Hello!

Yes, I realize it has been more than 52 weeks since we started this project, but we (being Deirdre, Jonah, and myself) have magnanimously granted ourselves an extension.

Our latest virtual trip has been to the nation of Japan, home of everyone’s favorite anime character – Hello Kitty.  We began our adventure by reading a great book from our library which described in  detail the various types of clothing, customs and housing in Japan over the past several hundred years.  The kids were particularly fascinated with how typical dress varied depending upon one’s occupation or station in life.  Really, who wouldn’t be fascinated by a gorgeous silk kimono and obi?

Vegetable Sushi - Yum!!!

For the culinary part of the adventure, we made homemade sushi, teriyaki salmon & veggies, miso soup and rice.  I found a really neat little sushi kit by Annie Chun which made it so easy to roll the sushi.   Honestly, I thought the kids would be a little bit more excited about making sushi rolls, but apparently, I was wrong.   However, they did down their bowls of miso in a matter of minutes.

Maneki Neko Cat - Spread The Luck

One of the highlights of this lesson was learning about the Maneki Neko welcoming cat.  This kitty has his paw raised to let people know that they are welcome into your home or shop.  You can read the legend of Maneki Neko at ActionCat. The good people at Action Cat suggested adding a link to an animal rescue group to continue the gift of the welcoming cat.  I suggest you check out Best Friends Animal Society.  You can also color your own Maneki  the Coloring Castle.

Finally, for our craft, we were inspired by Japanese woodblock prints and decorative fans.  We decided to use stamps and water color paints to decorate plain paper with vines, flowers, and even a few dinosaur pictures!  We intended to fold the paper into fans and tie the bottom with a ribbon.  But, since they didn’t come out as we expected, we ended up cutting our decorated paper into strips and making these cool book marks!

Next trip, we will venture to Kenya!

With two of the remaining segments, I’m making “Roasted Winter Root Vegetables”  with dinner tonight.  I tweaked the recipe a bit, and this is what I’ve come up with:

Roasted Winter Root Vegetables

• 2 cups winter squash cut into 1″ cubes
• 2 large carrots cut into 1/2″ segments
• 2 red potatoes cut into 1″ cubes
• 3-4 sprigs of fresh rosemary
• 4 tablespoons of olive oil
• salt & pepper to taste

Heat oven to 450 degrees.  Mix all ingredients in a casserole dish.  Cover dish.  Bake until vegetables are tender.  Remove cover for last 10 minutes.  Approx. 35 minutes total cook time.

Mystery Squash

If you read my Feral Pumpkin post, you know that I was convinced that I had giant pumpkins growing out of my compost.  Well, now that fall is here, nature has proven me wrong.   What I thought were pumpkins turned out to be some type of huge, unidentified winter squash.  We ended up with four of these beauties.  They are about 12-15 inches across, kind of squatty, and have the same beige color as a butternut squash.  Honestly, I can’t figure out what they are.  I described them to one of the farmers at the Farmer’s Market, but she wasn’t quite sure either, although she was quite certain that they would be good eatin’!  If you have ANY idea what kind of squash these are, please let me know!

Identified or not, we are planning on eating them all.  Here are a few of the yummy recipes I plan to check out:

• Squash Pie
• Squash Soup
• Roasted Winter Vegetables

!!!!UPDATE!!!!

Here is a photo of what one of the super-squash looks like after being opened up.  So far, I’ve made enough soup for three meals, made 2 pies, and froze enough boiled squash for 2 more pies.  Oh, yeah, that only accounts for 1/2 of one squash.  We still have the other 1/2 in the fridge and one more waiting to be eaten.  We gave the others away to be enjoyed by others.  Not too bad for something that spontaneously came out of the compost bin!!!

