Spain Week!

This week it was back to Europe to visit Spain. Spain is one of my favorite countries. I've been a few times, and each time I fell in love with the food, the culture, and the smell of oranges that pervade the Valencia region.  

In Spain with my parents and sister (and pregnant with Z); 2013

Culture

Dan hit it out of the park with this one. He found some fantastic videos to watch that taught us fascinating new traditions. Of course we've heard of the running of the bulls, but watching this video was eye-opening. We didn't watch it in advance, so we found ourselves in an interesting position of explaining bull-fighting to the kids. Let's just say they were not fans.

We also already knew about Gaudi, but seeing his creations all together was cool. The kids loved the gingerbread house the most, but were also pretty excited about the stone forest and gorgeous stained glass in La Sagrada Famila. We watched this video to learn more about his work.

Back in the days when we were traveling a ton (man, I really miss those days), we loved learning about new destinations from Rick Steves. We did several of his walking and audio tours (British Museum, Montepulciano, Rhine Valley, Notre Dame) and always found him to provide helpful tidbits and interesting facts. This video provided the same about the Andalucian region in Spain. We learned about their lifestyle, history, and eating habits.

But the piece de resistance was learning about a Catalan tradition called castells. These are incredible human towers can reach several stories high! Each tower involves around 1,000 people, and usually includes a small child (around age 7-9) at the top. It's really hard to describe how incredible this is. Please watch this video and learn more about it. 

Source

We also looked through our travel pictures and showed the kids our favorite parts of Spain. I've been to Spain five times. I traveled with my friend Leah in college and went on a girls' trip to Alicante while living in England. Together, Dan, Zahara and I visited Barcelona and Tenerife, and we traveled with my family to Malaga when I was seven months pregnant. 

Funny story: Dan and I knew what we were naming Zahara, but no one else did. We INSISTED we visit the Spanish town of Zahara to collect some memorabilia and take pictures. Sadly, it was pouring rain, so the only thing we saw there was a cozy restaurant and a cemetery. All the shops were closed, so the only memento we got was a picture of a storm drain. This picture still hangs in her room today. 

Food

Spanish food is such a treat. I love having lots of little things, so tapas are perfect for me (as long as I don't have to share with too many people--ha!). In addition to tapas though, we made several other Spanish dishes. Here was our menu for the week: tortilla de patatas, tinto de verano, sangria, albondigas, various tapas, patatas bravas, rabo de toro, and arroz con leche.

The tortilla was so good we made it twice! The second time we added one more egg and cut the potatoes smaller. It's delicious!

We had a couple of Spanish drinks this week. Sangria is one of my favorite drinks, especially in summer. It's so nice and refreshing. But, apparently, locals don't really drink sangria. Spaniards drink something called tinto de verano ("summer red wine"), which tastes a lot like sangria but is less complicated to make. It's just red wine and sprite! Sounds crazy, but is really tasty.

Albondigas are Spanish meatballs. These were good, but I didn't get a real "Spanish" taste from them. I probably wouldn't make this recipe again. Same with the patatas bravas. They were perfectly crunchy, and I liked the sauce a lot. But the potatoes were a bit salty.

We ordered in from Jaleo to experience a few different Spanish tapas. I love Jose Andres restaurants (as seen here, here, and here). We got gazpacho, ensalada Rusa, marinated olives, cauliflower and dates, manchego flautas, roasted salmon, marinated mushrooms, spinach and raisins, and more manchego cheese. It was a spread!

We made our own tapas plate the next night with leftovers and veggies.

We tried to make a traditional oxtail stew, but had a hard time finding kosher oxtail. Instead, Dan made this recipe with short ribs. It was really tasty--especially with Dan's homemade sourdough to sop up the sauce!

I've never been a huge fan of rice pudding, but this was pretty good. The kids and Dan loved it. I can see how some people consider it a comfort food.

It's easy to see why I love Spain so much. It's such a wonderful country with so much to explore. I hope to visit in person again one day soon with the kids. Meanwhile, next country is a bit of a surprise. Stay tuned for our trip to Tonga!

See our other country weeks here.

Chasing Waterfalls at Patapsco Park

We are busy soaking up the last bits of summer here. I know everyone says it, but time is so crazy right now. It simultaneously feels like it was just March and also like it's always been summer. 

We've been doing our best to explore the cool towns and gorgeous parks around here. This week we explored Patapsco Valley and its Cascade Falls. We've heard great things about this park from others, and the pictures were enough to convince us to give it ago.

Apparently everyone else also had the same idea this weekend; we had a hard time getting into the park. First, the Google directions led us to a private driveway, then, when we finally found the correct entrance, the park ranger had just closed the park because it reached capacity. Thankfully, there was another entrance on the other side of the park that was still open. We raced to that entrance and crossed our fingers it would still be open when we got there. Thankfully, it was!

This entrance was a mile from the falls and the swinging bridge, whereas the other entrance was right next to them. Thankfully, though the terrain was pretty rough, the kids did amazing. I'm a week behind in our country week reports (asynchronous learning, right?), but this week we're in Tonga. We pretended that we were exploring one of the 170 islands that make up Tonga as we hiked through the dense jungle and swam in the waterfall and river. 

It took us an hour and a half to hike one mile, but honestly, I'm so impressed with the kids. There were no complaints, only joy. To say Zahara is not a walker is an understatement, so this was a big deal for us.

The walk was totally worth it. We got to the waterfall and were able to swim and take some pictures. The water was pretty chilly, but we all had a good time. 

After chilling in the waterfall for a bit, we climbed down and across the swinging bridge and down to the beach. 

