Irish Meal Day

I freely admit that this is a duplicate post to my post over at the homeschool blog. But this also seemed very family oriented so I thought I'd share it here as well. :) Cheers!

Boy, the lad and I had fun today. Yesterday we did days 2 & 3 of Expedition Ireland put out by Amanda Bennett Unit Studies. We learned prata is potato, that Ireland has beautiful scenery and interesting stories. We had fun colouring their flag and learning about Burren and Crystal.

Instead of doing more studying of Ireland we decided to have a cooking Irish food day.

We started the day off with pancakes of course.

Here is an easy way to make thin pancakes:

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4 oz/ 125g/ 1 cup plain flour
pinch of salt
2 eggs
1/2 pt/ 250ml/ 1 cup milk
1 tbsp melted butter

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Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend for about 30 seconds. The batter should then be allowed to stand for 30 minutes in a cool place. Heat a small pan over a medium heat. Grease with a little butter and wipe out with kitchen paper. Fry about 2 tbsp of batter at a time, swirling to cover the base of the pan. Keep them thin and there will be no need to turn. Serve rolled up with sugar.

We did two things with them. MOST we put cinnamon sugar on and rolled them up.
A few we added some gooseberry jam and rolled.
We learned we like the cinnamon sugar best and NOT to be shy with it either. :)

here the lad is learning to apply the cinnamon sugar.
Here I teach him how to roll it. He was a bit hestitant to do it himself as they were quite warm yet.
And the finished product...the cinnamon sugar ones in front, the jam ones behind.
We had thought about dusting them with icing sugar but "Mommy, I think plain is better."

Then off to go grocery shopping for the rest of the days meals....The lad looked hard for the buttermilk, and thought it funny that evaporated milk has a cow picture on the front of the can.

For lunch, due to hunger issues, we decided that the Irish part of our lunch would be GREEN salad. :) The rest we just ate as we wanted to. (sandwiches).

This afternoon we made

Irish Soda Bread

mix together:

4 cups bread flour

1 tbsp double action baking powder

¾ tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

Add 2 c. buttermilk

Mix well

Knead 1 minute

Cut in half and form into two balls

Place on greased cookie sheet

cut an 'x' in the top of each ½ inch deep

cook 350 oven for 45-55 minutes.

We learned that if you subsitute whole wheat flour for white, adding more fluid a good idea.
That it is fun to alternate kneading bread.
That is it HARD for a five year to cut an "x" in the top of a ball of bread with a big knife.

the boy working hard at kneading
I neglected to take a picture of the finished product. Turned out a bit dry, but the inside was yummy. We'll do this again sometime.

I was HIGHLY intimidated by the thought of making candy and was VERY nervous that I would mess it up. BUT it worked!!!! I was delighted.
Grandmom's Irish Potatoes Candy

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups white sugar

• 1 tablespoon butter

• 1/2 cup evaporated milk

• 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

Directions

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the sugar, butter, evaporated milk, cream of tartar and salt. Mix well and bring to a boil. Cook to the soft ball stage at 234 degrees F (115 degrees C). A few drops will form a soft ball when dropped into cold water. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Add vanilla and beat until creamy and stiff. Roll into balls and shape like little potatoes. Roll each ball in cinnamon to coat, then press in pieces of chopped nuts to look like eyes. You can also dust with cocoa to simulate dirt.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving Calories: 62 | Total Fat: 0.9g | Cholesterol: 3mg

They are pretty good. Hubby says they are kinda like fudge, but different. We were supposed to put nuts on them to look like potato eyes, but the lad nixed that idea and I didn't mind since I'm not a huge nuts in candy person anyways. :)

Oh... we also made cookies!

Irish Ginger Snaps

Ingredients

• 1 cup white sugar

• 1 egg

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 3/4 cup shortening

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon ground cloves

• 1 teaspoon ground ginger

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. Cream sugar, egg, salt and shortening together. Add flour, baking soda and spices. Mix well. Roll teaspoonfuls of dough into balls and roll the balls in sugar.

3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 5 to 6 minutes.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving Calories: 87 | Total Fat: 4.5g | Cholesterol: 6mg

NOTE: in our oven... 15 minutes.

And yes, I neglected to take a pic of the finished product and I doubt they'll last long enough for a picture to be taken.

We spontaneously decided to invite gramma up to share our Irish meal. Apparently all the ladies at the bank wanted to come and share it as well. Gramma turned them down. :) Our Irish meal was ham, potatoes, and bread.
The brown furry guy in the forefront is "super Jeff". He's an all powerful rabbit who helps make all types of things. This time he helped make cookies! He was a VERY curious rabbit and got flour on his nose in the process. :) He isn't the lad's favourite stuffy, but he is a good comrade in arms. :)

For more irish meal ideas.. go here. :)