Grillsósa

Barbecue sauce

We had dear visitors here over the weekend and in the evening we grilled together, everyone had brought something and my contribution was, among other things, this barbecue sauce here, with bell pepper and onion.

I made the barbecue sauce, however, for a friend with a cow's milk intolerance without dairy products; for this, I replaced the crème fraîche with 200 g of 'vegan cream cheese' and about 50 ml of 'vegan cooking cream,' which I stirred together. Sometimes it's not that easy at all to get such substitute products here in Iceland in the supermarket – in Bónus we only found 'milk alternatives'; only in Krónan did we also find things like 'vegan butter' and 'vegan cream cheese'.

The result was really tasty!

Ingredients

200 g crème fraîche

1 yellow bell pepper

1/4 red onion

1 tbsp tomato ketchup

1 pinch of coarse sea salt

1/2 tsp chili pepper

Preparation

Wash and clean the bell peppers, peel the onion. Cut both into small pieces.

In a bowl, stir together the crème fraîche with ketchup, salt, and pepper, and fold in the chopped vegetables.

Serve the barbecue sauce as a side with grilled meat or sausages.

But the sauce also works well as a dip for small-cut vegetable strips. We tried it out for you specially, later on in the evening..!

Enjoy your meal!

Translated from here.

Perlubygg með arfasósu

Pearl barley with ant sauce

This dish is traditionally prepared with fresh bird droppings.

If you - like me - can't get fresh chickweed at the moment, you can also make do with arugula/rocket, lamb's lettuce, or young spinach. I have chosen rocket here (in Icelandic:burdock salad) decided, I got that in the supermarket in town.

Pearl barley or barley pearls (bankabygg resp. perlubygg) were a staple of Icelandic cuisine until around 1940, before they were largely displaced in everyday cooking by imported products such as rice and noodles. I now really enjoy using them in my meals.

Barley in the field in Vallanes

By the way, the barley pearl salad is a recipe from the category 'always vegan'. So not 'veganized', but truly traditional without any animal products. Also perfect if guests, for example, cannot eat cow's milk products.

Ingredients

300 g pearl barley

750 ml of water

1 apple

1/2 red onion

300 g fresh pennywort

200 ml apple juice

100 ml of rapeseed oil

coarse sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Preparation

Bring the water to a boil in a pot, add the pearl barley, and cook until soft for about 20 minutes. Then drain the water and set the barley aside to cool.

Peel and chop half an onion.

Wash half of the onion pieces with the honey or the arugula or similar, and put both together with the apple juice and the rapeseed oil into the blender and puree.

Quarter the peeled and core-removed apple and cut it into small pieces.

Mix the remaining onion pieces and the little apple pieces with the cooled pearl barley and pour over the green sauce. Mix everything thoroughly and season with salt and pepper. Keep the finished salad covered in the refrigerator.

With us, there was the green barley salad on weekends as a side dish for BBQs with friends.

Translated from here.

Ull und matur

Wool and food

This pink strawberry sofa cushion was my sister's special wish. 

Sometimes you can wonderfully combine two passions, just like I do here with this sofa cushion:

My passion for wool and knitting and my passion for Icelandic food.

I have loved Icelandic food since our first trip to Iceland in 2004. Since 2014, I have been writing about it here on the blog, trying out recipes, etc.

As birthday present for a friend who works here in Iceland in the strawberry greenhouse, I then had one collection of Icelandic strawberry recipes compiled - and from this gift, our book was created Icelandic Strawberry Recipes". 

The German edition appeared in April 2025. (You could currently order the book in bookstores or online, for example on Amazon.)

The English version"Icelandic Strawberry Recipes" then followed in May 2025.

It was a community work together with my husband and my sister - he translated the book into English, afterwards she worked as an editor or proofreader for the English version and sent it back to us with changes and comments.

Therefore, my sister also has a special connection to Icelandic strawberry recipes..!

My other passion is knitting, preferably with Icelandic wool.

Last year I had already knitted several pieces with strawberry motifs, for example this hat and the jacket with strawberries made of Léttlopi wool.

When I am now in the spring in matters hand-knitted lopapeysa sofa cushions in the style of Icelandic wool sweaters (lopapeysa) I got a little carried away, and my sister expressed the wish if she could also get a hand-knitted sofa pillow, pink, with strawberries..?

At first I thought that wouldn't work because the color 'pink' doesn't really exist in Icelandic Léttlopi yarn. There is the color 1412 "lead sampler Combed wool from a mix of various pink-dyed wool, but actually this wool is more bright pink than delicate pink.

In the thick Icelandic wool (Álafosslopi), there is the color 1239 "vetrarmorgun" (= winter morning), which should be light pink, but I didn't get it spontaneously. Besides, I actually didn't want to knit such a thick sofa cushion.

Finally, I then made for myself as Main color with double Plötulopi wool awkward, here is the color 1425 "lead sampler A little less marbled and lighter, at least in the part I got. (Besides, Plötulopi still smells really nice of sheep when you press your nose into it, I think!)

For the pattern, I used Léttlopi in the colors white (0051) and yellow (1703), for the strawberries garnet red (1409), yellow and dark green (1407), and for the green, I also added a thin strand of Fjallalopi wool in light green (3032).

I am definitely very satisfied with the result - I think the pillow has turned out really nicely!

Last week, the pillow traveled by mail to my sister. It has already arrived safely, and I am looking forward to the photos that will follow once she has gotten a pillow filling for the sofa pillow.

