THE LAND OF FIRE AND ICE – LITERALLY

Thora | May 28, 2011 | Comments 2 |

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Greetings everyone. I do hope I find you well and happy. I have a few announcements – yes don´t I always…

First off – we have migrated back to Iceland for the summer or possibly longer. Volli will fly back and forth but I´m thinking of staying a while with the kids. Many reasons and all of them good. So we travelled from the Bahamas to Iceland, via Miami and Orlando with our two small kids and 11 pieces of luggage (counting strollers and etc.) We survived – mostly thanks to two amazing gadgets for our two-year-old son. First there is the iPad stuffed with cool games and movies and then there was this amazing little backpack that our friend Cinnamon from Canada sent us. It contains all sorts of activities for kids to enjoy while travelling and it really kept him busy.

So we arrived in Reykjavik and guess what – it´s May 15^th and it´s freezing – literally snowing. Birds are laying on their eggs covered in snow and having just arrived from the heat wave in the Bahamas I really thought I would freeze to death. But – being a tough old cookie I just dug up my pair of Ugg´s and my old winter closet so it´s all good. The kids love the cold but it takes about an hour longer in the morning to get them ready due to all the clothing that they have to put on and don´t really like.

Volli disappeared shortly after we arrived to film a series about BBQ for the Icelandic National TV – which will air in July and August. I´ll tell you more about that and post some delicious recipes really soon.

So – while busy unpacking, dealing with kids, finding daycare, trying to get any work done a volcano erupted! Yes – this time it´s Grímsvötn and since it´s a relatively small island it affected all of us. Here in Reykjavik everything was covered in ash so all windows had to be sealed and kids and pets kept inside. Closer to the origin everything was pitch-black and livestock was dying. It was truly heartbreaking to watch. But thankfully it didn´t last long so we are pretty much getting back on track.

About the Basic Cookbook – we are still working on our first App – which is all about BBQ as I might have mentioned before. Fifty video tutorials covering pretty much everything – from spice rubs, kids food, steaks, fish, salads and desserts… so I´m excited about that.

I also got my glory day back in the Bahamas before we left when a whole day was dedicated to mixing and photographing cocktails for the Happy Hour section I´m doing. What is that – you may ask – and that´s actually a really good question. Since I like alcohol (although I haven´t really had much of it since having kids) I like to fantasize about (and occasionally enjoy) great cocktails… and I intend to actually drink a few this summer. So every Friday I will post a recipe to a delicious drink that I hope you will enjoy.

I will tell you though that the day we did the drinks was a veeeery good one since I really had to sample all the drinks!!!

So starting next Friday that´s what I´m doing. And then of course you´ll get some recipes from the chef!