Cross Section of Our Super-Squash

Here are some more pics of Deirdre and Jonah enjoying their harvest:

Deirdre's Feat of Strength

Jonah Just Hanging Out

The Feral Pumpkin

Since I was laid up for a good part of the spring with Lyme Disease, I really didn’t put that much effort into our vegetable garden this year.  We threw in some peas, beans, tomatoes, potatoes,  various squashes, and a variety of herbs, but no one bothered much to weed, or even water, for that matter, early in the season.  Once I had the energy to actually give my plants a helping hand, I noticed a thick, green vine with huge leaves creeping out of the compost bin.  Actually, it was more like charging out of the bin, at full force.  I knew it was some type of squash plant by the leaves, but wasn’t exactly sure what kind of squash it might be.  As the summer went on, this plant (well, two plants to be completely accurate) took over an entire corner of the yard.  In fact, one of the tendrils even managed to rip off a side of the compost bin!

This Voracious Vine Tore Off the Compost Bin Door

Jack and his Beanstalk be damned, here comes my feral pumpkin!  The leaves were about 4 times the size of the leaves on my zucchini, summer squash and spaghetti squash.  But, for all the effort it was putting into its amazonian foliage, there was no fruit to be seen.  Finally, a couple of weeks ago, I spotted a small squash that has turned out to be a pumpkin.  Its now about the size of a soccer ball, and still going strong.  And, this morning, I noticed another little pumkin-let growing on another tendril.  I’m crossing my fingers that by Halloween, we have a nice crop of feral pumpkins to carve into Jack-o-lanterns!  I will certainly post a picture, if we do!

Twenty Five Feet of Pumpkin Vines

Colorful Powders to Celebrate Holi

India is such an enormous, diverse county, it was hard to decide where to start. Since it was lunchtime, we headed straight for the cookbook and whipped up a batch of banana (kela) lassi. Of course, mango lassi would have been more traditional, but we had to work with what we had in the kitchen.  You can check out our yummy recipe at the end of this post.  We decided to focus on food (of course), folklore, and festivals.  We checked out two books from the library which I would recommend.  The first, The Indian Storybook by Rani Singh tells 8 different Indian tales and gives a quick overview of some of the Hindu gods encountered in the stories.  The second, Festive Foods! India by Sylvia Goulding mixes simple (as if any Indian recipe could be simple!) recipes with culture and heritage.

Since we spent the weekend in NYC, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to eat authentic Indian food on 5th Street in Manhattan.  Basically, the entire block between 1st and 2nd Avenues is is entirely populated by Indian restaurants.  If you are lucky (as we were), you can listen to live sitar music as you eat.  We stopped in at Raj Mahal, one of our long time favorites, although I don’t think you can go wrong with any of your options.  If you haven’t taken your kids out for Indian food yet, don’t be intimidated by the spicy dishes.  There are plenty of mild options that our kids love.  You can try chicken kurma (chicken in a slightly sweet, almond sauce), mulligatawny soup (turmeric spiced soup), and an order of vegetable pakoras (fritters).

We really wanted to celebrate Holi, the festival of colors, but the weather hasn’t cooperated.  During Holi, celebrants throw colored powder and colored water on each other to celebrate unity and the beginning of spring.  We thought this sounded like a really fun idea, but definitely an outside activity.  Even though Holi was officially celebrated last month, we might have our own celebration later in the spring.  We plan to make our ‘colored’ water with kool-aid, and use flour colored with dry kool-aid or jello mix for our colored powders.  I’ll update this post to let you you know how it turns out!

Banana or Mango Lassi

Ingredients:

• 1 ripe banana or 1 mango
• 2 cups of full fat plain yogurt
• 2-4 ice cubes
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• optional – pinch of cardamom
• optional – fresh mint

Put all ingredients in a blender and blend well.  Garnish with a sprig of mint and a bit of crushed ice.  Enjoy!

Next stop, Japan!

