Around the World in 12 Dishes - Exploring India

Welcome back to "Around The World in 12 Dishes". 

We are continuing our monthly journey exploring 12 different countries with our children by cooking 12 dishes with them. One for each country we learn about.

The world is so diverse and colorful. We embark on this adventure to bring different cultures to life for our children through food, books & more! Why? Not only is it an exciting and different way to learn about cultures, but it also benefits our children in many ways - including basic learning (like numeracy and science), multicultural awareness and acceptance and instilling a sense of adventure and wonder into our children. How can you beat that?

Adventures In Mommydom, Creative Family Fun, Glittering Muffins, Juggling with Kids, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, Make, Do & Friends, Mom 2 Posh Little Divas, Mummymummymum, Rainy Day Mum, Red Ted Art, The Educators' Spin On It and Mermaids' Makings have all come together to help you on your journey. We will all be cooking a dish with our children and posting about it - to help inspire you to have a go! There will also be fun extras like books, crafts & activities so be sure to visit all the wonderful links. Then go cook and join in the linky fun with us! 

Around the World in 12 Dishes
Here's where we have explored so far: 

• March 4 - UK
• April 1 - Sweden
• May 6 - Russia
• June 3 - India

How to join the fun!

• The only mandatory part is the dish - the rest is all up to you!
• Cook a dish from India: The goal is to explore this country through FOOD (and activities if you wish). Make a typical dish (sweet or savoury) from the country with the kids, take photos and have fun!
• Typical dishes: 
• Print your passport: Click here to download, comes with space for a photo of the child with the dish. Here is a little cover for it if you wish :)
• Color a placemat: Once colored/painted or whatever other way you want to do this, you can laminate it or put it between clear contact paper to use it over and over. Great conversation piece for you and your kids. Click here to download it.
• Make a craft: you can make a country (or book) related craft with the kids [optional!]
• Read a book: We read wonderful books for this month's country! Stay tuned for a post on what we did! :)

• Fun fact: India actually is the birthplace of the number zero! The rule for its use was first shown in Brahmagupta's book "Brahamasputha Siddhanta" in 624 AD!
• Share with us: Our India challenge start will remain open for a year, so attach a link to your blog to enter the linky party or visit our Around the World in 12 Dishes Facebook page and post a photo together with what you did together with your child(ren).
• Pinterest: We will add your photos to a "Around the World in 12 Dishes" Pinterest Boards (one for the dishes, one for the crafts) you will be a great source of inspiration for everyone :)
• Are you a blogger? Let your fans know about the challenge and grab our cute lil’ button to share it on your blog. 

<a href="http://www.glitteringmuffins.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1145.photobucket.com/albums/o502/theeducatorsspinonit/world.jpg" alt="Around the world in 12 Dishes" width="125" height="125" /></a>

Please link up your Indian dish and/or craft in our linky below.
 We would love to see it!

Kid Made Russian Tea Cakes (Around the World in 12 Dishes)

This  month's Around the World in 12 Dishes Challenge is Russia!

We have already shared our books & activities with you,

so now we would like to share our yummy dish.

We are a dessert loving household so as soon as I saw some recipes and photos for  Russian Tea Cakes I knew they would be perfect for this challenge. They were so easy to make that my youngest did most of the work on her own.

Ingredient List:

1 cup softened butter/margarine

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

optional - chopped nuts

How to Make Russian Tea Cakes:

 1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

2.  Mix butter powdered sugar & vanilla in a large bowl.

3. Stir in flour, salt & nuts (optional). Mix & knead until dough forms.

4. Shape dough into small balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet.

5. Bake 12-14 minutes or until set.

6. Roll warm cookies in powdered sugar.

(I did this part since they were hot!)

7. Let cool completely.

8. Roll in more powdered sugar & enjoy!

These were SUPER EASY to make & so yummy!

Be sure to check out the other great ideas being linked up to this month's Russia linky in our Around the World in 12 Dishes Challenge. 

Around the World in 12 Dishes: Exploring Russian Stories & Folklore

2 of the books I chose to read this month for our exploration of Russia (part of our Around the World in 12 Dishes Challenge) had a definite specific theme to them - greedy, self centered characters. The Lil Divas were quite appalled at some of the behavior (which made my mama heart proud!).

The Magic Gold Fish - A Russian Folktale

I remember hearing this story growing up and it was fun to share it with the girls. I read it to them and we discussed what happened in the story. The Lil Divas felt so bad for the poor fisherman and how his wife treated him. They thought she was very mean and selfish. 

I thought this was the perfect kind of story to re-create so we set to work making stick puppets and props to re-tell the story. 

The Oldest Diva really got into this activity - isn't her mean Old Lady hilarious! I love the face she put on her - it's very cross.

Then we got to work re-telling the story with our stick puppets. I helped along the way if they got stuck remembering what happened next but they did a great job capturing the overall major points of the folktale.

It was a lovely book and a fun activity which also worked on reading comprehension, story retelling,  story sequence, planning & decision making (deciding what characters & props we needed), fine motor skills (drawing, coloring & cutting) and of course working cooperatively. So much fun & learning packed into one activity! 

