Peruvian Adios

I never got a chance to post our delicious Peruvian dinner, so here are our pictures.

Purple Potatoes with Peruvian Cheese Sauce

I loved the unique cheese flavor of these potatoes, something I probably wouldn’t have come up with on my own, a combination of feta and cream-but really mild and a nice accompaniment to the chicken.

 

Peruvian Grilled Chicken

This chicken was also quite delicious and really easy to make.  I roasted them instead of grilling them and loved the simple lime juice and spice marinade.

Peruvian Grilled Chicken

Asparagus with Feta and Shallots

 Sadly, I am struggling to remember/find what exactly we enjoyed as our Peruvian dessert.  If I do, I will add that later.

Today as I was out shopping with Tallinn and explaining to him not to point, he reverted to pursing his lips as they do in Peru. I love that this is our little “not so secret” way of communicating that we learned from our study of Peru.

Gracias again Peru! Whenever we point with our lips, we will think of you.

Panpipes a Plenty

Today we had a fun science day, learning about how to make different sounds, first with glass bottles and water and a little blowing…

next, we made some sound with our very own Peruvian-style Panpipes.

First we cut the bamboo into five lengths

so thankful for my helping husband

Then we taped them together with electrical tape and each child used a different color of modeling clay to fit into each bamboo end.

Finally, we made some music

All together now

In the huge stash of children’s/teaching books my sweet neighbor just donated to us, I found a few fun science project books and these two activities were the first things I turned to.  So perfect for Peru and so fun for us as the “minstrel” in our story often plays his Pipes of Pan.

Uma Raimi

In ancient Incan culture, there were twelve months of 30 days, each having their own festival.  October was referred to as “Uma Raimi” or “festival of the water”.  How appropriate that our week learning about Peru has so far been one of constant rain!  All the more reason to enjoy our delicious Peruvian Hot Chocolate (which ran out yesterday as we shared it with some friends. I guess we’ll have to make some more 🙂 ).

Today, we continued reading on in our “Secret of the Andes” book which is all about a little boy who lives in the Andes with an old man who found him as a small baby and together they raise llamas alone at the top of a hidden valley.  Cusi, the main character, has never seen other people before until recently and Chuto, the old man, is going to take him on a journey to learn about where he came from.  While they are preparing to leave their llamas with a traveling minstrel, Cusi snuggles up with his “humming” friends and says his goodbyes.

As we are learning quite a bit about llamas, particularly this humming sound they make, we did a YouTube search for “humming llamas” and got to hear a bit of the sounds ourselves and pretend like we were in the Andes with Cusi.

Next, we used some of the clay from the wonderful woman at the Global Village Festival to make some llamas of our own.

First Attempt.....my little Llama

Tallinn adding some hair to his Llama

Addie's Llama with a rather large tail

The three grazing Peruvians

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news.  Isaiah 52:7

I’m loving this week’s verse and how appropriate it is and while it continues to drizzle, we’ll continue on like the Incas in our festival of the water, Uma Raimi.

Hola Peru!

Well, we have ventured south of the equator once again, back to the West Coast, this time landing in the mountainous land of Peru. 

After diving in to our geography lesson, 

 

We used red pom-poms, tissue paper and stickers for the red stripes in the flag.

 

 we began some of our new library books. 

 

In this fun book we learned about the many “fiestas” celebrated in Peru each year, including the Festival of the Sun, The Star Snow Festival and Puno Day. 

During our recent visit to the library I decided to find as many books as possible that were relevant to our study, particularly those I can read aloud. I was so excited to find this very appropriate “Newbery Award” winner. 

 

We didn’t get too far into this book yet, but plan to in the next few days.  Lastly, my sweet neighbor, Dyana, dropped off loads of books this weekend that her kids, now teenagers+, had outgrown. I haven’t had a chance to even go through all the books, but I came across one that is perfect for our learning journey. 

 

This book contains multiple stories about children from other cultures, including Peru! Yay! 

And since it is quite the dreary-rainy day (a far cry from the 100*+ that we had last week), we decided to try out some Peruvian Hot Chocolate.  (I think that I will use any excuse to make hot chocolate, even if it’s barely sprinkling, but today it really does qualify as a “rainy” day, even in Southern California). 

I blended two recipes I found online when I typed in “Peruvian Hot Chocolate” as I wanted to keep some of the spices of the first, but add three milks and more chocolate like the second.   Typically this treat is served at Christmastime in Peru, but we couldn’t wait :). 

Here’s the recipe we came up with: 

2 cups water 

2 cinnamon sticks 

5 cloves 

1 can evaporated unsweetened milk 

1 can sweetened condensed milk 

4 cups milk 

1/4 cup water 

1 tablespoon cornstarch 

1 tablespoon vanilla 

1 tablespoon butter 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

First you simmer the cinnamon and cloves in the water for 15 minutes

Next, you add the three milks and bring back to a boil for 2 more minutes. In a small bowl, chop the chocolate and add the cocoa powder. Blend a little of the hot milk into the chocolate and whisk until smooth. Add the chocolate mixture to the milk and simmer for another five minutes. In another small bowl whisk the 1/4 cup water and cornstarch, then blend into hot chocolate simmering for another 2 minutes. Finally, add the vanilla, butter and salt. Top with whipped cream or serve as is for a delicious, mildly spicy Peruvian “Christmas” treat.  (Serves a LOT! Maybe 12?) 

 

 

Tallinn could have had four cups if I let him. 

 

Addie sipped hers a bit more slowly and just enjoyed a few moments alone with her cup. (I can completely relate.) 

Well Peru, we’re excited to learn more, cook more and create more Peruvian-related things, and we’ll be slowly sipping our hot chocolate throughout the afternoon and evening as our recipe made quite a lot. 

This Week’s Verse (In honor of the beautiful Andes Mountains) 

How beautiful on the mountains 

are the feet of those who bring good news. 

Isaiah 52:7