Eating our Home Made Ice Cream

Did you know you can make tasty homemade ice cream using plastic ziploc bags, soy milk, sugar, salt and ice?  Whether you are digging yourself out from “Snowpocalypse” or trying to beat the summer heat, you have to try this improbably easy and delicious recipe.   I saw a similar recipe in Highlights magazine a few months back and having been waiting for a chance to give it a try.  It was really fun to make and even more fun to eat!  Here are the basic instructions:

You Will Need:

• 1/2 cup flavored soy milk (we used chocolate and vanilla)
  

  Ingredients for Home Made Ice Cream

• 1 tablespoon sugar
• Ziploc bags in 2 sizes (we used sandwich size and quart size)
• Ice cubes (approx 2 cups)
• 5-6 tablespoons salt

Directions:

1. Pour the soy milk into the smaller bag.  Squeeze out the air and zip it shut
2. Fill the larger bag about 1/4 – 1/3 full of ice
3. Sprinkle the salt over the ice in the bag
4. Put the small bag of soy milk into the larger bag
5. Add ice on top of the bag of soy milk (leave about 1/4 of the bag empty)
6. Zip the large bag shut
7. SHAKE the bag for about 5-10 minutes until soy milk is the consistency of soft serve ice cream
8. Carefully remove the small bag and wipe off any water or salt on the outside of the bag (so that you don’t have salty ice cream)
9. Put into a bowl and eat!

Here is an action shot of the kids shaking their ice cream.  To make the shaking part more fun, we put on some Irish music on Pandora and danced a little jig while shaking it up.

Dancing a Jig While Making Ice Cream

Science Question – Why do you need salt to make ice cream?  According to WikiAnswers ,”Ice water is only 32 degrees F, and ice cream needs to be much colder to properly freeze. The salt lowers the freezing point of the water. The super cold water is what will actually freeze the ice cream. You can actually get the temp of the liquid water down to about 10 degrees F.”

We Love Ice Cream!

Lavender Field in Provence

Wow, have I been remiss in writing my post on France!  Between the various Halloween parties and some on-going home renovations, we really didn’t get a chance to do this lovely country justice.  As a starting point, we checked out a book from the library on life in France.  The book was told from the point of view of a 7-year old boy, so it really held the kids’ attention.  Their biggest takeaway was that life in France is not all that different than life here in the US.   Children go to school, ride their bikes, play sports, and live in houses with their families.   For many of the other countries, we focused on unique differences; in this case, we focused on similarities.

Ballerina in Pink - Degas

For me, you can’t study France without talking about art and food.  I decided that we didn’t have time, and the kids didn’t have the patience for a deep dive into impressionism, but we did spend some time reading about Degas.  I thought his ballerina paintings would appeal to Deirdre.  For cuisine, I tried my hand at making beouf bourguignon, and our Czech Republic pancakes seemed to have resurrected themselves in the form of crepes!

The highlight, of course, was spending an evening with our friends Laurent, Julia, Lucy and baby Emile.  Laurent is from France and the whole family is fluent in French.  This gave Deirdre and Jonah a chance to practice their “Bonjour” and “Je m’appelle…” among other phrases.  Although Deirdre still didn’t get an answer to her burning question of how did they get Marie Antionette to hold still when they cut off her head.  (too much Alice in Wonderland this fall)  Finally, a special thanks to Laurent for his delicious fall stew and for firing the pottery we made from our Bangladesh study!

Someday, I will actually visit the lavender fields in Provence.  In the meantime, next stop — Guatemala.

Pirate Girl

With Halloween only two days away, I thought I would post instructions for a super easy last minute Pirate costume.  My daughter and I made her version of the costume to wear to the Harbor Festival in Wickford Village earlier this fall.   This costume  involves no sewing and can be completed in less than 10 minutes, so it is great for a last minute costume party!

Materials Needed:

• 2 old t-shirts
• 36″ of ribbon
• scissors

Optional:

• Pirate Hat
• Old Skirt
• eye patch
• head scarf

Instructions

1. Cut t-shirts along green dotted lines as shown in the photo below.  The first t-shirt will be the “Pirate Vest”; the 2nd t-shirt will be the undergarment
2. Place vest over the undergarment
3. Lace ribbon through the holes in the vest as if you were lacing a shoe
4. You now have your complete pirate shirt!