The Book:

(we borrowed it from our local library)

Babushka's Doll by Patricia Polacco

A story about a demanding (& selfish) little girl and her Babushka's even more demanding and selfish doll. A different twist to the morale that being greedy and selfish won't lead to good things in the end. The Lil Divas couldn't help but laugh at the dolls antics and were quite pleased that Natasha learned a valuable lesson in the end and was hopefully going to be more patient, kinder and unselfish with her grandmother.

For our activity we made paper nesting dolls (or Matryoshkas). It didn't really go 100% with the story but they are such a big part of Russian culture and I really wanted to introduce the girls to them as part of our Russian exploration, so we went for it. I found a few great sites to show photos of real matryoshkas to the girls online -  wikipedia and RussianCrafts.com.

Then, we got to work making our own. I cut out simple shaped templates for the girls to design and decorate as desired. 

We ended up with some lovely designs.

Then I used sentence strip paper to form circular backings behind the dolls. Each one was a bit smaller than the previous so they would be able to nestle within each other in the end. 

The girls glued the strips to their dolls and then tested them out.

Success!

We now have our very own Russian Paper Matryoshkas (aka Nesting Dolls).

The Book:

Rechenka's Eggs by Patricia Polacco

We didn't do an activity to go with this book because we had just recently spent so much time on egg related activities for Easter but a great activity to go with this book would be Melted Crayon Egg Designs. The eggs in the story were lovingly crafted by Babushka and then laid by the goose so it is a wonderful story tie-in activity.  

The Book:

Be sure to explore the other great Russian themed activities on our Around the World in 12 Dishes linky this month and don't forget to check out our dish - Russian Tea Cakes (YUM!)

Bern

Around the World in 12 Dishes: Exploring Russia

Welcome back to "Around The World in 12 Dishes". 

We are continuing our monthly journey around the world, exploring 12 different countries with our children, by cooking 12 dishes with them. One for each country visited.

The world is such a wonderfully diverse and colorful place. It is our goal to bring different cultures to life for our children through food, books & more! Why? Not only is it an exciting and different way to learn about cultures, but it also benefits our children in many ways - including basic learning (like numeracy and science), multicultural awareness and acceptance and instilling a sense of adventure and wonder into our children. How can you beat that?

Adventures In Mommydom, Creative Family Fun, Glittering Muffins, Juggling with Kids, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, Make, Do & Friends, Mom 2 Posh Little Divas, Mummymummymum, Rainy Day Mum, Red Ted Art, The Educators' Spin On It and The Outlaw Mom have all come together to help you on your journey. We will all be cooking a dish with our children and posting about it - to help inspire you to have a go! There will also be fun extras like books, crafts & activities so be sure to visit all the wonderful links. Then go cook and join in the linky fun with us! 

Around the World in 12 Dishes
Here's where we have explored so far: 

• March 4 - UK
• April 1 - Sweden
• May 6 - Russia

How to join the fun!

• The only mandatory part is the dish - the rest is all up to you!
• Cook a dish from Russia: The goal is to explore this country through FOOD (and activities if you wish). Make a typical dish (sweet or savoury) from the country with the kids, take photos and have fun!
• Typical dishes: Solyanka, Borscht, Shchi, Pelmeni and Pirozhki (Here is a link for more inspiration: Russian cuisine).
• Print your passport: Click here to download, comes with space for a photo of the child with the dish. Here is a little cover for it if you wish :)
• Color a placemat: Once colored/painted or whatever other way you want to do this, you can laminate it or put it between clear contact paper to use it over and over. Great conversation piece for you and your kids. Click here to download it.
• Make a craft: you can make a country (or book) related craft with the kids [optional!]
• Read a book: We read 3 fab books for this month's country! Stay tuned for a post on what we did! :)

• Fun fact: Every day over 9 MILLION passengers ride the Metro, Moscow's vast underground subway system. In a single day, an average of 9915 trains operate between 5am - 1am, making the New York subway system seem like a miniature child's toy.
• Share with us: Our Russia challenge start will remain open for a year, so attach a link to your blog to enter the linky party or visit our Around the World in 12 Dishes Facebook page and post a photo together with what you did together with your child(ren).
• Pinterest: We will add your photos to a "Around the World in 12 Dishes" Pinterest Boards (one for the dishes, one for the crafts) you will be a great source of inspiration for everyone :)
• Are you a blogger? Let your fans know about the challenge and grab our cute lil’ button to share it on your blog. 

<a href="http://www.glitteringmuffins.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1145.photobucket.com/albums/o502/theeducatorsspinonit/world.jpg" alt="Around the world in 12 Dishes" width="125" height="125" /></a>

 

Please link up your Russian dish and/or craft in our linky below.
 We would love to see it!

Kid Friendly Food: Easy Traditional Swedish Pancakes

Around the World in 12 Dishes is exploring Sweden this month!

I wanted the Lil Divas fully involved in our Swedish meal 

so I set out to find something easy for us to do that they would also eat!

As soon as I saw Swedish Pancakes - I knew I had a winner.

