Trina Hahnemann’s The Scandinavian Cookbook behaves as much like a cultural ambassador as it does a culinary resource. Written from the unique perspective of the Scandinavian seasonal experience, with its long, bright summers and dark, cold winters, the book provides a calendar year’s worth of recipes, month by month, based on the categorically seasonal nature of Scandinavian cooking. Working her way from January to December, Hahnemann offers up recipes around each season’s most prominent ingredients. In November, meatballs in curry sauce, old fashioned roast with potatoes and salsify, and braised stuff pheasant provide comfort against the encroaching cold. September’s late summer menu features a festive blueberry tart, pickled beets with star anise, and piquant gravlax with a sweet, creamy mustard sauce (Hahnemann recommends ice-cold beer as an accompaniment). Given the extraordinary circumstances of the Scandinavian cook’s resources and lifestyle, The Scandinavian Cookbook is sure to provide invaluable culinary inspiration and insight.