Around the World in Small Town USA Intro and Brazil

For several years my family and I have been learning about countries throughout the world.  We started this about 9 years ago when my oldest daughter was in 1st grade.  As a family we sat down and chose several countries to learn about, one for each month.  Then we would  designate a night to learn about the country and assign one of the children to do a report.   my job was to find authentic recipes so we could create an authentic meal.  

There are many resources for finding information and recipes.  Our two favorites are our local library and the internet.   A few of our favorite sites are the National Geographic website, it is great for pictures and even music for many countries.  We also like the CIA World Factbook, it has great information, that is very up-to-date and easy to access. It is also nice to have either a globe, atlas or large map of the world so you can locate the countries as you learn about them.

To assign a young child a report on a country might be a little daunting for some--but it is good practice for school.  The reports at our house vary a great deal depending on which child is assigned.  Sometimes they are the bare bone facts about the country, sometimes they focus more on the geography, or the arts, or trivia.  My older children have done powerpoint presentations on the computer including pictures.  

To get younger children involved you can have them color placements like the flag, or dress up similar to traditional costumes.  Sometimes it is fun to find some phrases in the traditional language that are often used, I'll try to include these occasionally.  It is also fun to find out about some of their big celebrations or holidays.   A good way to get kids excited is to let them do the report their way.  If they like sports, let them find out about local sports, if they like music and dance let them focus on that.

Some of our favorite reports have been done by friends and family who have lived in a distant country and we have invited them over to tell us about it.  We usually provide the dinner and they tell us all about their experiences in the country.  This is fun because they most often also have souvenirs or pictures and real life stories to tell.  We once had a friend from Hawaii (although it is not  a different country it is a different culture) she brought music and clothing and props and taught us all how to hula, dressed in Lava-lavas.

I have included in this book a few facts about each country, along with a map and flag.  There is a section called Food facts.  It gives a little to talk about while you eat and often suggests ways to serve the food.  In many countries the customary way to eat is on the floor or low lying table, a coffee table works great for this.  Also, in some countries utensils are held differently, or not used at all.  These are the kind of ideas you will find in Food facts.

 BRAZIL 

FAST FACTS

Capital:   Brasilia

Population:  191,908,598 (2008)

Language:  Portuguese

Area:  8,511,965 sq. km. (slightly smaller than the U.S.A.)

Climate: Tropical

Government: Federal Republic

FOOD FACTS

Tropical fruit is grown and served in abundance, especially papayas, mangoes, and avocados.

Lunch is usually the largest meal of the day.  Meal time is a special time Brazilians to visit with family and friends.  They enjoy having a leisurely pace at their meal times.

Brazilians usually use a fork and knife to eat.  Even when they eat pizza and chicken.  They hold the fork in the left hand and the knife in the right and do not switch as they eat.

One of the traditional dishes of Brazil is Feijoda.  It is traditionally served on Saturdays or festivals, when family and friends have gathered together to eat and visit.

INTERESTING TIDBITS

Home to one of the world’s largest hydro-electric plants, Itaipu Dam.

Christ the Redeemer or Cristo Redentor stands 130 feet tall, and is located at the peak of Corcovado mountain (2,296 ft. tall) overlooking the city of Rio de Janeiro.

Carnival is an annual festival held 40 days before Easter where throngs of people parade through the streets playing music and dancing.

The Menu

Appetizer

Empadinhas

Entree

Feijoda with Arroz

Dessert

Tropical fruit or 

Pudim de Laranja

Empadihnas

These are small pies often filled with chicken, shrimp, or hearts of palm.

For the crust:

2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup shortening

1 egg

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup cold water

 Mix the flour and salt in a medium mixing bowl. make a well in the center.

 Place the shortening, eggs, and water in the well. Mix with wooden spoon or hands into a soft dough. Add water as necessary.

Chill for 1 hour.

For filling:

1 boneless skinless chicken breast, cooked and diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 cup onion

2 tablespoons water

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoon catsup

3 tablespoons flour

1/4 cup cooked peas

8 pitted green olives, diced

Suate onion and garlic in small amount of water, over medium heat for 2-3 minutes.

Add chicken, water, salt, catsup, and flour. Heat over medium until mixture begins to boil and thicken.  

Remove from heat.  Add peas and olives. Let cool.To assemble

1 egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water

 Pinch off walnut size piece of dough.  On floured surface, roll out 1/8-1/4 inch thick.

Place teaspoon of filling on center of dough.

Fold dough over and pinch edges.

Place on ungreased cookie sheet.

Repeat with remaining dough and filling.

Brush tops with egg glaze.

Bake at 375’ for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.