This park used to house the Orange Grove Flour Mill, but it was destroyed in fire in 1905. Today, red bricks from the mill are scattered around the beach and in the river. The kids loved building structures with these bricks and the rocks they found in the shallow, warm waters.

The hike back took us around an hour, and the kids mostly did well. There were a few well-timed bribes of lychee fruit (which is apparently Asher's new favorite fruit). I'd highly recommend this park to anyone who wants a lovely day out. Have you been? Where else around Maryland should we explore? Leave me a comment below!

Argentina Week!

This week we headed to South America to explore Argentina. Once again, this was a terrific food week, and one that Zahara had been looking forward to for a while. She's a huge steak lover, so she was pumped to learn that beef plays such an important role in Argentina's past and present.

Culture

One of the coolest things we learned about this week is La Cueva de las Manos (the Cave of Hands). This cave art from 10,000 years ago is as beautiful as it is mysterious. The art's purpose, artist, and method are all unknown, though there are some strong hypotheses about the last point. Since all the paintings are of outlines of left hands, archaeologists believe that the artists held a pipe or blow dart filled with paint in their right hands and made impressions of their left hands. I really wanted to try this with the kids, but we didn't get to it this week. Maybe another time.

Source

We also watched a few videos to learn more about Argentina. We watched this one on Argentinian music, this one on geography, and this one had a few interesting facts, like the national sport of Argentina. What do you think it is? I would have guessed football (soccer), but it's not. It's pato! It's like a mix of polo and basketball. Crazy!

Source

Food

As I said, we ate well this week. Here was our menu: empanadas with chimichurri, steak, fungazetta, and alfajores.

I was intimidated to make empanadas from scratch, but actually, these were really easy. I used non-dairy milk and margarine to make it kosher. These will absolutely go into our normal rotation. The kids couldn't get enough. Just as a note, I made half the dough and filling and it only made 8 empanadas. I might even double the recipe next time and freeze some.

Yum. Steak. What else is there to say? So good. 

Fungazetta was another dish that sounded weird, but I can't wait to have again. It's more like a focaccia or flatbread than pizza, but it is SO tasty. We went for a more traditional style and used raw onions rather than caramelized. I highly recommend doing that too. It cooks in the oven so it doesn't have a raw taste, but it provides a great counterbalance to all the cheese.

We searched high and low for alfajores, a traditional Argentinian sweet. We finally found some at a local restaurant (La Limena). I personally didn't care for these much. They are made with dulce de leche, which I don't love. I think it also has a slight fennel taste--again, not a fan of licorice. But Dan and the kids liked them.

I'm already dreaming about making the empanadas and fungazetta again, but there's no time to waste. On to Spain!

Read about our other country weeks here.

Australia Week!

This week I turned to Facebook to see where we should go next. I got some fantastic recommendations that we'll be implementing over the next few weeks. First up, Australia!

Crafts/Culture

You'll notice that I've combined crafts and culture in this update. Though I had fun plans for a craft (making a paper koala), we just didn't get to it this week. Spoiler alert: we didn't get to crafts in the following couple of weeks either. We did, however, explore some fun cultural aspects of Australia. 

One really fun thing we did was a gift from Dan's sister Amy--Highlights Top Secret Adventure Book Club. Each kit is set in a new country and centers around mystery that you have to solve: what was taken, who took it, and where did they hide it. Zahara spent hours on this activity book. I was really impressed with the quality of the puzzles and how much we learned. 

We also stretched the theme a little bit this week and went for a sail on a pirate ship! There's a company called Urban Pirates that hosts 90-minute cruises in Baltimore. I was impressed how the company has adapted to covid to make this adventure safe and fun. They limited the number of people on board and roped off sections for each family; we actually had half the ship to ourselves. It's cheesy and expensive, but the kids had a great time and it was a nice change of scenery. Tip: search for a Groupon before buying. We saved a ton of money that way!

My friend Kathleen is living in Australia right now and working at a tourism office. She had an adorable little co-worker for a while--a joey! She sent us some pictures of her time with Chestnut. How jealous are you that she got to hang out with this tiny baby kangaroo??

We also watched a few videos on YouTube. I just searched Australia for kids and found some fun clips on wild animals and the Great Barrier Reef. We paired that with pictures from Dan's and my trip to Australia in 2010. We had such an incredible time there. You can read more about it here. 

Food

Here's what was on our menu for the week: Almond-crusted barramundi, Tim Tams, Sausage Rolls (just BBQ sausage--no pictures), chicko rolls, meat pie, and Vegemite. We missed out on making fairy bread (white bread with sprinkles!), but will have to do that next time.

I'm not kidding when I say Tim Tams might be my favorite candy now. I've never had them before, but they're chocolate covered biscuits (the British kind, not the Southern U.S. kind). They're perfectly flaky, crunchy, sweet, chocolate-y. Loved them!

I'd never heard of chicko rolls before, but apparently these are a favorite late-night snack. It's so strange, but Dan and I agreed that these taste a lot like chicken pot pie. There aren't many overlapping ingredients between those two dishes, so I'm not sure why that's the flavor profile, but we loved these. I'll definitely have them again.

In Australia you'll often find hand-pies, but we made this one family-style. This meat pie was delicious. We thought we'd have leftovers, but everyone demanded seconds. 

Nope. I did NOT enjoy Vegemite. Yes, I only used a tiny amount on top of a large amount of butter. I still didn't like it. I get that it's an acquired taste, but it is one that I will not be acquiring.

This week reminded me how amazing Australia is. I hope we get to go back one day soon. Next week, Argentina!

See our other country weeks here.