We said good-bye to Europe with an Italian feast. We will spend the rest of the school year on history and resume our trip around the world next school year when we visit Asia. We had a pretty big pasta menu for our Italian feast. While I made most of the menu, the boys were able to experience making potato gnocchi. They had to peel boiled potatoes, mash them, mix then with flour and roll out the dough like snake to be cut into small pieces. The boys also had their hand in making the bruschetta. They coated the Italian bread with olive oil so it could be toasted in the oven.
Our menu consisted of potato gnocchi, lasagna, canneloni with cheese and spinach, pesto on penne pasta, black olives, grapes, Italian soda, Italian cream cake, and chocolate with hazelnuts. It turns out my potato-hating sons loved the potato gnocchi.
Here we have clockwise from the top: penne pesto. lasagna, canneloni with cheese and spinach filling, and potato gnocchi.
For an appetizer we enjoyed bruschetta (on white plate).
The Italian Cream Cake is a tasty cake with coconut and pecans inside and a cream cheese frosting. The Italian soda wasn’t a big hit. It was a sugar-heavy drink with an almost syrupy taste.
We have spent a couple months studying Italy. We explored the geography of the country by making a cookie cake. We watched videos of different parts of Italy. We listened to Italian music. We played Italian games. We read about Polycarp and his visit to Rome during the early church days. We read about the legend of Old Belfana. We read the story of Leonardo da Vinci and his flying machine. We made an Italian flag out of contruction paper and hung it up on the wall. We made art using mosaic “tiles.” Italy has been a fun stop in our trip around the world. We explore countries in depth because depth aids retention.
So far we have visited Greenland, the United States, Canada, Scotland, Ukraine, and Italy. Our next stop will be in Asia. We will immerse ourselves into the geography and culture of three countries. Looking forward to the journey.
