God Bless France!

For a number of reasons, I have a special place in my heart for France and its people. I minored in French in college. I spent a year studying in Luxembourg which allowed for several trips to France during which I fell in love with the country's dynamic, beautiful cities; picturesque villages that seemed to be lifted from the pages of a storybook; and its verdant and charming countryside. Near the end of my year abroad, and just about a week before my 20th birthday, I was in Paris with my mom, who had come to spend a month travelling with me before I was to return to the States with her. Exactly 20 years, later, just shy of my 40th birthday, my mom and I were in Paris again, this time with my 10-year-old son, my uncle and aunt. In all of my many travels to France, I have, without exception, found the French people to be warm, friendly and helpful. 

It goes without saying then, that Historian and I were especially glad to spend several days focusing our geography studies on France. The girls caught our enthusiasm, especially for the food!

We decorated the table with a French flag, books and, of course, food.

Orangina, a lightly carbonated pulpy orange drink in an adorably shaped bottle, became a favorite drink of mine when I travelled around France as a young adult. Historian, in turn, fell in love with it when he visited Paris. Naturally, when we found it in stores at home, we introduced it to the girls and, well, they couldn't get enough of it. Now it is met with squeals of delight when it is offered as a treat for special occasions. Clearly, it was a necessary choice for our French fete.

This grilled sandwich is called a croque monsieur, which translates as "Mr. Crunchy." It is a popular street food in the cities of France. It's quite simple to make: place ham and gruyere cheese between two slices of French bread. Dip both sides of the sandwich in beaten egg and grill in a hot buttered pan. It's basically a grilled ham and cheese sandwich with the addition of the egg coating. Historian, as usual, was our chef. He also made a creamy gruyere cheese sauce to pour over our sandwiches, taking it from street food to gourmet fare. If you place a fried egg on top of this sandwich, it becomes a croque madame or "Mrs. Crunchy." I never questioned the naming of the feminized version of the sandwich, but when I told Butterfly this piece of information, she immediately surmised, "It's because the egg is like her bonnet."

Our meal was really unbalanced: too much bread, but it seems the French do bread better than anyone and we just couldn't limit ourselves to one kind. Here, you see the flaky, buttery, quintessentially French croissant.

Baguette and camembert. This photo represents what an entire meal often consisted of for me and my travelling companions as college students, and that was, by no means, a bad thing!

Historian's chocolate mousse failed to reach a silky smooth consistency. However, you really can't go wrong when you combine melted chocolate and homemade whipped cream. Needless to say, there is not a drop of it left. We had to stop ourselves from licking the bowls.

Historian and I at the Eiffel Tower. He was 10 at the time.

Standing in front of Notre Dame Cathedral.

Historian's selected souvenir from the gift shop bookstore at The Louvre. Notice that Waldo has become Charlie!

My mom, Historian and I at Sacre Couer Basilica at Montmartre, France.

I have to admit, I was a bit reluctant to leave our study of France; it brought back many wonderful memories. I could stay here a while. I even sometimes dream that Steady Man and I will some day move to a little village in France and become a part of the fiber of that community (Steady Man does not share that dream). However, my kids are itching to move on, and so we must, this time to Historian's current obsession when it comes to countries: Germany.

Auf wiedersehen!

God Bless Brazil and Norway!

To conclude our trip to Brazil, Historian cooked the country's national dish , feijoada, for us. It consists of black beans and three kinds of meat. Four of the five of us loved it (one of us never likes anything with beans). Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos of that meal. I did, however, capture the kids making an anaconda out of coat hangers, an old bed sheet, twine, paint, googly eyes and red felt. The anaconda can be found in the Amazon Rain Forest of Brazil.

Our anaconda has been found slithering in bushes, climbing in trees, hiding in MY bed sheets, lurking on porch steps and hovering over sleeping teenagers. Who knows where he will turn up next?

Today, we finished up our trip to Norway.

For lunch, Historian made smoked sausage and Norwegian pancakes (pannekaken) which are similar to crepes, served with butter, strawberries and powdered sugar. This meal was a huge hit. The brightly colored table decorations, made by the girls, were inspired by the traditional blue, yellow and red clothing (called "gakti") worn by the Lapps (Sami) people of northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.

The kids added the Norwegian flag to the table as well as a "dragon," because the kids say Norway is famous for its dragon legends.  In the back, you might spy a rosemaled box.

Rosemaling is a traditional art of Norway. I thought that the word "rosemaling" had something to do with the rose flower, but it translates as "decorative painting." That explains why the flowers used in rosemaling aren't very good representations of roses. You can see another rosemaled box here.

For dinner, Historian made lefse, a Norwegian cross between potato bread and potato pancakes. All three kids liked these and Historian was requested to make them on a monthly basis.

After boiling the potatoes, Historian riced the potatoes. I think he enjoyed this.

We loved the spaghettified look of riced potatoes.

Tomorrow, we head to France! Au revoir!

God Bless Canada!

While it was a whirlwind trip to Canada, it was an enjoyable one. Here are the photos of our celebration of Canada.

Historian made pancakes for our luncheon celebration.

Once again, Nana joined us for our party. The table is decorated with a Canadian flag, a bear and a wolf, three library books about Canada, a fishing motif table runner, and a pair of cut-out maple leaves.

Historian decided that making pancakes is fun!

Historian's "Canadian Blueberry Baked Dessert" was actually made with Michigan blueberries. Regardless, it was as delicious as it looks.

Given that Canada is our friendly neighbor to the north, we felt it would be fitting to serve Canadian bacon (Historian says that Canadians call it "peameal" bacon) alongside American bacon.

Nana took this rare photo of all five of the Smiths.



Historian kindly delayed digging in while I took this photo of his plate.

As the temperatures drop, we are thankful to be headed to warmer parts of the world tomorrow, if only in our studies. Look out Brazil! Here we come!