To all family and friends in the US: Happy Independence Day and while I’m at it: To include all North Americans: Belated Happy Canada Day (July 1st)!
My faithful readers know I’m married to an American. It has given me the chance to both visit and learn more about a part of the world a lot of Norwegians emigrated to during the 17th century. This means that I’ve also been there and visited upstate New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts. Nature and the fauna is similar to ours and when my FIL and his wife took us for a round trip in Adirondack National Park, I felt almost like home among lakes, woods with pine trees and birch and of course to Lake Placid, the host of two Winter Olympics.
When my wife came over, she was of course eager to learn about Norway, our culture, traditions and habits. I remember I asked what was typical American folk traditions, clothes, way of doing things and not to mention food. It was of course difficult to answer as the culture is so diverse and actually a mix of European cultures, a bit of Asian and others traditions. Then of course I’ve learned a lot from reading all my dear blog friends sharing their daily life which enriches the subjects and deepen it. I’m not an expert, but to me it’s clear that one thing is typical to Americans only: Thanksgiving – celebrated both in the US and of course Canada (on different dates). Maybe I should go as far as to say: Spare Ribs for the 4th of July is another one, combined with fireworks (which for Norwegians mostly are connected to New Years Eve).
Combining my wife’s and mine culture and habits of course enriches my life. So we usually have spare ribs on the 4th of July, too:
Trying the best I can on our electric grill on the balcony at our vacation home in Sweden. It turned out pretty well, I would say and of course corn is on the menu too:
Holding on to traditions is important I think. Kind of mankind’s historical vaults, background and roots. Treasuring independence is one of them. In Norway we have our national day The 17th of May. To family and friends in the US: Happy 4th of July!
Speaking about blog friends: Please visit Diane’s, an expat American’s post from today and send your greetings too!
Happy 4th to you and Diane. I have put up a small montage of our annual 4th of July barbecue!
RennyBA
Thanks for the well wished. Your montage was great and really shows a great way of celebrating the day!
Thank you! And it looks like a really nice holiday meal for you!
RennyBA
Your welcome – yea, it was great.
Thanks for the Independence Day well wishes, Renny. Your ribs look delicious, and I didn’t even know I was hungry, LOL. ;-)
Happy weekend!
Off to see Diane….
Love and hugs,
Diane
RennyBA
Your welcome Diane and I knew you would like it.
Wishing you a great one too and thanks for visiting Diane:-)
Glad that you will share this with me year after year. Our own traditions become a new part of our family. I wouldn’t miss having you with me. Together we are dynamite.
RennyBA
Well, like I said; your enriches my life and wouldn’t miss having you with me either ;-)
OOOO….the ribs look REALLY appetizing. Hope you had a great celebration!
RennyBA
Tasted really good you know. Hope you had a good one too!
Those ribs are so tempting! And speaking of Sweden, I am so close to the country. I can actually see it from where I am right now, in Helsingør!
RennyBA
Thanks for the visit – can hardly believe you are so close. Hope you’ll come to visit Norway one day too. Have a wonderful stay in Denmark!
Mmmm yummy ribs there :D Thanks for visiting me!!
RennyBA
:D Thanks for returning the favour!!
Happy Belated 4th of July! ;-)
I love spareribs; perhaps I should start my own tradition next July 4!
RennyBA
Thanks for your well wishes Tink!
I think spare ribs are great, so why not in the Netherlands too!
Happy weekend and thanks for commenting on my blog too. :-)
RennyBA
Your welcome – I really like your pictures!
Wishing you a great week ahead then :-)
Miam! Love the spare ribs I see on the picture! Sounds you had great time the 4 th of july! Chance you have Renny! You can fest traditional norwegian events and american ones! 2 x more fun!
RennyBA
Yea, it taste just marvellous and your so right: It doubles the fun and enriches your life!
Belated july 4th greetings to your wife ! ( and you!)
Have really enjoyed reading all your previous summer entries and looking at the wonderful pics!
My g/f did a scandinavian tour of 3 countries in May and she loved Norway the best! Well, my virtual tour through your blog gives me the answer.
RennyBA
Thanks from both of us!
Glad you like my summer posts and hope next time your g/f or/and you come to Norway, we can meet!
Happy 4th July wishes to Diane and I’m glad you both enjoyed your celebration.
You can see my son cooking ribs in slightly different circumstances in my latest post!
RennyBA
Thanks for you good wishes!
I was over and your son is cooking so well – thanks for sharing!
mmmmm! fooooooood!!!
i like your electric grill and your plate.so cool!!!
And a belated Happy 4 July from me too! It’s one of the great things of the blogosphere, learning about customs in other countries.
RennyBA
Thanks A.!
I do agree: Blogging Connecting People you know – as we always learn from each other.
YUM! We had burnt weenies and burgers….still it was very fun! :)
Looks yummy. I had a similar meal on Friday evening. Ribs, potato salad (not as good looking as your wife’s recipe), corn on the cob and all the rest of the trimmings. Yummy. The food you post is always so delicious looking. Thanks for sharing. :)
just as i love reading diane’s reflections on learning norwegian culture i so appreciate your interest in learning about her home culture. a belated thanks for your greetings on our independence day :)
We had BBQed ribs yesterday too!
Glad you’ve celebrated for me!
Looks very traditional! Our tradition here is lobster with a green salad. The kids had a great time going to see the “lobster lady” who showed them how to tell the difference between male and female lobsters. They had an even better time eating them!
Hey Renny!
First allow me to say that that BBQ looks delicious! Although my eyes were on the corn LOL!
This is nice to wish your US friend a happy holiday…no wonder your blog is the friendliest blog of them all ;D! And speaking of which I’d like to congratulate you for it, my friend :D!
It is so nice of you to deep into your wife’s culture; you are a good man!
I know I am a bit late but I wish you and your wife a merry Independence day; and I hope your holidays continue to be delightful!
Wishing you a great week!
Cheers
How sweet of you to remember us and celebrate with us, Renny. You are so international. :) And of course, the spareribs and corn say it all! Thanks for sharing with us!
Your 4th of July meal looks really authentic – -down to the corn on the cob!
I haven’t really kept a lot of American holiday traditions, which is kind of a shame. But there is plenty to do just keeping up with traditions in France.
Ooops sorry for being late and Happy Belated 4th July and sorry I missed this fabulous yumilious cook-out ya :D
hmmm the look on that spare ribs make my mouth so watery,even if it was just grilled on an electric grill – i’m sure it was yummy :)
yup a marriage with 2 cultures is quite exciting and allows a lot of creativity just like celebrating diffrerent holidays and tradition, and different food too :) of course different personalities and customs too.
Thank you. I love the forth of July, all of the celebrating is so much fun.
The link to Bludreamer’s page for the Award is http://www.tagstagstags.blogspot.com/ and the link to where I think the Award is from is http://nishasworld-and-babyalisha.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2008-06-19T11%3A32%3A00%2B10%3A00&max-results=5
Hope this helps you.
Love and Blessings,
AngelBaby
The man that loves the good life – hehe
Visiting a few weeks earlier, that sweet corn you had pictured made me SOOO jealous! Due to severe flooding throughout Iowa, we had no sweet corn by the fourth of July. However, area farmers are now starting to bring small quantities in to town to sell. My timing hasn’t been right thus far to score some … but it’s just a matter of time!
Notice that I only appear on the posts about food, LOL! I really need one of those electric grills, also. I must know where you found it!
A great way to celebrate, blend cultures, and answer to my question!