Hi everyone. It is Tuesday (or Monday night) once again. Here in the US some people have an extra long weekend since the July 4th holiday falls on a Tuesday, so they also get Monday off. Not so smart me, but when I signed up to work at the lake I wanted shifts for Mondays and Tuesdays. I forgot about when July 4th fell, so while the hubby was off, I was scheduled to work both mornings. 😑 Oh well. Monday morning was a wash out so I didn't have to head in anyhow, at least not for 7 when my shift begins.
Last week was another wet and busy one for me, but I have finally finished painting my screen porch floor. Hurrah! With the rain, humidity and things going on it seemed to take forever before I finished that job. You might remember a couple of weeks ago I showed you a sneak peek while I was painting the floor. I'm excited with how it came out. I also managed to set up my porch even if it was raining outside when I did it, and I moved most of my house plants out into it for the summer.
I must say I am loving the new green floor! Now I'm just waiting for a long spell of some good dry summer hammock weather-smile.
The hubby also hung up this sign for me. My son-in-law made for me for Christmas. Some of you might not be familiar with my 2 dogs, but his carvings really look like Mr. Pete and Miss Maddie.
I've also started knitting my Icelandic sweater using the yarn I bought on my trip that I also showed you a couple of weeks ago. The humidity arrived so that has slowed me down a bit because knitting with heavy wool when it's sticky just doesn't feel right.
For you non--knitters, to knit an Icelandic sweater you first knit up the 2 arms and the body to the armpits, and then you connect those 3 pieces on your needles to finish off the yolk (upper shoulder part). If the sweater is a pullover, which is what I am making, you knit in the round meaning your knit circles to make the sweater progress. No back and forth stitches are involved. Once you finish the sweater you would block it to smooth out any bumps and shape it.
And Elle, I had to laugh at your comment a few weeks back when you said you'd want to bring home a whole suitcase of yarn if you visited Iceland. Yes, I know exactly what you mean, and even though I still bought more than I'll probably need for one sweater, I did have to exercise some serious self-control. Smile.
And since it is T Day, let me share my drink related post. I know those of you who eat vegetarian will probably not be interested in this week's T day, and if you are vegan, I guarantee there is nothing you'd want to eat in today's post.
The Icelandic fast-food meal is hot dogs. We had them a couple of times for a quick lunch, and I also had one the night we arrived since by that hour most everyplace (other than one quick stop right in the airport terminal) was no longer serving food. Even though at this time of year it stays light basically 24 hours, restaurants in Iceland all close by 9 PM. Since we didn't land until 10 PM, the quick stop in the airport terminal was dinner.
And just as an FYI, there are currently no MacDonald's, Wendy's or Burger Kings in Iceland. There's no Starbucks either. I love that!
For dinner the night we arrived, I had a hotdog with a carton of chocolate milk. I had to laugh because the clerk told me that this chocolate milk was on the sweet side, when in reality it was less sweet than most chocolate milk you get in the US. This is my link up to this week's T Day over at Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog.
Icelandic hotdogs are mostly made from lamb, with some organic pork and beef. The traditional Icelandic way to eat them is with chopped fresh and also fried onions in the bottom of the roll. Then you add a sweet brown mustard sauce called pylsusinnep, ketchup (which was a little different from US ketchup because it has more of a tomato taste) and finally a white sauce called remoulade that is made from mayo, mustard, herbs and capers. It's a little different from a French remoulade.
Yummy!
And speaking of milk, here's a snap of part of the milk products section in one grocery store we visited. You can see Iceland's famous skyr in the middle row. I'm not certain, but there may be some fruit juice towards the bottom. Or perhaps it is a flavored milk drink.
That's all for me this week. If you celebrate the July 4th holiday, I hope you have an enjoyable, safe and sunny holiday. And Happy T day to you also.
21 comments:
...your porch looks so inviting. Have a safe and fun 4th.
Your porch floor is beautiful; the whole porch set up is wonderful. I would be like you and excited for some good weather to sit out there. I love brown spicy mustard on a hot dog, but I have never liked lamb. Happy T Day.
Your porch came out wonderfully!!!
I´d say especially for rainy days, you must feel like in a rain-jungle!
Can you imagine at age 14 I knitted pullover... with horse motives in it. Now I have no idea how I did it. (most boring teenager in the world here).
I SO had to laugh about the milk being rather on the sweet side.
When in Australia I bought a diet cake for Ingo´s birthday in hopes it would not be too sweet. He´d bought a normal one before, we hardly got a piece down, so sweet.
Baahhhhh... SWEET to the brim!!!
IKEA really killed the hot dog for me, sadly.
The Icelandic I might try, though and yay for those chains being banned there.
Beautiful post, have a happy T-day, hugs!
The first time I ever had skyr was on Icelandic Air when we got bumped to business class from Manchester (UK) to Reykjavik and onwards to Toronto. It is delicious and if it’s good enough for all those rugged Icelanders it’s good enough for me. I would try a hot dog if there was nothing else available, but hot dogs in general are not my favourite food. But late at night in the airport, with everything else closed, I am sure it was very welcome. Hugs - David
Your porch looks wonderful, well done on persevering with all the hard work to get it finished. This is really an ambience to feel good! I am not a friend of hot dogs, but the dairy assortment in that store is really my cup of tea. I think I would have had to try lots of things! Hope you now have time to sit in your porch, knit your beautiful yarn and be proud of yourself for all you have achieved! Hugs, Valerie
Your porch looks really nice and relaxing!