Cut Along Green Dotted Lines

Closeup of Pirate Vest

Variations & Tips

1. This method can be used for either a child or adult; for adult, you may want longer ribbon for the ties
2. Use a white undergarment, black vest and red ribbon for a real “piratey” effect
3. Instead of a pirate hat, pair the costume with a headscarf and be a gypsy!
4. Cut a square neck on the vest for a different effect
5. Make more or fewer holes for the lacings for different effects
6. For a boy, use the same design, but do not cut holes for the lace up ribbon; leave the vest plain
7. I found that smaller size t-shirt work better since they stretch out when cut

And, since you are in the Pirate mood, here is some fun Rhode Island Pirate history for you.  Have fun dressing up!

A Very Cute Little Gypsy!

• Ancient Egyptians used honey  to help wounds heal and help prevent infections
• Beer and bread were staples in the Ancient Egyptian diet
• In the Old Kingdom Egyptians were even paid in food
• Some authorities credit ancient Egypt as being the birth place of modern medicine

I checked a book out of the library called Ancient Egyptians and Their Neighbors, an Activity Guide by Marian Broida which had crafts and activities associated with almost every aspect of ancient life.  I definitely recommend it.  The book covered everything from daily living and food to religion and the afterlife.  Based on the book’s instructions, we made a model Egyptian courtyard (just the right size for Polly Pocket), made a mummy out of Pink Bear, made our own Egyptian costumes, wrote in hieroglyphics and baked fig bread.

Model of an Ancient Egyptian Courtyard Garden

Pink Bear as a Mummy

Ancient Egyptian Dress

We also did a night of Egyptian cuisine.  The pictures don’t do the food justice — it was actually really tasty!  Our menu consisted of Egyptian Beef and Okra Stew over rice (yes, another excuse to use the okra in my garden), hummus, pomegranate, and fig bread.

Egyptian Cuisine - Beef & Okra Stew over Rice, Fig Bread, Hummus, Pomegranate

Finally, we found watched a series of video shorts on the Discovery Channel about ancient Egypt.  Next, we are off to France!

We started off by reading through a pretty decent library book on Czech history and culture, and, of course, the kids were fascinated by the fact that the Czech Republic is teeming with castles.  They have added this to their list of places that they definitely want to visit.  We also found a website with Czech fairy tales so we read through a few of those.  I had forgotten that fairy tales do tend a little bit toward the macabre.  We also found a site with audio of common Czech phrases , and we had fun wishing each other “dobry den” in the morning.

Since the Czech Republic is known for their crystal beads (I really wish I had bought more of these beads when I visited Prague), we pretended to be jewelry makers and used Deirdre’s pop-beads for our necklaces.  I also remembered the amazing marionette shops and was hoping we could put on a puppet show, but, unfortunately, we didn’t seem to make the time for it.  The kids really enjoyed watching videos of Czech folk dancing, and they loved dancing around the kitchen to the music.  Deirdre REALLY wanted to me to make her an authentic folk dancing costume, but that was just way beyond my realm of capabilities right now.  Maybe sometime…

Finally, we dabbled in Czech cooking.  We found this recipe for Palacinky (Czech pancakes) in one of our books, and the kids loved them so much, we ended up making them every morning for a week and a half.  There is now a “No Czech Pancake” rule in my house.

Czech Pancakes for Breakfast

Palacinky (Czech Pancakes) – 4 servings

Ingredients
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp suger
2 tbsp melted butter
1/4 tsp salt

Directions
Mix eggs with milk. Add salt, butter, sugar, vanilla, and flour, mix until smoother. Heat and lightly grease griddle or frying pan. Make thin, crepe-like pancakes by filling a pan about half full in center and tilting pan so batter spreads quickly over bottom to edges.  Heat until batter is dry, then tun over and cook the other side.  Spread jam on pancake and roll up.  Sprinkle powered sugar on top.

We also had Czech food one night and made Chicken Paprika and Cabbage Poached in Vingear.  Pretty tasty, and the cabbage recipe gave me the chance to finally open the caraway seeds that came with my spice set!  And, of course, we had a Pilsner Urqell!

Next week – Dominica