Lefse, Lutefisk, and Spaetzle, Oh My!

Red Silo's Bobby Jo Cody teamed with WildMoon Salsa's Knutson family to create a unique collection of recipes celebrating the heritages this area is so warm to.

BY Alexandra Martin

Meet Bobbi Jo Cody. Originally from Lisbon, N.D., Bobbi Jo owns The Red Silo, located on Broadway in Downtown Fargo with her husband Todd Cody. By day, this local entrepreneur is also an art teacher with the Fargo Public School District.

Now meet the Knutson women: Pernell, Paulette and Jennifer along with their mother Dorothy. Together, they are now current partners in WildMoon Enterprises, LLC. WildMoon is a family, veteran and woman owned small business specializing in salsa, and Living On Salsa Time apparel, totes and gift boxes.

With everything else these women do, they are adding one more notch on their belts: cookbook authors.

Bobbi Jo and the Knutsons teamed together to create a cookbook that will spread the love of Scandinavian, German, German Russian and Russian dishes. To fit the unique contents of the collection is a unique way of presenting them.

One half of the cookbook is Scandinavian recipes, but when you flip the book around, the other side has German, German Russian and Russian recipes. Within these pages, you can find about 200 recipes, accompanied by some handwritten recipe cards, jokes, pictures and proverbs. The passed-down, family recipes mixed in with these personal touches make this cookbook unlike anything you'd ever find at Williams Sonoma.

On the German side, you will find Durch Deine Gabe (Through Thy Bounty). The recipes in this portion were collected by Bobbi Jo from her Great Grandma Remboldt of Gackle, N.D., as well as from a bushel of Kriegar, Schaffer, Remmick, Zenker and Obenauer folks, just to name a few. Many of these recipes were served for holidays and special occasions.

Now flip the book over and find the Scandinavian portion called Our Scandinavian Heritage and Farm Family Favorite Recipes. This selection is based on generations of family cooks, beginning with the Knutson's Grandma Lee, born in 1888, and continuing with their mother Dorothy. Extended family members also contributed recipes for this cookbook, bringing quite the variety of tastes and preferences together. These women were raised on great cooking and enjoyed countless meals around the family table, which makes their decision to bring together this selection of eats feel so natural.

"Our mother Dorothy and our sister is Jennifer are the cooks of the family now, they are the brains and the hands behind everything," said Pernelle. Paulette echoed this by saying, "They were the ones who selected the majority of the recipes."

"Many families celebrate multiple cultures, as they may have had ancestors from a variety of places around the world," said Bobbi Jo. "We know that many people love to cook. They like local and they like a North Dakota connection. People also enjoy eating delicious tasting food. This cookbook features recipes from two of the largest immigrant groups in North Dakota."

Whether you spend copious amounts of time in the kitchen or prefer pre-made meals, this book is made to be user friendly to all ranges of culinary abilities. The Knutson sisters said, "They are made with common ingredients and use clear directions". As our mom says, "Cooking takes experience and practice, and above all, it should be fun!" They noted that their older relatives did so much cooking every day and became so experienced that they did not require extensive directions, but you can still count on these recipes to be very accessible.