their seafaring history and their short growing season. Although not always easy to find in the United States outside of ethnic markets, salt codfish (in Swedish, torsk) pays tribute to a culinary art that is sometimes too often dismissed in this age of sub-zero freezers. Whether salted or dried (in which case it is called "stockfish"), cod gains a particular depth of flavor during the preservation process – and salt cod is thus a favorite ingredient in several European cuisines.

So … even though it looks like cardboard … how does one get the kids to eat their salt cod and grow up into big, strong Vikings?

One way is to make torskebuller, salt codfish balls. Easy to prepare, these lightly fried fish balls are several cuts above commercially frozen fish sticks and are an excellent entrée for an easy summer dinner.

Torskebuller image; 2009 Kari Diehl, licensed to About.com.

Looking for a great loss-leader to ensure the success of your young entrepreneur's lemonade stand? These Scandinavian rosette cookies – lightly fried and sweetened with powdered sugar, worked for us last week when our youngest set up his stand to take advantage of the Memorial Day parade crowd passing through our neighborhood. Priced initially at 25 cents each, Scandinavia's answer to the funnel cake was so popular that the team on one float bought an entire plateful, paying a dollar per rosette for the privilege. Since rosettes freeze beautifully, we're already in production in preparation for the Fourth of July activities!

Scandinavian rosettes image ©2009 Kari Diehl, licensed to About.com.