Eastern Europe Study ~ Brainstorm

What's Schoolin'?

Thursdays have been Geography days for our focus presentations lately and it's been working out great.  We're moving along to Eastern Europe in our Trail Guide to World Geography book [Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria, and Russia][Other Eastern Europe countries follow in another lesson].  Below are some brainstorm ideas for what we may do.

~ Eat some homemade mamaliga (sort of a polenta)[Romanian recipe].  We have some non-gmo corn meal in the cupboard so this would be easy to implement.  Here is a recipe (great side bar to browse around):
http://www.exploringromania.com/mamaliga.html
Another recipe:
http://www.foodgeeks.com/recipes/moldavian-cornmeal-mush-mamaliga-19937

~ Golubtsi (Ukranian cabbage rolls):
http://natashaskitchen.com/2010/07/05/golubtsi-recipe-a-classic-russian-food/

~ Stuffed blini (plural is blinchiki) (ground meat)[Russian recipe]:
http://www.azcookbook.com/meat-stuffed-blinchiki-crepes/

~ Make a 2-D Matryoshka doll [view images online first (see 'classic folk art' here); use template to make cardstock template; use fabric for 2-D doll glued on cardstock]
http://www.education.com/activity/article/matryoshka/

~ Pysanky (Ukranian Easter Eggs):  image google (they are so amazing). Here is a site with a link to a tutorial.  Another option would be to use colored sharpies on some hard-boiled eggs for the designs, even though the technique would be lost (it all depends on life at the time!).
http://www.learnpysanky.com/

What's Green?

This homemade shaving cream recipe is brilliant!
http://www.littlehouseliving.com/easy-homemade-shaving-cream.html

What's Cookin'?

Barbecue chicken on yeast buns with mashed sweet potatoes (and a beet snuck in!) on the side.  

I was too lazy to make the sauce and then pour it on the chicken, so... I put some frozen pre-baked skinless thigh fillets into the tiny crockpot.  On top of that I put about 1/4 C organic tomato sauce (I finished out the bottle but it was about that, maybe a little more), a squirt of mustard, a dash of apple cider vinegar, some Real Salt, cayenne, garlic powder, onion powder, and 2 tiny dried sage leaves (crumbled and sprinkled over it).  Then I left it alone.

Meanwhile I made some yeast rolls with 1/2 white whole wheat and 1/2 unbleached all-purpose since I didn't have time to soak it anyway [click here for my soaked wheat yeast bun recipe post].  While those were rising I heated up water and put in 2 sweet potatoes and 1 golden beet.  The yams/beets cooked while the rolls baked.

When the rolls were done I let them sit a little bit to cool somewhat before slicing.  I drained and mashed the sweet potato/beet, added some butter, salt, and a dash of milk (just like making mashed potatoes).

I also served a bit of organic lettuce and pears that we happened to have with a dallop of cottage cheese on top.  Sauerkraut was available but only youngest and I indulged in it :).

As Andy Griffith would say, it was, "outstandingly good. MmmMmm."

This is part of Fat Tuesday.