Egypt Food - Lentils, Rice and Macaroni Stew (Koushari)

March 9 we learned about Egypt and made Lentils, Rice and Macaroni Stew.  At first I thought it would be lentils, rice and macaroni with spaghetti sauce on it, but I was wrong.  Below is the recipe.

Cook lentils.  I used red lentils but brown or others are fine,

cook the rice,

and cook the macaroni.

They can all be cooked in the same pot, one at a time, putting the ingredient aside until needed.

Fry the onions in oil.

Prepare the tomato sauce - it is basically a tomato sauce with red peppers and white vinegar.  When everything is done it is time to eat.

You spoon as much lentils, rice and macaroni as you want in your bowl, then top it with the fried onions and tomato sauce.  It is definitely not like spaghetti sauce.  

The girls gave it mixed reviews, leaning towards liking it.

Sister W.

On March 5, 2010, we trekked across most of West Virginia to see a beloved teacher, Sister W.  She had been a Primary teacher to my older daughter as well as several other children in our ward. She went a mission to Omaha, Nebraska.  Near the end of her mission it was discovered she has a terminal illness so we went to visit.  It was a long drive, the kids were great and it was wonderful to see her again.

 We took a serious photo for posterity.  J., B., C. with Sister W. behind.

A silly photo just for fun!

They were all glad we went and had a great time visiting with each other on the long drive up and back.

Falafels

March 4 we made falafels.  I did a milder version since my children don't usually like highly spiced food.

Basically falafels are made out of chickpeas/garbanzo beans.  I soaked them for 24 hours, rinsed them,

then ground them up in the blender.

added spices and other ingredients.

Formed them into balls and

fried them, two or three at a time.

We tucked them into pita bread with tahini sauce, yogurt, lettuce and tomatoes.  The girls both gave them a thumbs up.  If I were to do it again I would be more bold in the seasonings.

Kheer - Pakistani Rice Pudding.

We learned about India and Pakistan and cooked up Kheer - a delicious rice pudding with cardamon, cinnamon and cloves in it.

Quarterly Activity

Feb 27 we went over to one of the nearby retirement homes and sang songs.  We started at our meetinghouse and prepared for our visit.

 First we decorated bags. When the bags were done cookies were placed in them.

Then we made tissue paper flowers with pipe cleaners.

We reviews a few songs then headed over to the retirement home.

We sang a variety of favorite Primary songs including "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree" and "I Know my Savior Loves Me."  We shared cookies and flowers with the residents and visited, then headed home.

Chinese New Year - Annual NRV-Families with Children from China

Every year we invite all our local friends who have adopted children from China as well as others who have some relationship to China and/or our children.  This year we celebrated the Year of the Tiger on Feb 20.  Chinese New Year (CNY) is a two week celebration. It begins with the first new moon after the full moon that follows winter solstice.  CNY started on Feb 14 this year.  It ends with the Lantern Festival which is also the full moon.  It is always special to me because it is when we were in China meeting B.

We usually have crafts, especially since the children are getting older. The oldest one of our bunch is about 12 or 13 years old.  The youngest is about 24 months.  The party includes food, a lion dance, bubble wrap stomp (instead of firecrackers) and red envelopes.

J.T. decorating his craft.

Final result of some of our artwork. Many thanks to A.M. for lending us her wonderful Chinese stamps.

Food!  We usually have traditional noodles, dumplings and less traditional foods - but delicious and creative none-the-less. We've gotten pretty good at making Nian Gao - Chinese New Year cake made with glutenous rice flour. We use peanuts and raisins in ours which add a little salt to our cake.  This year we also did a chocolate chip-pecan nian gao.

Dumplings!  People traditionally eat lots of dumplings for New Years because they resemble gold nuggets and that would bring prosperity to the family.  Eating long noodles brings long life to parents.  There are lots of fun Chinese New Year traditions, new clothes, not sweeping on New Year's Day so you don't sweep out good luck, fire crackers, etc., etc.

The group!

Lion Dance. We made this great lion head a few years ago and it just keeps on going. We fix it up a little bit each year.  Several kids got to be "first" and the others followed behind walking through the family room, dining room and kitchen and back in again to the cacophonous banging of everyone else.

This year we invited the children who sang at Chinese New Year - Virginia Tech program to do a repeat performance.

They sang the Tiger Song and a couple of others.  If I can figure out how to upload videos here again I will.

Here the older kids are getting ready to stomp on large bubble wrap - the sound is almost exactly like fire crackers and much safer.

Stomping!

 Little kids stomping!

Red envelopes - the children wish each of their parents and/or grandparents and/or senior person a Happy New Year and the parent/grandparent/senior person gives them a gift of a red envelop.  In seriously Chinese families with serious red envelopes this can add up to quite a bit of money.  At our celebration there were a $1 coin in each envelop, chocolate coins in another and a dollar bill in a third.

Grandma B., Boboa G. and C. handed out red envelopes to some of the girls.

B. receiving her red envelopes.  

Chinese New Year is a holiday we look forward to each year.  It ends our holiday season which starts with Thanksgiving, followed by Christmas and New Years.

Author's Party

Grandma runs a Writing Workshop for the younger kids in the home school group and A. runs one for the older kids.  Every semester or so the students select one story to edit and spruce up for presentation. This was J's first Author's Party.

J. did a story about the Wizard of Oz.

D. did one on the Birth of Jesus.

The children also learned manners, invited their parents to come in and sit down.  After the program was over and everyone had presented their stories they invited the parents to enjoy refreshments which included grapes, carrots and "ants on a log" .