Translated from here.

Sunnudagsganga

Sunday walk

I always find it fascinating - besides the well-known, famous places, tourist hot-spots, and sights, there are still small, unknown places in Iceland that are not in travel guides, are not online insider tips, and may not be quite as spectacular - but still beautiful. And where you are still completely alone.

The crater Kerið with its red rock and the crater lake, almost every traveler to Iceland who has visited the Golden Circle here in the south of Iceland knows it. About 600,000 people probably visited Kerið last year, according to Arctic Adventures, the owner of the land since 2023 – which means that almost 30% of all visitors to Iceland visit this crater.

But the Kerið is not the only crater with a lake in the middle that exists here. But other craters are not developed for tourism, there are no signs, no large paved parking lot, no restroom kiosk, no food truck, and no entrance fee to pay; there is not even a proper road.

Nevertheless, one can walk to this crater here on an official, well-marked hiking trail.

The established hiking trail leads through the moss-covered lava landscape and is well marked at the yellow stakes to recognize with the blue markings. At this spot here, there is also an old trail marker, I assume.

The lava here is not very old yet, only a few thousand years. But it is densely overgrown, I estimate, with lava moss or more precisely fork moss - the plant that typically settles first on the cooled rock after an eruption.

On the other side of the path, opposite the lava landscape, lies the green crater covered with grass and small trees, with its small blue crater lake full of aquatic plants.

Here is the view from the other side over the crater rim onto the lava landscape.

Already quite green, for Icelandic conditions, I think!

With one last look at the expanse of the landscape, we then went back again.

That was definitely a nice Sunday walk. We got to know a beautiful crater with a crater lake, of which we hadn't even seen pictures until a few days ago. And we were all alone here, no other person for miles around. So nice!

Translated from here.

Sumarfrí 2026

Summer holidays 2026

Yesterday, we went to Iceland again.

This time it's just the two of us, my husband and I, the kids will come later. We had a direct flight with Icelandair again.

Icelandair now flies to Frankfurt no longer from Terminal 2, but from the new one Terminal 3. 

The new Terminal 3 at Frankfurt Airport was officially opened in April 2026 after 10 years of construction, and regular flight operations began on April 23, 2026. 

The new terminal has a usable area of more than 400,000 m², the multi-story departure hall is 18 meters high and is designed for nearly 20 million passengers per year, who can depart from the new gates G, H, and J.

Top floor level of the new departure hall

When we arrived here yesterday around half past 5 in the morning, it was amazingly empty, not much activity yet, despite summer holidays in already 7 federal states. Our son was able to drive up comfortably, let us get out - everything was very relaxed at first, no shortage of space. Wonderful!

Inside, everything was also nice and new. At the front in the departure hall there aren't (yet?) many shops, but there are still store premises directly at the boarding gates, which I definitely find better than before at Terminal 2. (Even though the prices are as usual high, almost 10 € for a filled baguette or around 4.50 € for a small bottle of soft drink...)

I perceive as a very special luxury the modern CT scanner at all security checks in the new terminal! Laptops, smartphones, and other electronic devices can simply stay in your carry-on luggage, and even liquids no longer need to be tediously packed in small zip-lock bags and scanned separately. Now you can even take up to 2 liters of liquid simply in your carry-on. Without all the unpacking and repacking, the security check went wonderfully fast and uncomplicated!

We definitely enjoyed the new, modern terminal and also the unusual view of Frankfurt.

Shortly after 9 o'clock in the morning, we then landed safely in Iceland.

It only took a little while before we could leave the plane, there were apparently problems with the jet bridge. At some point, they even switched on the entertainment program on the screens again, an announcement came, however, for us only the advertisements were running... But then it seemed to go faster than feared. Shortly before 10 o'clock we were on our way to Reykjavík.

On the way, we also bought some fresh groceries, and by noon we were successfully home. Even the lupines are still in full bloom here, even though it is already the beginning of July.

And the weather was really wonderful - the perfect Icelandic summer!

Bright blue sky, up to 18 °C. We took advantage of it immediately, first for an ice cream on the terrace and in the evening spontaneous guests came by for a barbecue. After all, there isn't often such good weather here, where you can sit outside in bright sunshine in the evening and barbecue and eat - you have to take every opportunity spontaneously!

It couldn't possibly start off any more beautifully here in Iceland!

I am very happy to be here again.

Translated from here.

Ískalt kaffiskyr

Ice-cold coffee skyr drink

This week was somehow extremely stressful, I thought, and on top of that the great heat in Germany... Today there was then only quickly an 'iced coffee' for everyone, before we had to head off again to take the kids to the bus.

Actually, the original Icelandic recipe calls for using coffee skyr with caramel, but since there are not so many types of skyr in Germany, I made do with vanilla skyr and added coffee extract and chocolate sauce to round it off a bit in terms of taste. Then stir vigorously once – perfect!

We were all very satisfied with the result, nice and ice-cold, fresh and delicious!

Ingredients for 3 drinks

400 ml vanilla skyr
200 ml of milk
1 Tbsp coffee extract
2 Tbsp chocolate sauce

90 ml of cold coffee

6 - 9 ice cubes

Preparation

Mix the vanilla skyr with the milk, the coffee extract, and the chocolate sauce in a blender.

Put 2 - 3 ice cubes in each glass and pour 30 ml of cold coffee over each.

Then evenly distribute the skyr milk mixture into the glasses.

Stir as desired and enjoy ice cold!

Enjoy your meal!

Translated from here.