A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

recipes

Country Study: Australia

By Leave a Comment

After doing South Korea it was my son’s turn to decide what country to do next.  He chose to do Australia.   Did you know that Australia is the only country that is also a continent?  I learned on facebook today that not all people know this which TOTALLY shocked me.  🙂

Learning about Australia, her people, culture, places and food.

Anyways, Australia has often fascinated us so it was rather neat to spend some time learning about this country.   My son did a report on it.  We learned that Australia had a gold rush and started as a penal colony.   He learned a few other things as well but his report has gone the way of the dodo bird when we wiped my old laptop clean for him to use.   He also did up a map of Australia, figuring out the important cities and landmarks (like the Great Barrier Reef and Ayers Rock).

We Watched:

As always we watched a fair number of videos because videos show us things that we can’t always appreciate reading a book (and frankly my boy is a video oriented lad).

This video gave us a good introduction to Australia and gave us information to consider and look further into.

 

Did you know that the official name of Australia is the Commonwealth of Australia. This was news to us as well, but then again, Canada is called the Dominion of Canada (but we don’t say that eh?)

We went on to learn more about Ayer’s Rock, also known as Uluru. 

 

We watched a couple longer videos on the Great Barrier Reef, but thought a shorter one linked on the blog would be more suitable. 🙂

We checked out tourist destinations as well, because in many ways we are tourists…just doing it via videos rather than a long plane trip.  🙂

Saw some of their wildlife, and learned about their climate. We tend not to like background music for our videos, but we couldn’t escape it on this video. We found this site on animal conservancy interesting.

I could go on and on about all we learned… but I need to leave room for you to explore this interesting land on your own too eh? 🙂

Oh! I mustn’t forget. We did some art! Just some simple dot art. It was kinda fun though.  We learned all about it here.  As well as through Geography Through Art.

We Cooked:

Oh.. and we cooked (don’t we always?)  🙂  And oh my goodness we made good food.  The only thing we don’t mind not making again was the ribs as they were good but nothing better than what we’ve made before.  The spinach damper was excellent and worked well dipped in spaghetti sauce!  The rosemary butter was excellent and I’ll be making that again when I have biscuits on the table. The lamb rolls were easy enough to make and I hope to make them when I have guests sometime.  They were excellent fodder! 

We made aussie ribs, spinach damper, lamb rolls, and…. 

My son made cherry pavlova on his own.   Very sweet, tasted great, especially when frozen.  We all initially had a slice and then decided it would be better a bit colder.  🙂  I admittedly did help my lad with the meringue as it needed to be done ahead of time and he was busy writing a report. 

We had planned to make this pasta dish but decided we actually had enough with what we had made already.

If you would like to study Australia, you might find these free unit studies helpful as well.

Momma of many blessings.
Trillium Montessori.
AngelicScalliwags.
Creekside Learning.
Pinay Homeschooler.

Recipe: Baked Tuna Mac and Cheese

By Leave a Comment

For the last couple of days I’ve been in the mood for a tuna casserole. I wanted to make a Baked Mac & cheese casserole with tuna in it. Ergo I went and found me a recipe that I needed to modify a fair bit due to lack of ingredients or a desire to use up what we had in the house so basically I made my own recipe. 🙂  I hope you enjoy it.  It was quick to make, and I love the addition of the half & half cream.. made making the sauce a complete breeze.

my recipe for baked tuna mac and cheese.

Ingredients:

1 lb of pasta.. I used macaroni this time.

12 oz tuna
Spices of choice: I used lemon pepper seasoning, garlic powder, salt, pepper, fresh parsley  
1/2 cup finely diced onions (white, green, Spanish.. your choice)
2 tbsp. Dijon Mustard
2 ribs celery, finely diced
2 tbsp. lemon juice

1/4 cup butter
2.5 cup half and half  (for lighter version use milk, whole milk would be best)
2 cups grated cheese (used light cheddar old)
1/4 cup flour

1.5 cup breadcrumbs or panko (I used seasoned crumbs)  (Next time I'll use less crumbs)
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup butter, melted

Directions

Preheat oven to 400.

Cook pasta to al dente

You have a choice.. glazed onions with the butter for the sauce OR put the onions in with the tuna mixture.  I chose to glaze, but mixing in the tuna works too.  :)

Tuna Mixture: Tuna (flaked) plus celery, mustard, seasonings, lemon juice.   
Mix the pasta and tuna together.  Place in your casserole dish.

Melt your butter, mix in the flour, slowly add your cream (lower fat option would be milk).
Make a nice sauce.   Add your grated cheese stir till all melted in. 
Add sauce to pasta/tuna mix, stirring well.

Mix together the breadcrumbs and butter, add in the parm cheese and mix well.
Top the pasta with this mixture.

Cook until golden brown and bubbling (in my oven took 25 minutes).

The reactions of the family:
Me: I could make this again…but will use less bread crumbs. using half and half adds depth to the flavours.
Hubby: I like this. Make it again hun.
Son: two thumbs up (he was too busy eating) and the cat got a bit more pasta to enjoy that flung off a fork. (yes, she’s odd)

Six servings, 877 calories per serving.