Arroz

2 cups long grain rice

4 cups water

1/4 cup medium onion, chopped

3 tablespoons olive oil

Salt to taste

Heat the olive oil in a large heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and cook until translucent.  Add the rice and sauté until grains become shiny.

 Add the water, cover the pan, and cook over low heat until all the water is absorbed and the grains are tender, abo Feijoda

2 cups dried black beans

1/2 pound bacon (cooked)

1/2 pound (6 links) sausage

1 pound baby back ribs

1 bay leaf

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 cup chopped onion

2  tablespoons olive oil

 The night before, soak the beans in a large bowl with water to cover at least 3-4 inches.  The next morning, drain the beans and place in a large pot with water to cover by at least 3 inches. Bring the beans to a boil in medium heat.

Cut cooked bacon into 1-inch pieces. Cut the sausage into 1-inch pieces.  Cut the ribs into 2-rib sections.

 Add the bacon, sausage, ribs and bay leaf to the beans. Simmer for about 2 hours or until soft, stirring occasionally.  Add water as necessary to keep beans covered. 

 Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until golden brown. Add two ladlefuls of beans and mash them. Put this back into the pot. It will thicken and season the beans.

 Continue to simmer gently for at least another hour, adding water as necessary. A good feijoada should have a creamy consistency when done. Remove the bay leaves.

To Serve

Serves 6.

Place Arroz on platter, or individual plates.  

 Heap Feijoda over rice on platter, or plates.  If serving individually divide ribs between plates.

Peel and thinly slice 2 oranges.  Place around platter or on top of each individual serving.

Pudim de Laranja
(Brazilian Style Orange Flan)

1 can sweetened condensed milk

 1 cup orange juice

3 eggs

1 tsp orange zest

1 cup sugar (for the caramel)

1 8-inch ring mold or 6 one cup custard cups

1.   Place 1 to 2 inches of water in a roasting pan.  Place pa in oven and preheat to 325’         

 Melt sugar in saucepan over medium high heat, stirring constantly. When melted pour into mold(s).

 Combine the condensed milk, orange juice, orange zest and eggs in a blender. Blend until smooth. 

Pour this mixture into the mold(s) and place it in the center of the roasting pan with water. Bake the one hour (50 minutes for custard cups)or until center is set.  Let it cool to room temperature, then chill for at least 6 hours

Unmold onto serving plates, or platter.

Today

Today has been quite the day. This morning Isaac did not wake up until 8:30--I thought this will be a good day. So around nine we were under a tornado warning so Isaac and I headed to the basement. I decided to hope in the shower--maybe not smart--I kept thinking what if a tornado really did hit and here I am in the shower--YIKES!! Anyway, I let Isaac watch a kids show while I was in the shower--but because of the weather the signal was lost. So he decided that hitting the tv with the remote would fix it. So I came out of the shower to find a huge spider crack in the bottom center of the plasma screen tv. I called the tv repair guy and he said that it would basically cost more to fix it than it would just to buy a new tv. Needless to say--I think we may be watching less for the next little while.

So then some friend came over and we had a nice time visiting while the kids played. After they all left right around 3--the school called because Canyon had started throwing up. So I went to pick him up and he proceeded to throw up a few more times on the 10 minute ride home. He is now laying down and I hope feeling a little better, but I think we will be hanging out at home for the next day or two.

But even with all that it really wasn't a bad day. I love my farm--even when my hands and arms ache from milking the cow--which I am still not very good at. I get about half of what Brett does--someday. Ethan has been helping for the past few days and this morning he seemed to be getting the hang of it--now we just have to work on his speed and accuracy

PIcked a few more radishes from the garden--they looked pretty good-

Musings

Today my oldest got her learners permit for driving. Yikes!! I let her drive some of the way home and she did fairly well. She is super excited. Now just 6 months and 60 hours of practice driving away to having a daughter with a drivers license.

Chickens

I do not have any pictures of our chickens but I will take some and post them later. We had two pairs of bantam/old english that we just let roam the farm, but a couple of weeks ago one of the hens disappeared. I am sure she made a fine lunch for some predator. She was just plain black. We had her paired with a really beautiful, but noisy and cocky, rooster with blue and silver plummage. The other two--he is a pretty average bantum rooster and she is kind of off white--I am not sure of her exact breed.
Anyway. On with the chickens in the coop.
We have a rooster and four hens that are Dominques. They are what is called a dual purpose breed which means they are good for meat and eggs. The other seven are Golden Comets. Which are a sex-linked hybrid made especially for egg production. This means they lay lots of good eggs, but do not get as big or have as large of breasts--which is more desirable in meat chickens. Being sex-linked means that when they are born you can tell the difference between the females and males because they are a different color, but because they are a hybrid, if you incubate their eggs you will not get a Golden Comet. We will have to see what you do get--especially if they will cross with a Dominques--since we are incubating 24 eggs right now and about half are from the Golden Comets. So in a bout 19 days we hopefully will have some little chicks.
We get about 8-10 eggs a day and about 4-5 a week of extra large double yolkers. Whenever Isaac, my four year old, brings one in he wants to eat it for lunch or breakfast--just depending on the time of day. Good thing he is too young to have to worry about cholesterol.


