If you're lucky enough to be in the Minneapolis area on the third Saturday of every month through April, give yourself a treat and check out the Winter Foods Market at Local D'Lish (co-sponsored by the Mill City Farmers' Market). All of those intrepid Norwegians know that it's worth it to hike through the ice and the snow to a farmers' market even in the dead of winter – because once there, you'll be able to sample Aunt Else's Aebleskiver, hot off the seven-hole aebleskiver pan.

Last year Aunt Else's nieces and their buddy, Chad Gillard, decided to serve up her secret recipe, handed down over 100 years in the Andersen and Henriksen families, at fairs and festivals across Minnesota. Demand led to their creation of a packaged mix, made using organic flours from local farms.

Aunt Else's wonderful mix takes part of the work – but none of the production value – out of making these unique, spherical, hollow (if you can get the flip technique right) pancake balls. If it's your first time using an aebleskiver pan, don't worry if your first batch isn't quite hollow – they'll still be delicious, even if they're solid (and even experienced aebleskiver makers like yours truly occasionally send a tribute of the first batch to the Norse Gods, just to keep ourselves humble).

If you're not fond of Minnesota blizzards, you can still order Aunt Else's Aebleskiver mix online here (the site also gives tips on performing the tricky aebleskiver flip). Their customer service is excellent, and your mix will arrive quickly even during blizzard season.

Soon you'll be flipping over Aunt Else's Aebleskiver, too!

Aebleskiver mix image ©2009 Kari Diehl, licensed to About.com.

Water, water, everywhere …

In a few weeks, Icelanders will celebrate their rich Norse heritage with the feast of Thorrablot, when people gather to drink strongly alcoholic brennivin and sample delicacies like putrified shark.

We're getting a jump on them here in the Pacific Northwest this week as every man, woman, and child gets in touch with their inner Viking. It doesn't take putrified shark, though, to transform someone into a fearless hero, capable of swallowing ancestral foods in a single swallow. All it takes is lots … and lots … and LOTS ... of water.

Flooding creeks have become rivers. Freeway underpasses have become lakes. And people are riding jet skis down a major cross-street, just beyond the Dairy Queen and right in front of most of our town's car dealerships (who now futilely wish they sold boats).

So it seemed only appropriate to serve a very traditional Scandinavian dish, Sailors' Beef, to our video-crazed, cabin-fevered kids yesterday. Sailors' Beef is a universal favorite among both Scandinavians and Scandinavian-Americans, as old-fashioned and comforting as a homemade quilt. Inexpensive stew meat becomes as tender as prime rib after a lengthy sauna in the oven, while a small amount of grog lends just enough flavor and aroma to the basic meat, onions, and potatoes to heighten this casserole into fare worthy of Valhalla.

My three Viking-wannabes all demanded seconds. It's time, perhaps, to send them out to fish for shark for Thorrablot.

We have a good fishing hole, after all. Right under the I-5 / Iowa Street interchange.

Sailors' beef image ©2009 Kari Diehl, licensed to About.com.

One of my primary resolutions this year is to more consistently follow the Swedish cooking proverb, "Man tager vad man haver"- to take what I already have on hand, using leftover ingredients to create new dishes in the interest of making sure that nothing goes to waste.

Fortunately, I've found that using leftover ingredients often results in the creation of secondary recipes that are even better than the original dish. A great example is this moist glogg cake, bursting with the dried fruit, citrus, and almonds that I used to flavor my holiday glogg.

Here's to second helpings!

Glogg cake image ©2009 Kari Diehl, licensed to About.com.

A happy Christmas to all, and to all a good julenek!

Christmas julenek image ©2008 Kari Diehl, licensed to About.com.