Verðbólga á Íslandi

Inflation in Iceland

In Iceland, too, people are suffering from rising inflation, where the inflation rate is currently just under 10%. Experts expect a further increase to up to 11% by the end of 2022.

Especially the extremely rising rent and real estate prices contribute to this high inflation, but also the general costs of living and the costs of food are rising and rising.

Meanwhile, there are calls from the public and also the Icelandic government to actively take action against rising inflation in the country.

Supermarket Krónan freezes prices for 240 products by the end of the year

In response to these appeals, the supermarket chain Krónan recently announced that it would freeze the prices of 240 products of the house brands "Krónan" and "First Price" by the end of the year.

The price freeze affects 240 products of daily use of the two companies mentioned, namely products from toilet paper, detergent, glass cleaner, soap and sanitary napkins to dog food and cat litter to food such as rice, oatmeal, cereals, meat, canned fruit, sour cucumbers, margarine, toast, baguette, chocolate, biscuits, ice cream and chips.

The products are all listed online - and in the store there are several shopping carts at the entrance, which are packed with exactly these 240 products. 

Other companies have also spoken on this subject. For example, Hirzlan, an office furniture store, also called for everyone to work together in the face of high inflation and promised not to increase product prices for the rest of 2022.

On the other hand, the managing director of the supermarket chain Bónus explained that the idea itself was a great initiative. However, Bónus will not freeze prices, but is working every day to avoid price increases as much as possible and to pass on any price reductions directly to customers. 

IKEA said, up to now they have not yet passed on the higher costs during the Covid pandemic and the associated supply chain problems to their customers over the past two years. The furniture store always publishes the catalogue for the next 12 months in September, which in fact also fixes the prices for this period. 

In August, inflation was "only" at 9.7% 

Currently, the statistical office published a report that inflation in Iceland was 9.7% in August, compared to 9.9% in July 2022. In particular, energy prices have fallen slightly and the demand for real estate decreased a bit (due to higher interest rates of the central bank).

This at least slows down inflation slightly. Whether it's a long-term trend or just a short-term recovery remains to be seen. 

[Translated from here.]

Bananakaka með rjómaostakremi

Banana cake with cream cheese cream

I've tried different types of banana bread so far, but this was my first banana cake - and I'm quite happy with the result! Normally I can't get my youngest to get excited about banana bread, but even he liked this delicious cake and wanted a second piece!

Ingredients

For the dough

3 bananas

3 eggs

100 g brown sugar

100 ml oil

1 pinch of ground vanilla

240 g flour

1 tsp baking powder

For the cream

200 g cream cheese

50 g soft butter

100 g powdered sugar

1 pinch of ground vanilla

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 350 °F (180 °C) upper/lower heat.

Puree the bananas in a large bowl.

Add the oil, brown sugar, eggs and ground vanilla and mix thoroughly.

Add the flour and baking powder and work everything into a smooth dough.

Pour the dough into a greased or baking-paper-lined loaf pan, smooth it out and bake in a preheated oven at 350 °F (180 °C) for about 40 minutes until the cake is golden brown and baked through (test with a toothpick!).

Take the cake out of the oven, let it cool completely and carefully remove it from the tin.

Then prepare the cream:

Beat the cream cheese with the butter, powdered sugar and vanilla until fluffy.

Then spread the cream on the cake, dust with a little powdered sugar to taste or for the look if you like.

Let the cake with the cream set in the fridge and then serve well chilled.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

Eplaterta með söxuðum möndlum

Apple pie with chopped almonds

Here once again, I present a recipe for an apple pie. Admittedly, my youngest son was not really enthusiastic about this cake because it was more apple than cake, he said. He is not completely wrong, the cake is definitely very appley - but I don't think that this is a disadvantage at all! 

Ingredients

5 - 6 apples

250 g soft butter

140 g brown sugar

2 eggs

250 g flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 pinch of salt

100 g chopped almonds

1 tsp cinnamon 

1 tsp icing sugar

Preparation

Peel the apples, remove the seeds and cut into pieces.