{Easy} Traditional Swedish Pancakes

The Lil Divas love pancakes, we had all the ingredients on hand

and aside from the stovetop cooking they could handle the rest.

It was perfect!

Ingredients:

flour

butter

milk

eggs

salt

optional:

fruit, jam, shipped cream, maple syrup

Swedish Pancake Recipe:

1. In a bowl beat 3 eggs and 1 1/4 cup milk.

2. Beat in 1 1/4 cup flour and 1/2 tsp. salt until smooth.

3. Stir in 3 tablespoons melted butter and 1 1/4 cup more milk.

4. Beat until smooth.

5. On a heated pan or griddle pour some batter and cook over medium heat.

6. Add fruit, jam, whipped cream and/or maple syrup as desired.

7. Enjoy!

These are thin so they cook up quickly.

Super easy to make & so yummy!

We will definitely be making these again -

next time I am thinking crepe style with yummy fruit inside!

***********

Be sure to visit all the other blogs participating - 

lots of yummy Swedish food, great books and fun crafts/actvities!

Adventures In Mommydom, Creative Family Fun, Glittering Muffins, Juggling with Kids, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, Make, Do & Friends, Mom 2 Posh Little Divas, Mummymummymum, Rainy Day Mum, Red Ted Art,The Educators’ Spin On It and The Outlaw Mom!

Be sure to come back tomorrow when I will be sharing our book 

& activities with you.

Hint - The Lil Divas enjoyed Pippi Longstocking! :)

Bern

Around the World in 12 Dishes - Explore Sweden!

Welcome to "Around The World in 12 Dishes". 

We are excited to be taking a journey around the world, (loosely) following in Phileas Fogg's footsteps, by exploring 12 different countries and cooking 12 dishes - one for each country we visit.

The world is such a wonderfully diverse and colorful place.  I am so excited to get us a bit out of our comfort zone and explore some more of the world with the Lil Divas. What better way to really bring it all to life for them than through food, books and fun?!  

Adventures In Mommydom, Creative Family Fun, Glittering Muffins,Juggling with Kids, Keeping Life Creative, Kitchen Counter Chronicles,Make, Do & Friends, Mummymummymum, Rainy Day Mum, Red Ted Art,The Educators' Spin On It, The Outlaw Mom and me - Mom to 2 Posh Little Divas, have come together to help you on your food journey. We will each be cooking a dish with our children and sharing it with you.  We hope to inspire you to try something yourself! So go out there, cook, blog, and then join in with us on the linky fun below!

Around the World in 12 Dishes

Our journey began in London, UK and are now moving into Stockholm, Sweden. 

• March 4 –  United Kingdom 
• April 1 –  Sweden

How to join the fun!

• The only mandatory part is the dish, the rest is all up to you!
• Cook a dish from Sweden: We make Swedish Pancakes! The goal is to explore the country through FOOD. Make a typical dish from the country with the kids, take photos and have fun!
• Typical dishes: Köttbullar med potatismus (Meatballs with mashed potatoes), gravlax, pyttipanna (a kind of hash), chokladboll (chocolate balls) or Kanelbulle (cinnamon rolls) (Here is a link for more inspiration: Swedish cuisine).
• Print your passport: Click here to download, comes with space for a photo of the child with the dish. Here is a little cover for it if you wish 
• Color a placemat: Once colored/painted or whatever other way you want to do this, you can laminate it or put it between clear contact paper to use it over and over. Great conversation piece for you and your kids. Click here to download it.
• Make a craft: you can make a country related craft with the kids [optional!]
• Read a book: We read Pippi Longstocking! 

• Another great book is D…Is For Dala Horse. Glittering Muffins has a review and a worldwide giveaway here   

• Fun fact:  Swedish Inventions include: The perfected design of the zipper (Gideon Sundbäck), the marine propeller (John Ericsson), the refrigerator (Carl Munters and Baltzar von Platen), the computer mouse (Håkan Lans) and the pace-maker (Rune Elmqvist). 
• Share with us: The Sweden challenge began on April 1st and will remain open for a year, so join in and come back when you are ready to link your blog to the linky party or visit us on Facebook and share your photos there! 
• Pinterest: We will be adding photos to a “Around the World in 12 Dishes” Pinterest Boards (one for the dishes, one for the crafts) you will be a great source of inspiration for everyone 
• Are you a blogger? Let your fans know about the challenge and grab our cute lil’ button to share it on your blog.

<a href=”http://www.glitteringmuffins.com” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://i1145.photobucket.com/albums/o502/theeducatorsspinonit/world.jpg” alt=”Around the world in 12 Dishes” width=”125″ height=”125″ /></a>

Please check out our partner blogs and their Sweden ideas: Adventures In Mommydom, Creative Family Fun, Glittering Muffins, Juggling with Kids, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, Make, Do & Friends, Mom 2 Posh Little Divas, Mummymummymum, Rainy Day Mum, Red Ted Art,The Educators’ Spin On It and The Outlaw Mom!

Join us by linking up your Swedish dish and/or craft on the linky below!