Blowing Off A Little Steam in Iceland

Geothermal Springs and Volcanoes!!!!!

Because Iceland is located on the spot where two of the earth's plates meet (the mid-atlantic ridge), the country of Iceland is a place where the Earth is constantly letting off steam.  Ever since being settled, the people of Iceland have enjoyed the naturally heated waters caused by cracks in the earths crust that heat it with the hot molten lava under the surface.  In the 18th century they started to come up with ways to harness this energy into heating their homes and greenhouses.  Now much of Iceland's energy is produced by this natural power!  Not only is this clean energy free, it can be a tourist attraction too!!
 
The English word "geyser" comes from the real attraction in Iceland, named Geysir, which has been spouting hot water high up into the air for over 10,000 years.  Many smaller geysers can be found all over Iceland, as well as naturally heated mineral pools with crystal clear waters heated to perfection by mother earth!  People come to Iceland from all over to soak in the different pools, many are just for fun but  many are said to have medicinal purposes.                                                                                  

Doesn't that look heavenly?!?

 

But the most impressive form of geothermal energy is the

VOLCANO!!!!  In the last 200 years more than 30 volcanoes have erupted in Iceland.  The most recent one was at Grimsvotn in May 2011, but the one I bet you remember was 2010.  It had a name I'm sure you remember - Eyjafjallajokull.  Say that 3 times fast.  Ha, say that once!!  It's pronounced AY-uh-full-ay-ho-kul and it was known worldwide because it's ash plume made it impossible for planes to fly in Northern Europe for several weeks.  However, in Iceland it was only considered a minor volcano! 

 

 

 See? No big deal.(yeah right)

So we set out to make our own Eyjafjallajokull.  My original plan was the old vinegar and baking soda experiment but it never really fizzed the way I wanted so I won't bore you with videos of rather failed volcanoes.  After wasting 1/2 a bottle of vinegar, we decided to go a different route - the Mentos Volcano!!!!!

 

Science Project:  Mentos Volcano (Mt. Mentos?)

 

For the project you will need:

•  bottle of diet coke or coke zero (works the best and not sticky)
• pack of mentos (any flavor)
• paper bag to make it (kinda) look like a volcano

 

Sorry, I don't have a picture of the ingredients like I normally do.

 

1.  Find an area that you don't mind having diet coke spurted all over.  You know, a neighbor's back yard or the park.  Just kidding, we used our own backyard - I thought the gnomes could be the Icelanders fleeing the lava :)

2. Open the diet coke and place on ground.

3. Arrange the paper bag over the bottle with a small hole in the top so the "lava" can flow out.  Crumble up the bag a little so it looks like a mountain.

4.  Drop about 3 mentos all at the same time into the diet coke and STAND BACK as it erupts :)

 

 

 



Cool huh? That was using a 16oz. bottle of diet coke and 3 mentos but more = bigger.  Want to know the science behind it?  According to //www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/original-mentos-diet-coke-geyser, the invisible gas, carbon dioxide, that makes all soda carbonated, is held suspended by the water molecules in the soda.  When the gelatin and gum arabic on the coating of the candy and the physical action of them being dropped into the soda breaks up these molecules the gas is released and WHOOSH!!! comes rushing out of the bottle, pushing the liquid up and out in an awesome eruption!  Science is cool. 

Iceland was cool too...where to next?!?

Icelandic Food

What's on the menu Iceland?

By now you know the highlight of my week is trying the new recipes from the different countries, well, I had a hard time with Iceland.  They had a lot of recipes that sounded pretty good but the ingredients were a little exotic (puffin and crowberries) or not in season (rhubarb) or too expensive (lamb) so I spent a lot of time looking for something my kids would enjoy!  I think I did it :) AND beets  were involved (gasp)!!

These days Iceland can get fresh grocery supplies pretty easily and the cuisine of Iceland is probably pretty similar to that of the rest of Northern Europe, but before the days of commercial jetliners things were different.  The spring and summer meant lots of fresh berries and hearty vegetables that grew in the gardens, sheep and birds to eat and since it's daylight almost 24 hrs a day- lots of time to fish in the sea.  But in winter, when it gets cold and remains dark for most of the day, the people had to rely on cured meats and fish and canned or dried fruits and vegetables.  Icelanders couldn't be wasteful and only eat the choice cuts of an animal- it was eaten from ears to hoof and many recipes I found had me cringing a little - I am not good with internal organs. If you'd like to check out a great blog I found on Icelandic cooking check out www.icecook.blogspot.com - that's where I found a recipe that really intrigued me - Red Beet Salad, or as I have re-named it - Pretty Pink Parfait (with yummy surprise ingredient)!

Red Beet Salad (or Pink Surprise?)