Then boil the apple pieces in hot water for 3 minutes.

Drain the water and let the apples cool down a little in a sieve.

Preheat the oven to 350 °F (180 °C) upper/lower heat.

In a bowl, stir the butter with the sugar until frothy.

Add two eggs one by one and mix.

Then add the flour, baking powder and salt and mix everything to a smooth dough.

Fill about half of the dough into a springform pan lined with baking paper and smooth it down.

Spread the cooked apple pieces on the dough and spread the remaining dough over the apple pieces.

Mix the chopped almonds in a small bowl with the cinnamon...

... and spread over the cake.

Bake the cake in a preheated oven at 350 °F (180 °C) upper and lower heat for about 25 - 30 minutes (toothpick test!).

Remove the cake from the oven, let it cool briefly and seave the icing sugar over the cake while still warm.

Then let the cake cool down before taking it out of the pan. My experience: Getting the cake out of the pan too early is not a good idea! But a bit warm it tastes particularly delicious!

Enjoy your meal!

[Translated from here.]

Lambaþríhyrningar með feta

Lamb triangles with feta 

Icelandic finger food - This time I baked puff pastries filled with minced lamb mince for our planned hiking tour.

By the way, finger food means "pinnamatur" in Icelandic, the word is also used for "appetizer". 

When shopping, however, I only had problems when I was searching for minced meat in our local supermarket - there was no fresh minced meat in the cold room, only hamburgers, so I looked in the freezers - and at first I found nothing, because I was looking for the wrong shape or packaging. 

But then we were successful: minced meat is sold frozen here in Iceland in "sausage form", there were optional pork, beef, horsemeat and mutton. So we bought a roll of "kindahack" (= chopped mutton) which I then thawed at home before baking. 

(My "minced sausage" had 635 g, for the lamb triangles that was a bit too much - well, doesn't matter, so our son got noodles wth minced meat for lunch!)

Ingredients

400 g minced lamb

1 - 2 Tbsp butter

1 onion

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp coarse sea salt

1/2 tsp pepper

70 g feta cheese

1 pack of puff pastry (425g)

1 egg yolk

Preparation

Melt the butter in a pan.

Peel the onion, cut it into small pieces...

... and fry in the butter and sprinkle with cumin.

Add the minced meat and fry well.

Season with salt and pepper.

Remove the pan from heat.

Cut the sheep's cheese into small pieces and mix with the fried mince.

Cut the puff pastry sheets into squares (approx. 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches resp. 6 x 6 cm).

Place one or two tablespoons of the meat mass on each square. Carefully fold the square so that a triangle is formed, and carefully squeeze the edges with a fork.

Place the dumplings on a baking tray lined with baking paper and brush with the yolk.

Bake the dumplings in a preheated oven at 400 °F (200 °C) upper and lower heat for about 10 to 15 minutes until the dumplings have turned golden brown. 

For our hike, we packed the lamb triangles in a box into our knapsack. - I'm sure you've already guessed where our hike took us, haven't you? 

[Translated from here.]

Fiskur með AB mjólk og pestó

Fish casserole with AB mjólk and pesto

Here's another dish for quick, uncomplicated everyday Icelandic cooking - not spectacular, not elaborate, not even particularly beautiful - but definitely delicious!

For this dish, in addition to the AB mjólk, you use commercial pesto that you can get in the store, green or red pesto depending on your taste, you can also mix both, just as you like.

For other countries, where AB mjólk is not available, I recomment to use pure yogurt instead of AB mjólk, which comes closest to the result.

Ingredients

800 g white fish

1 pinch of salt and pepper

500 ml AB ​​mjólk (or yogurt)

1 jar of pesto

1 tsp chopped parsley

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 425 °F (220 °C) upper/lower heat.

Place the fish in an ovenproof baking dish and season with salt and pepper.

Mix the AB mjólk with the pesto in a bowl...