Interesting look at the food and drink available in Iceland.
Your porch is amazing. What a wonderful place to relax and knit. Ohhh hotdogs made from lamb. Interesting. Have a wonderful day today.
We had Icelandic hot dogs on our ship when we circumnavigated Iceland. They were very delicious and all those condiments were lovely. Your little sweater beginning looks promising.
best, mae at maefood.blogspot.com
Wonderful looking porch! Looks so inviting.
Great looking start to your sweater.
Super fun to see drinks from Iceland (and their different way of eating hot dogs).
Super cool T-day post. Happy Tday/4th. Hugz
I don't think my comment saved (sorry for duplicate if it did). Basically it was about me drooling over your fab porch and interesting Iceland drinks/food. Happy T-day and hugz
I love your new porch, Erika. That green was a good color. I also love how you set it up, too. It's a jungle paradise.
Your sweater looks great. I would never be able to knit like that, so I'm impressed.
Sorry. I am NOT a fan of lamb. I would never add ketchup to anything. It makes me sick, as does most mayo. I literally throw up when I eat it. However, your chocolate milk looks good and I enjoyed seeing all those drinks you shared in your final photo, too. Thanks for taking us to Iceland via food and drink after we saw your beautiful new porch this T Tuesday, dear Erika. Happy and safe 4th.
Your screened porch looks lovely and I love the green floor. This is such a beautiful place, I can imagine spending many summer hours here, even if it rains - you can always listen to the sound of the rain.
If there is nothing else available I would eat a hot dog. We're having German bratwurst for our Fourth of July celebration in the neighborhood today, representing us being German-American.
The dairy section in the Icelandic store reminds me a lot of the dairy sections in German supermarkets.
Have a happy Independence Day, Erika!
I really love your porch area for the summer time-and I love the green floor-good choice of color.
Loving the colors you chose for your Icelandic sweater. I haven't had chocolate milk since I was a kid-haha one of my favorites, they are mostly too sweet for me now.
Happy 4th hugs Kathy
The porch floor looks amazing and I recognized both your puppers on your sign. It's been pretty much of a washout today with rain and lots of thunder. I hope you got to see a peek of sunshine. Happy T Day
Your porch is wonderful and it looks so cozy. The green paint on the floor makes it looks great! Beautiful arrangements of furniture and other stuff too. And, I happily read about Iceland food and hot dogs. It sounds like these hot dogs are different from what we find here in Singapore too. Thanks for all these shares and info.Happy T day!
First of all, the green floor is fabulous. Well done! And I love hot dogs, so I'd be very happy with that menu. LOVE your yarn colors and what you have shown so far. Can't wait to see how it progresses!
Eating, drinking and chatting outside on a veranda is wonderful in summer, and you have the perfect spot. But when does the humidity arrive?
Your porch looks amazing! I can totally understand you are happy with it. the green colour is so fitting and i love the way you have set it all up (and that lovely hammock!)
No Macdonalds etc? How refreshing! I never go to those places anyway (I have never been to Macdonalds. I must be the only person alive that has never been). I once had a coffee at Starbucks and it was so expensive (about 5 times the price of a coffee around here) and I couldn't drink it as it was too sweet. A Total waste of money and we will never go there again.
With that in mind I smiled at the not-so-sweet chocolate milk. Obviously in the US people use a lot more sugar. I think they should sell things without sugar, then people can decide how much sugar they actually want. Even sugarfree stuff is very sweet as they use sweeteners. Defeats the object if you don't like your things sweet. (like me)
Well done you for starting to knit your Icelandic jumper! I am impressed. I'd love to knit one if I could get hold of the yarn. Let us know how you get on!
To answer your question if I liked traveling with Roxy the dog. She is the sweetest dog and can be taken anywhere. But we were still very restricted in where we went. We couldn't visit churches or museums or anything. I love to go for walks but my friend had just had a knee operation and couldn't really walk very far. She had her bicycle with her and 'walked' the dog on her bike. The ferry was very boring for the same reason. We couldn't spend time in the bar or the restaurant because of the dog, so a 12 hour journey suddenly becomes very boring. No, I would never again travel with a dog. (As you know, I don't have a dog and probably never will)
Sorry I'm late. Tuesday is a busy day for me.
Belated happy T-Day,
Hugs,
Lisca
Wow, your porch looks amazeballs! Sounds like the wet weather really affected your plans all around. Hope you have less of that but not drought. The Iceland stuff is interesting, don't know about the hot dog though. I'll stick to my chili cheese dogs, I think. Hope your week goes well, xoxo
We have Skyr yoghurt in our supermarkets. I haven't tried it as yet but I might well do so shortly.
The yoghurt accompaniments sound interesting and ever so tasty. The sweater sounds difficult but then I am no knitter these days. I once did cable and one of those sweaters with a picture on but now I do hardly any. Maybe I will.
Love your floor, it brings the outside in if you know what I mean.
Hugs, Neet xx
Post a Comment