Due to the white death falling from the sky International day Brazil is being postponed till next sun.

I know this is very last minute but these thing happen. Tomorrow is International Day Brazil and the following is what we are going to eat if all goes well.

Breakfast:

cuscuz, and Bolo de Laranja

Lunch:

Salpicao(chicken on the side), Brazilian Lemonade, pão de queijo, Coxinha, and brigadeiro

Dinner:

I wanted to eat at one of the Brazilian restaurants around but they all cost way to much. So I think we will just enjoy leftovers from the day and some fresh fruit.

This day got a bit delayed due to p being sick, but was well worth the wait. We started off the day with P and I making a Japanese breakfast of Miso soup, sweet spinach, rice, and tamagoyaki. We got the recipes from Japanese cooking 101  and all of the food was wonderful.

Then the P’s spent some time teaching Shari how to make rubber band bracelets. Not really Japanese, but they had a ton of fun.

After lessons – back to Japan. We all colored flags and learned some cool facts about some of the things that make Japan unique. Some of the more interesting things were that they eat more fish then any other country in the world, that it is made up of 6,852 islands, and that they have a holiday called children’s day on May 5th which is for sons and one on March 3rd for girls.

We then all sat down for an amazing meal of Rice balls in a couple different flavors, Kabocha no Fukumeni and Roasted and marinated pork in a Yuan sauce.

Chuck then took us riding though some streets in Tokyo using Google maps to see how the Japanese roads and cars look. We did side track for a bit looking at things they put in vending machines in Japan. It is amazing how many things they sell out of them. Besides sodas and candy, theirs have floral arrangements, french fries, clothes, toys, magazines,… and some things I did not show the kids.

Since many advances in robotics happen in Japan, we watched a couple videos about Asimo. P was very impressed and we both agreed that we would love to have one around the house. Asimo is near P’s height, so we talked about why that is a good size to be. Someone that size can reach almost anything, and has many places to hide.

We then enjoyed watching a few Japanese fairy tales on Amazon. We watched The Boy who Drew Cats and Peachboy. We found a series called The Little Travelers, and one of their episodes is from their time in Japan . I think this was a good touch and the kids seemed to really learn a lot from the show. I hope we can tie some more of their episodes into our future days.

We also decided that next month we will be doing Brazil. See you then.

I decided that since we delayed International day Japan for a couple weeks I would write up a post about our second ever International day, which we did on Father’s Day 2012. Because it was Father’s Day, Chuck got to pick which country, and of course he picked Poland. He grew up in Pittsburgh and so ate a lot of their food. I, on the other hand, grew up eating more Asian style food, meaning Chuck got to introduce me to a lot of the Polish foods over the years. I now love many of these very much, and they are very common meals in our house.

Because this was only our second International day, we were still forming what these days were and how to execute them. Because it was Father’s Day and we had family that wanted to see us, we decided to do the cooking and the coloring parts at my grandmother’s house, letting more of the family join in. We then listened to music and drove the streets on Google maps later when we got home.

Flag coloring came first and we also did some flowers from Poland. P had dressed up in her chief outfit, so that she could run the kitchen.

For the menu, we had apple cranberry kompat, cucumber salad, perogies, cheese babka, and of course curried chickpeas. Yeah – I know you all read that and went “…curried chickpeas?!?!?” My cousin made it up at home and brought it to share, and it was very good.

It was great working on all the food as a group. We had a ton of fun messing around.

Everyone even pitched in to clean up afterwards.

and the kids slept the whole way home.

Once home, Chuck and P played with Google maps and talked about the different cars and buildings they saw in Poland.

All in all, it was a wonderful day, a ton of fun, and we learned a bit as well. It turned out much better than the first and insured that we would continue these days.

Unluckily little p is now ill. Meaning that international day Japan will have to be postponed till a later date.

This Sunday we are going to do Japan. I am very excited. This one was a bit of a challenge to make a menu for because we eat a lot of Japanese food already and I try very hard to make sure that we are learning and trying new things. P was very unhappy to learn we would not be having sushi, but after a lot of searching I have put together what I feel is a very yummy day of new things ahead for us.

Breakfast: I am taking this right from a site called Japanese cooking 101

Steamed Rice, Miso Soup, Tamagoyaki (I have always wanted to try making this egg dish), and Houren No Gomaae

Lunch:

Rice balls in a couple different flavors, Kabocha no Fukumeni and Roasted and marinated pork in a Yuan sauce. I am also going to pick up some desserts from a Asian baker near here.

Dinner:

I think we will order some Japanese from from the restaurant down the street. So the kids can see a difference between ours and the restaurants. Wink Wink.