This is a blog about the stories food tells
I spent my childhood on a small island in Northern Norway. My mother was a housewife cooking food from scratch. She grew up at a time when young girls went to school to learn the ”science” of being a good housewife, as her aunt did before her. I grew up with a mother who made delicious cakes like success tart, black pudding and comforting soups for the family.
Sweetened by the cold and bright summer
Next to our house was our very own potato and strawberry fields. Beautiful strawberries made extra sweet by the ever bright Northern summer. Bold and flavourful potatoes named Gold eye because of their yellow skin and ”eyes”. In one corner of the garden tall green stalks looked like weed, but was the finest rhubarb, the hardy plant which thrives in the rather cold North Norwegian summer. Other edible treasures in our garden were redcurrants and blackcurrants, they were sour and perfect. But the most important berries were wild.
Jewel of the Arctic
From the forest and mires, just a short walk from our house, we foraged blueberries, lingonberries and – the jewel of the Arctic – cloudberries. Cloudberries with whipped cream was the Christmas dessert. Wild berries were in abundance, so was fish. Our food was rustic and mostly based on fish, milk products and potatoes. As my mother said: ”Dinner is not dinner without potatoes”. My father was captain on a fishing boat and cod, halibut, coalfish and herring were staples at our table. Salads were rare and mostly meant iceberg lettuce. Greens meant carrots. Milk products were present at most meals and I grew up eating porridge almost every day.
Homebaked for the guest
If you came as a guest to our house, my mother would always offer you coffee and something homebaked. Even if you were just visiting us for 10 minutes. My mother took great pride in baking the cakes herself, and this tradition of baking is taken to its height on festive occasions such as confirmation and weddings. There is a picture of me from the time of my confirmation where I sit next to a table. If you look beyond the plastic earrings, the shoulder pillows and pastel colors, what is amazing are all the cakes. Big cakes, as we call them. The table is laden with 10 to 15 cakes which could match any French patisserie, not in meticulous decoration but in flavour. This has taught me two lessons. Cakes should be homebaked. And they should, at least on special occasions, be plentiful. I call this cake generousity, and it is a value I want to hold on to.
My mother inherited her aunt’s old and faded recipe book with its handwritten recipes from 1938. My mother is only a memory today, and so is my aunt. But the old recipe book is still there and now mine. The pages are faded, but as long as I cook, the memories will live on and continue to bring love around the kitchen table. Welcome to my table. Or as we would say Up North: Velkommen – og spis! (Welcome and eat!)
About me in the press
Interview in the magazine Boligdrøm 2/2014
Presentation at Godt.no, Ukens matblogger
All content is © 2023 by Nordic Diner.
Bollefrua
July 14, 2013 | 7:36 am
Flott blogg! Gleder meg til å komme innom her igjen. 🙂 Astrid
nordicdiner
July 14, 2013 | 8:11 pm
Ja, kom gjerne innom. Velkommen skal du være 🙂
Antony Fernandez
October 28, 2014 | 10:16 am
Such a beautiful blog. I’m looking forward to following the recipes and comparing them to those of my Yorkshire family, who always claimed that Yorkshire was as much Nordic as it was English.
nordicdiner
October 28, 2014 | 6:55 pm
Thank you so much, Antony! I did not know Yorkshire is Nordic, but maybe it is because of the vikings? I certainly have a lot to learn about Yorkshire. I recently read it was possible to forage lingonberries in Yorkshire, and that is definitely something very Nordic to me. I hope you will enjoy my blog.
Sophie
January 11, 2015 | 9:17 pm
Nice to meet you!
I have been following your blog for a while & really like it!
Many Greetings from a Foodie from Belgium!
nordicdiner
January 12, 2015 | 6:39 pm
Hi Sophie, and thank you so much for your kind words. I really appreciate hearing from you. It is very interesting that you have tried several of my recipes all the way in Belgium! Wish you the best in the new year 🙂
Eveline
March 27, 2015 | 11:49 am
So happy to have found your blog. I love Norway and can’t wait to come back in the summer. Great to be able to learn more about Norwegian cooking and try the typical Norwegian recipes. Thanks for sharing!
Eveline from the Netherlands
nordicdiner
March 27, 2015 | 11:54 am
So nice to hear from you. I really hope you find my blog useful. Best regards from Trude in Norway 🙂
Mari-Ann Kind Jackson
May 10, 2015 | 5:10 pm
Vil gjerne motta melding når en ny blog kommer ut.
Hilsen en utflytta Kvæfjæring som nå bor i Seattle og er Kvæfjordkaka’s “Ambassadør” til USA.
nordicdiner
May 11, 2015 | 7:28 am
Hei!
Så hyggelig at du vil følge bloggen. Den enkleste måten å følge nye blogginnlegg på, er ved å følge meg på facebook, eventuelt twitter eller instagram.
Vennlig hilsen Trude 🙂
Therese
September 7, 2015 | 12:34 pm
Kjempefin blogg! Her kommer jeg til å få masse inspirasjon 🙂 Gøy å oppleve andre blogger som også skriver om mat her i Norden, vi har jo så mye godt! Da har du fått en fast følger til 😉
nordicdiner
September 7, 2015 | 12:48 pm
Hei, og takk for hyggelig tilbakemelding. Veldig spennende blogg du har, det er ikke så mange som lager god nordisk mat, attpåtil på engelsk. Du har en spennende vri på både mat og bilder, som også jeg kan lære mye av. Trude 🙂
Catarina Johansen
October 8, 2017 | 8:25 am
Hei, kjempe fint om det du har skrevet om Vafler, jeg håper at det er Ok for deg at jeg har linket det du skrev om Vafler på Cafe siden til rideklubben vår som forklarer om hvorfor norske vafler. Hvis du vil at jeg skal ta det ut så si ifra så skal jeg respektere det. Takk, med vennlig hilsen Catarina
nordicdiner
November 2, 2017 | 8:23 pm
Hei Catarina, det er i orden 🙂
felix
May 11, 2018 | 4:34 am
Beautiful website, and great photos of food. I came to your site as I was looking for Placinta (moldovan food) recipe. I was born there, but left when I was 13. Still miss that food! Loved reading about your visit to Moldova. It used to be such a beautiful place… Will be following your blog!
nordicdiner
June 10, 2018 | 6:44 pm
Thanks so much for your kind words, Felix!
Norbert
February 24, 2019 | 4:38 pm
On this recipe: https://nordicdiner.net/tjukklefser/
2 ss hornsalt? Are you sure it’s not ts? With 2 ss the smell is quite strong? We just started to make them and it’s really hard to tolerate…
nordicdiner
February 25, 2019 | 5:39 pm
Hi, how did it go? 2 ss is correct. The smell is quite terrible when it is in the oven, but in the baking process the hornsalt eventually disappears. Best regards, Trude
Norwegian Apple Trifle for #Food of the World Recipe | cookshideout
December 13, 2019 | 12:32 am
[…] of Norwegian cuisine, so I went looking for recipes online. Thankfully I found this amazing blog, Nordic Diner, written by Trude who lives in Oslo now but spend her childhood in Northern […]