If served with a salad could do 8 servings which would obviously be less calories. 🙂

Country Study: South Korea

By Leave a Comment

It was my husband’s turn to pick what country we studied about two months back and he chose to do South Korea.   It was fun picking out recipes together and spending a week learning about South Korea. 

A study we did on the country of South Korea with a link up for recipes.

We watched a lot of videos, did some reading of websites, and made food.  LOTS of food, we’ll get to that later though. 🙂  One of the interesting tidbits we learned about was the demilitarized zone. This is an area between North and South Korea where people aren’t allowed.  It is host to a wide variety of animals.  We spent some time learning more about the DMZ and the animals there.  This video is a brief glimpse.

 

We watched quite a few videos on Korea, including these ones on 10 things you might not know, and introduction to Korea.  We listened to some language lessons. 

My lad’s interest in archery and Karate led us down those paths in studying the sports of Korea.  We started with the Korea historical bow that Gakgung. 

 
We looked into their form of martial arts, learning about Korean taekwondo and Judo. We were surprised to learn that in Korea they have schools with a sports theme.  This is one of the reasons Korea produces some of the top competitors in Judo. 

Son found out what their flag looked like and some general details and filled out his sheet which… I haven’t the foggiest where he stored it.   But it was done.  In case you are curious, South Korea’s flag looks like this and is filled with symbolism.  The background is white, one of their traditional colours, it represent peace and purity.  The circle in the middle comes from the um-yang (like the yin-yang in China) and represents balance.  The red half positive, the blue half negative.  The Trigrams in the corners represent movement and harmony.  There are four to represent four separate elements: heaven, sun, moon and earth. 

We made some amazing food which we ate while chatting and listening to Korean music. 🙂 I will freely admit we didn’t play it long and we did shut it off after a while as .. well.. it’s not our style and we found it a tad distracting.

What food did we make?   YUMMY FOOD!!!  oh my goodness.. just so yummy.

Hotteok:

These were pancakes with a brown sugar filling.  Very yummy.   Took some fiddling to get them to work well and we had some leftover filling when we shouldn’t have.  But I didn’t know how to stuff them as full as what we should have.  A lad kinda gave up too.  🙂

Bulgogi:

Hubby LOVES this dish so just had to make some.  He and the lad thoroughly enjoyed it.

Kimchi:

Admittedly we didn’t make it, but hubby bought some and enjoyed it.  The lad thought it was fairly good too.  I didn’t have any since cabbage and I don’t get along.

Red bean something or other.  This was harder to make than I thought it would be and my first try burned.  But once we got it made and cooked it was really good.  But I can’t find my recipe anymore.  🙁  sorry.  It involved making a red bean paste.

Honey Butter Fried Chicken. 

Honestly, if this chicken took less time to make, I would make it all the time.  It was very very good.

We attempted to make a rice drink that they do.  Um.. we failed or it just wasn’t our thing, I really don’t know.  It needed to ferment and something else, and the drink tasted okay but I couldn’t do the rice in it and hubby sniffed it and said “nope”.   The lad tried a bit of it and seconded dad’s opinion.  🙂   I gave it good go… but sometimes things just don’t work as they should.

Stay Tuned.  Recipe Linky is Below!

Anyways, that’s our walk through South Korea, I hope you enjoyed your journey.   Just reminding you if you want a more traditional approach to studying countries, to check out SchoolhouseTeachers.com.  They have some wonderfully indepth country studies for you to embark upon. Valetines Sale is: February 12-16, 2018
Here are the Coupon Codes: LOVE18 – $99 for Annual Membership subscription + 6.8 Oz. Dark Chocolate Bar (U.S. customers only) + Winter Print Issue of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine and LOVEMONTHLY18 – $10.95 per month. 

OH!   I also wanted to mention how much we’ve been enjoying the Olympic Games today… watching curling and moguls.   Did you know my friend Lori put together a wonderful Olympics study?   I KNOW how awesome is that!  So grab up your middle schoolers and have some fun with the Olympics.   Find it right here!

What else…oh.. some unit studies you might find helpful in learning about South Korea.

Knowledge quest.   Confessions of a homeschooler.  CIA.  Half-a-hundred acre.  



Recipes: Baked Chicken Wings

By 6 Comments

My son is fairly sure he’s found his favourite recipe now… one that he thinks he can make for meals when he cooks on Tuesday nights.    Baked Chicken Wings.  When I first made this recipe I made enough for me and a couple for the lad.  Hubby snagged a couple off my plate and before I knew what was happening I was making up another batch…   They are considerably less fatty than any fried ones I’ve come across which is an added bonus.

Best ever chicken wings I've ever had

This is a very simple recipe to make and would be easy to change up for the spices that you like best, to add a dipping sauce if you are inclined to have one, and add garnishes etc..

This is how we made it.

For every two pounds of chicken wings/drumsticks you’ll need

                   2 tbsp olive oil, 2 tsp sea salt (we used himalayan), and 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper.

You’ll need a baking sheet topped with parchment paper for ease of clean up.

Turn the oven on to 425.

