The Hygge Life: Embracing the Nordic Art of Coziness Through Recipes, Entertaining, Decorating, Simple Rituals, and Family Traditions [Hardcover]

Equal parts cookbook and lifestyle guide, this cozy little book shows you how to cultivate comfort and contentment and embrace life’s small pleasures with the Danish practice of hygge.

Hygge (loosely translated as coziness ) is centered around the idea of inviting comforting elements into day-to-day life while creating warmth, community, and intimacy. The Hygge Life teaches you how small gestures (putting wool blankets and warm cider out for guests) or larger undertakings (building bonfires and making campfire bread to celebrate solstice) can warm the psyche and foster hygge, with more than 30 recipes for cozy and comforting food and drinks.GUNNAR KARL GÍSLASON is chef of the award-winning Restaurant Dill in Reykjavik's historic Nordic House, Kex Hostel on Reykjavik Harbor, and Agern restaurant in NYC's Grand Central Station. His cooking celebrates Iceland's pristine ingredients and artisanal producers and has garnered international acclaim.

JODY EDDY is the author of Come In, We're Closed; North; and Cuba. A graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education in Manhattan, she is the former editor of Art Culinaire.INTRODUCTION 

A Scandinavian winter is a long and frosty affair. It requires fierce resolve to brave the angry winds that gust inland from the ocean; to enjoy a few pale hours of sun before it slips beneath the horizon once more; to thrive in spite of adversity.

But it’s more than a courageous heart and thick woolen socks that see Scandinavians joyfully through the dark, bleak season. Their spirits are enriched and hearts made buoyant by the concept of hygge (“hue-guh”). It’s their winter elixir. It’s the notion that taking care of yourself and those you love fortifies you with an invincible sense of well-being that no amount of lcU