My daughter used to LOVE vegetables but these days I can't get her to eat anything (is this a common 5 yr old problem?).  I grew up having pickled beets pretty often (maybe because both my parents were from Wisconsin) and I really like them, but my husband and kids make the yucky face whenever I serve them.  Well, beets were pretty common in a lot of the Icelandic recipes so I'm doing it - and I don't think they are going to mind a bit (as I write this they haven't tried it yet - I promise to update)
For the recipe you will need:

• 1 can or jar Pickled Beets
• 1 large sweet apple
• a little of the beet juice
• lemon juice - I used 3 T lemonade mix (I only had 1 old lime)
• 1/2 pint whipping cream
• sugar- I used about 2 T

1.  Combine the cream, sugar, lemon, and enough beet juice to make it pink and whip until soft peaks
2. Chop beets and apples into small cubes and add to cream mixture. 

 That's it and know what?  I couldn't even tell there were beets in it and it was GOOD!!  I might even serve it as dessert instead of a side dish like it was suggested :) 
 

 

Another Icelandic treat!

Another little treat we tried from Iceland was Skyr.  What, you might ask, is Skyr?  It is the very delicious yogurt of Iceland.  One website (I can't remember which one anymore) was upset that people compared it with yogurt, saying it was different, but it was basically a thick, strained yogurt made from cow's milk.  Since most of the water is removed from the milk to make it, it has more protein than regular yogurt and is usually only very lightly sweetened so it is a very healthy food.  The brand we found (at Mollie Stones, a supermarket similar to Whole Foods) was Siggi's and it had only 4 ingredients - skim milk, agave nectar, vanilla and active cultures.  It was a little expensive when compared to the other yogurts but some of them have 28 grams of sugar and only a few grams of protein.  The vanilla skyr had 14 grams of protein, 9 grams of sugar and 100 calories - a pretty healthy breakfast for a picky kid like my daughter and then I don't feel as bad about serving her sugary whipped cream with her beets.  Whatever, I don't feel bad about it anyway- SHE'LL EAT  BEETS!!!!!

*revised later that evening - she ate ONE bite the little stinker! My son followed her lead without even trying it but my husband, brother and I all thought it was pretty good.  My husband even thought it was jello bits at first.  She did love the yogurt at least :)

Learn Icelandic in 5 Easy Steps...NOT!!

So You Want to Learn Icelandic?

Well, I 'd love to be able to teach you, but WOW, what a hard language!! They have a different alphabet with some special letters that my keyboard doesn't have :)  I'd try to spell them out phonetically for you but I thought an even easier idea would be to just link you to this YouTube video .  If you are really interested in learning this language that has remained almost unchanged for over 1,000 years, then this is how to do it!  I will, however, tell you that most Icelanders speak very good English, as well as a few other languages like Norwegian, Danish and Swedish.   

Iceland, Who knew?

Adventures in Iceland

“What?” you say, adventures in Iceland?! How adventurous could Iceland be?  Well, surprisingly it looks like a very fun country that no one ever really knew about – well, I never knew about it.  Located near the Artic circle, where the Atlantic ocean meets the Artic Ocean, Iceland is an island nation of about 320,000 people.

 On the map at 64.13N/21.9W, Iceland is almost halfway between North America and Europe.  The most sparsely populated country in Europe, it has glaciers, steaming natural mineral baths and erupting volcanoes, oh, and beautiful, amazing scenery!!  The capital city of Reykjavik is home to over 60% of the population and is a modern, safe and culturally-rich big city with symphonies, operas, gourmet restaurants and fine shopping.  However, drive 30 minutes away and you can feel like you are the only person in the world.  Ok, so it must be cold right?  I mean that’s why they call it Iceland!  But no, I was surprised to learn that it’s not usually any colder than New York or Minneapolis in winter – average temp is about 31 degrees F, and the summers are usually mild too, with temps in the 70s.  Here are a few other surprising things I learned about Iceland –

·        It was the last European country to be settled permanently, around 874 AD by Vikings from Norway.

·        Iceland has one of the longest life expectancies and highest qualities of life in the world.

·        Its people drink more Coca- cola, go to the movies more often and own more books per capita than any other country.

·        The people believe in elves and have even rerouted some roads to avoid disturbing elf communities. How awesome is that?!?

·        Over 70% of the energy used in Iceland comes from either geothermal or hydroelectric power which means the country has almost no pollution.

·        The water is so clean and pure that it is piped directly into the homes with no treatment necessary.

·        Iceland has the oldest democracy in the world – it was first developed over 1000 years ago.

·        Iceland has no Army, Navy, or Air Force (it does have a Coast Guard) and the country has free healthcare and education for all of its people.

·        And this one is fun – the people of Iceland have no last names that they pass down.  A child is given a first name and their “last” name is their father’s first name followed by son or dottir (daughter).  So, in Iceland I would be Jennifer Michaelsdottir but my brother would be Ryan Michaelsson and my father would be Michael Dennisson.  Probably makes things kinda confusing I’d think, but apparently it works for them J