This is a good website for learning all about chickens.

Today

This morning I went to a few classes at the Extension Service. Thanks Carrie for watching Isaac.
They were good classes all in honor of Earth Day.
The first one was about raising chickens in you back yard. Since we have had chickens for about 2 months--I am still a beginner. I learned a lot and especially appreciated the websites that were given for further reference. Most of them are on the UK website under small flocks.
The second class was all about planting and growing berries. This was great information. We have a few thornless blackberry bushes now and hope to plant a strawberry patch and blueberry patch as well. It was great info.
We also received two tree seedlings--a Redbud and a Kentucky Coffee Tree(it doesn't really grow coffee for those that are wondering). Now I need to plant the along with the three apple trees I grafted at the last class I went to about a month ago--they all were successful grafts--YAY!
Oh yeah--Yesterday we ate our first radishes from the garden with our salad at dinner. Pretty Cool!

Well, I have a whiney little 4 year old that needs a nap--So I will have to post later.

Goats

So here is a little about our goats. We have six, five nannies and a billy, or for those who prefer five does and a buck.
We have two Boer does. One is white with a black head, her name is Princess and is Cedar's goat. Then there is Mama--she is white with a brown head.
Then we have Saanen--Angel is her name because she is all white.
Queen is I think a Toggenburg mix. She is the color of a deer. And then there is Oreo--she is mostly black with a few white patches--not sure which breed she is.
The billy is a Nubian goat his name is Billy Goat Gruff--even though he is the friendliest of the bunch. Sometimes a bit too friendly. Sometimes he'll nibble on your back pockets or shirt sleeves, whatever he can get in his mouth. But they are all small goats so nothing really scary about them.
We are hoping in the next few months that Mama, Queen and Angel will be kidding--I'll keep you posted.

Our cows

So here are pictures and details about our cows. We have 13 cows on our farm.

First were the polled herefords. They were born in the fall of 2009. In December 2010 they were bred (hopefully) to a black angus bull. There names are Maybell, Weighty, Bossy, Jakey, Pig Pen, Red, and Rocky.
Then in February of 2011 we bought our Jersey/Brown Swiss milk cow--her name is Buttercup. On the 17th of February she had a heifer calf we named Moriah because it was a windy morning--that is a story for another post.

Then last month (March of 2011) we purchased four more heifers. One Black angus and three Black baldies who are Hopefully bred to a hereford bull and will be due this fall about the same time as the other heifers. Their names are Miss Kong-- because the angus one looks like and ape, Folly--because although she is a good size heifer she has a bad eye, which I did not notice until after she was delivered, and I am the one that picked her out--so she is my folly--I am hoping she will be the best cow and not live up to her name, Shorty, can you guess why, and Maggie just because it seemed a good name for a cow.

I have learned a lot from having these cows. I am not as afraid of them as I used to be. I've learned a heifer is a young cow that has not had a calf yet.
My milk cow loves to be rubbed behind her horn buds--she is so gentle and really just a big pet.

Hello from Longwood Hollow

Well, I have finally started a blog to chronicle the lives of my family on our farm at Longwood Hollow.
My husband and I have been married for almost 17 years. Even before we were married we talked about owning a farm one day to raise our kids on. When we were first married I read book after book about how to homestead. But job transfer after job transfer, and from place to place we could never find what we wanted within our budget.
Finally, last fall my husband and I and our six children moved onto our farm. It really is more than we ever dreamed we would have. We have named it Longwood Hollow.
This really has been a big step for me. I grew up a city girl. The only pets that were allowed in my house were goldfish. Now we have beef cattle, a milk cow, goats (both meat and dairy), chickens, and of course a dog and a cat--well now we actually have six cats because our cat, Catherine the Great--"Cat" for short, had 5 kittens about three weeks ago. It has been a huge learning experience, and I am loving every minute of it--well, maybe not every minute--like this morning when I was trying (notice I say trying, I am not very good at it yet) to milk the cow and she swatted me right in the eye with her tail. But, I really am enjoying my life here.