I wrote earlier that I am trying to do a year long gastronomic adventure through the USA. It involves a "Best of.." cookbook that found it's way into my hands over the Christmas shopping spree and two boys with composition books and a boatload of crayons.
Here is what we have done so far (only two weeks, but I am proud nonetheless):
OHIO!!! We attached the state, looked up the year of statehood, made a pork roast recipe and a sauerkraut recipie. We looked up the capital and began our notebooks.
ALASKA: We venture to the the last frontier because my niece's boyfriend-surely-husband-to-be-someday spent five months there on some work-study thingy. He spent a while showing the boys pretty cool photos of the state and some of it's offerings-like Mt McKinley, ice climbing, iditarod, skiing, King crab, and more. We put the state on the map (or didn't put it on the map as we are trying to be geographically correct and I could not find a paper big enough to truly be correct, so Alaska is hanging out on the wall). We read the story of Balto, the Famous iditarod dog. We ate a Wood Stove stew, and bear claw cookies.
To add some humor-LegoMaster said they would have been better without the almonds. If you have never seen these type of cookies, one places slivers of almonds before cooking to look like the claws/nails of a bear. without them the cookies would just be chocolate cookies. Funny as my boy is so "vanilla" as I am. While I enjoy a good granache, give me New York Cheesecake or vanilla bean ice cream any day.
Back to Alaska: My niece and boyfriend made state flags with them. I love watching my boys do crafts. LegoMaster is SO serious about getting it right. Buzz just waved the glue stick somewhere in the area of the blue paper and hoped for the best. Can we have a cookie now? I am hoping he is getting something out of this other than the fact that Mom makes him do so much-can I just play now??
Next- popular vote went to following the path of our last summer Epic Vacation. So we are on to Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas with six others from that trip to cover until we head east to those states they have set foot in.
I think I am more excited than the boys.
awesome! when you get to nebraska, know that i was born there! i also could scrounge up pics of texas, alabama, florida, minnesota, new hampshire, new york, pa, and a few others if ya need them. the boys would LOVE to tell them about nyc! and about our moose hunts in new hampshire (which, by the way, is where george is from) and probably quite a bit about boston and dc. YOU ARE INCLUDING DC?
ReplyDeleteshall i copy you and do countries?
I don't think they are old enough yet to comprehend countries. I am not even sure they are old enough to get states, but since we drove through 11 of them last summer they have some kind of idea. Alaska was kind of lost on them because they have not been there.
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