Put your chicken into a bowl, drizzle them with the olive oil and mix well.

Then grind up your sea salt and sprinkle over the chicken and mix it up well, then add your pepper and repeat.

Lay out on your baking sheet, pop into the oven for 45-50 minutes (depending on your oven). 

Turn at the halfway mark.

Then listen to the oohs and aahs of your family as they gooble up every ounce of meat … even a hubby who always leaves what I think is loads of meat behind.. they’ll clean the bones off so well you’ll be shocked!

 

Recipe: StoveTop White Mac and Cheese

By 2 Comments

Who doesn’t love a good bowl of homemade mac and cheese?  While I love the baked mac and cheese I don’t always have time to make it.  This time I made a stovetop version loosely based off this recipe.    

Recipe to make stovetop white mac & cheese

I have a large bag of pasta noodles (macaroni in this case) that I dumped a bunch into a boiling pan of water and cooked until al dente.  Probably about 10 oz?

As it drained I made the sauce using a bit more than a 1/4 cup butter, 1/3 cup flour with seasonings, I used garlic salt and pepper,  Mix that together well in the bottom of the pot you used to cook the pasta.  It’ll be thick.

THEN as you are stirring SLOWLY add the milk (abit more than 2 cups).

As you are stirring get your son to grab some cheese, in this case some Havarti.  He grated up 1/2 the brick (so about 200 grams) and slowly added it to my milk mixture before tearing off after our new cat. 

Add your pasta back to the pot and stir well. 

On the side have some ketchup, bacon bits and parmesan cheese.

Let everyone help themselves and garnish as they please.  

Enjoy.  Made enough servings for hubby to have two bowls, the lad one, and me four (over two meals).

Currant Jelly

By 2 Comments

This summer our currant bushes were full to overloaded and since we weren’t on holidays when they were ripe!!!!  Woohoo, not just feeding the local wildlife!!!! The lad and I set out to make some jam.   He’s hadn’t had currant jelly before so this was a new experience for him.   He thought it was a hoot!  🙂   It was a lot like making gooseberry jelly but currants, especially black currant, have naturally occurring pectin so guess what you don’t have to add to them?

A recipe for making currant jelly using black and red currants.

How to make it

We didn’t have quite enough black currants to make a full recipe so we added some red currants in.  I kinda had to wing it a bit as I found no recipes online for a mixture of black currant and red currant.

I used about 1.5 lbs black currants (as that’s what we had) and another 2 lbs of red currants (as that’s what we had left after making just plain red currant).

Crush the fruit in a pan with water (about a cup) and let it come to a good boil.  You want all the juice released from the berries.

Use pantyhose, or cheesecloth or jelly cloth to get all the juice out.  Some recipes say not to squeeze but just to set it in a container and drip the juice all out.  I let my boy have fun.  🙂

Measure how much juice you have, add that much sugar, put it in a pan and bring to a boil.

You’ll want to skim off the scum.  This stage took the longest. You need to bring the jelly to the “Jell point”.  I know what that is, but if you don’t, here’s a helpful page for you.

Then put into your sterilized canning jars, drop into the canner for 10 minutes boiling and voila, you to will have a lovely black/red currant jelly.

Recipe: Easy Bake Tortellini and Meatball bake

By 6 Comments

So I was looking for a recipe that would kill two birds with one stone, use up ingredients we already had in the house, and was really easy to make.   I found that in Easy Bake Tortellini and Meatballs.  We’ve been fighting the flu and hubby was moaning he needed something real to eat.  I have to admit when I was making it I fell completely apart because when you have the flu and you feel miserable and there’s no Italian seasoning in the house, life is not worth living.   I did manage to pull myself together when I remembered I can make my own Italian seasoning so the world had not ended.   I bet you didn’t expect drama in the kitchen did you?  🙂 Anyways, the original recipe is here.

Ingredients (listing what I used not what was called for)

21 frozen Italian meatballs, defrosted
1  pkg., refrigerated tortellini… I weighed them in at just slightly over 20 oz.
1  jar, marinara sauce, used hunts I think?  regular sized jar.
1 (14.5 oz.) can, diced tomatoes
1 c. cottage cheese
1/4 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp rosemary
1/4 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp sage
1/2 tbsp. Italian seasoning  
1 tsp. garlic salt
1 1/2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl mix the following: Meatballs, tortellini, marinara sauce, and tomatoes.
Place them in a  9 x 13″ baking dish.
In a small bowl, stir together the cottage cheese, herbs, and garlic salt. Drop small dollops of the cheese mixture evenly over the top of the pasta. Top the pasta evenly with the shredded mozzarella cheese.
Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until the cheese is completely melted. Cool for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Reactions:

Dad: “I like this, I really like this, I like this better than regular lasagna!” later on “I don’t think you understand how much I LIKE THIS” (as he had a second bowl).

Son: “My throat is too sore, can I have some another day?”

Mom: “This is very good, yes, son you can have some another day you will like it”.  It’s great as leftovers too!

Want to share a recipe?  I’d be happy to have you.

This linky is for recipe and food related posts.  Thank you.