...and then pour the mixture over the fish.

Then bake the fish in the oven at 425 °F (220 °C) upper and lower heat for about 20 minutes.

Then serve the baked fish with rice.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

European Championship final and earthquake warning

Yesterday afternoon we were in Selfoss to watch the final of the Women's European Football Championship on Brúartorg, the "bridge square" in the new city center.

It wasn't terribly crowded, but still quite well attended. Even though most of the spectators were cheering for England, there was still a group behind us whose hearts also beat for the German team, and at some point a German family happened to settle down next to us.

So we weren't the only ones who celebrated when the German players equalized!

Skjáltaviðvörun - earthquake warning

At some point, however, I got distracted - when I looked at my phone, Google showed me an earthquake warning:

My cell phone reported that there was a magnitude 5.5 earthquake 108 km away.

There was a picture that the epicenter of the quake was in the south of Reykjanes.

And I was given behavioral measures: Be sure to put on shoes! (Even if you're just walking from one room to another.) You should pay attention to the smell of gas and avoid entering damaged buildings.

We then immediately checked the news site of Morgunblaðið (mbl.is) and the website of the Meteorological Institute (vedur.is) - nothing was shown in the recordings of the earthquakes.

Shortly afterwards the headline appeared on mbl: Big earthquake right now!

On vedur.is, the 5:48 p.m. quake was not yet shown in the 5:50 p.m. update and the 5:55 p.m. update, only in the 6:00 p.m. update. And it took several more hours until the earthquake was finally officially classified as having a magnitude of 5.4 on the Richter scale.

Somehow I was distracted by the earthquake warning and was only able to follow the final of the Women's European Championship in London with half my attention because I always had one eye on my cell phone...

I have now learned how this cell phone warning works:

Android phones now contain tiny measuring instruments that can detect vibrations. When the phone detects something it thinks might be an earthquake, it sends a signal including the approximate location to Google's earthquake server. The server then compares the message with the information from other smartphones in the wider area - and then issues an earthquake warning based on the available data. With this, Google has apparently created the “world’s largest earthquake detection system”.

The whole thing is remarkably accurate: The Google alert showed me a magnitude 5.5 earthquake. It took 10 minutes for the official measuring stations to even report the earthquake, and it took several hours for the quake to be officially rated at 5.4.

And the Google warning system is also remarkably fast:

I must have had the warning on my cell phone before the tremors were felt here. According to mathematical calculations in the Icelandic media, it takes almost 10 seconds before the Grindavík tremor is felt in Reykjavík, and then another about 10 seconds until the tremor reaches Selfoss - so almost 20 seconds before the Selfoss earthquake is felt could.

The Google warning system is so quick at comparing data that I had the warning on my phone before the tremors were felt here in Selfoss 20 seconds after the quake.

I'm not sure whether the few seconds left between receiving the warning and the arrival of the tremors would be enough to read the message and then at least put on shoes or turn off the gas, but the speed of the earthquake warning I think it's brilliant and so is the accuracy!

Damage is reported from Grindavík

The earthquake that occurred shortly before 6 p.m. caused damage in Grindavík. The cold water pipe to Grindavík arrives at Svartsengi, so the town was without cold water for a short time. Repair work began yesterday and it is expected that the damage will be repaired during the day today - assuming no further strong earthquakes or damage occurs.

I've now seen pictures of the supermarket there, where a lot of goods had fallen off the shelves and a lot of glasses had broken and leaked. There were also pictures of a restaurant in Grindavík showing lots of broken glasses and dishes on the floor.

When I look at these pictures full of broken pieces, it becomes clear to me why Google might be right with the earthquake tip "Put your shoes on first!"

We then went back home after losing the final.

Later in the evening, the Brekkusöng on Heimaey, the big festival for the merchant's weekend here in Iceland, was broadcast live on the screen. It must have been really crowded and a great atmosphere, judging by the pictures I saw of it. But by that time we were back in our house...

[Translated from here.]