Join us as I share how we travel the world, passport-free, right from our kitchen. Recipes will be shared each day as well as some of the why’s and how-to’s.
You have your country picked out, or are in the midst of a great part of history you’d like to “taste”. Now what? There are many, many sources for recipes. Books, online recipe sites, blogs, etc. When you are looking for books, don’t just think cookbooks, some picture books we have read have a recipe in them that ties in.
If you are using a curriculum for geography (we have loved Galloping the Globe), there might be a separate book that has recipes already compiled for you that coordinate with the studies. Recommended in Galloping the Globe is Eat Your Way Around the World by Jamie Aramini (though you don’t have to be using GtG to use the book). It is available through Geography Matters for $14.95 in either print or e-book formats. You can even get both for $19.95.
There are more than just recipes in these pages. You will find manners and traditions of the people and country. Other interesting tid bits of information that allow you to learn more about the history and culture. There are some activities included to add the fun and learning. Eat Your Way Around the World is also used throughout the Paths of Exploration curriculum.
Another of our favorite resources in the younger grades of our homeschool has been Five in a Row. Their are stories from around the globe featured in these treasured books. They no longer offer the print cookbook that coordinates with many of the units (maybe even all of them?) but you can still find them frequently used.
The folks at Five in a Row do offer a digital cookbook that has 180+ recipes from the first three volumes of Five in a Row as well as 12 units from Beyond Five in a Row. This is an e-book that your family can customize to be what you want it to be — add photos, drawings,etc. to make it a real keepsake of your learning. It is available for $22.95 on the website for Five in a Row.
One of the books I have checked out the most from the library has been Passport on a Plate: A Round-the-World Cookbook for Children by Diane Simone Vezza. I think that book has spent more time on my shelves lately than the library’s. I really should just buy my own copy…. It features recipes from many countries around the world. The recipes are graded by difficulty and most use ingredients that aren’t too hard to find. At the beginning of each country’s section the culture and what a typical day’s meals are like is shared. We’ve found some good ones in this book.
Despite all of these great books, I still have had to search elsewhere to find a recipe for some countries. My typical search uses the country name, for instance “Vietnam”, “recipe” and “cookie”. Primarily, I try to find cookie recipes. I will also search for appetizer and dessert recipes. When I am bringing the item to church to share with the children there I am looking for ease of preparation and serving. When it is for our family and staying home, I’ll look for recipes for soups, side dishes or main dishes.
One of the ways I include my older girls is to involve them in the planning and recipe research. They like searching out the recipes. Often, we will learn quite a bit just from the researching of ingredients, etc. Recently, as we were looking for a cookie recipe from Vietnam, we read about the French colonization of this region in the 1800s. That explains why many of the recipes had a French influence! We also learned much about the fruits and other produce that is grown here. So much learning, just by looking for recipes.
The recipe we found for Vietnam is the one I want to share today. These cookies feature coconut which is grown is some regions of Vietnam. Usually, fresh fruit would be a traditional dessert, reserving recipes such as this for special occasions.
1 large coconut – NO SUBSTITUTE)
4 egg whites
Pinch of salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Be sure to follow the “hop” and check out some of the other posts from my fellow Crew mates. We will all be posting something new each day in keeping with our own themes. Two of my favorite ones to read yesterday were about Frugality – check that out here – love my “solar-wind hybrid dryer” and Procrastination – find those posts here. We don’t even need to talk about that one. I am a horrible procrastinator! You can find our main post, the starting point, right here.
