So, I’ve seen a few things advertised that are selling a similar idea to our international days.

Would I like to turn this idea into something marketable some day? Sure! But, we’re not that now.

I also see a lot of blogs where everything is perfect and orderly, photos look very professional, and not a thing is out of place. Yeah… we’re not that, either.

Well – maybe to do something like this, we have to be rich and buy a lot of weird ingredients! Nope. While some of the ingredients that we have used in recipes have been a bit difficult to find, nothing has been stupid expensive. Here’s one option, substitute ingredients. It may not be “authentic” or “rustic” or “perfect”, but it will be “good enough”.

If we just take a bit of time to learn about someone else’s culture or food, perhaps we’ll be less willing to accept propaganda designed to dehumanize.

It doesn’t take loads of resources to do this – you’re already using a web browser.

It doesn’t have to be perfect. We’re doing this with and for kids.

I guess where this random collection of sentences is leading is to this; it doesn’t have to cost a lot of money, it doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be sincere and as accurate as you can make it.

I have heard rumors that some other families want to do something like this, or maybe already have. I’d love to hear some stories.

Today turned out great. The Ps and I started out the morning making kolacky for breakfast. We used some blueberry jam that my mom and I had canned a couple years ago. They were amazing and are definitely something we will be making again and again. The Ps would not even wait until they were cool to start eating. They just picked around the edges until they could shove them in their mouths. As we all sat and eat we talked over what it is like in Slovakia and the Ps learned what landlocked means.

After breakfast we were joined by Shari and started coloring flags and got the Jablkovy Kolac done.  That was sooooo good.

This was followed by the arrival of Chris and Misti,  which is when things really started to get moving. Everyone colored a flag today. p even drew what looks like an amoeba on the back of hers. P, not to be outdone, decorated all around her flag. Please forgive the spots; someone splashed food on them.

The next couple hours were a blur of cutting, mixing, boiling, and baking. Chuck found us a random Slovakia radio station which played – of all things – Coldplay.

The food was wonderful and I would love to eat it all again and I think everyone else would agree.

After lunch we pulled up Google maps and got to take a look into some of the cities and drive though the streets. The girls noticed that the cars seem smaller than here in the states and wondered if Chuck or Chris would be able to fit in them. They also really loved seeing some of the pictures that people had posted. P announced that it looks a lot like here.
I am happy to say today was a success. I am sad to say that we will not be doing another International day until after the holidays, but don’t worry. January comes fast and we have decided to do Japan to start off the new year.

Also, I am hoping to do posts about the days we did before we had started this blog. Oh, and December is a big cake month for me and Chuck has said he is going to do a post or two. So there will be posts going up. I know you were worried. 🙂

As always the wonderful world wide web has provided me with some wonderful blogs and websites to help me get recipes that I hope are a good representation of Slovakia. So next Saturday we will be eating.

Breakfast:

Chream cheese kolacky

I am also hoping to find some Bryndza cheese for spending on bread. Maybe Wegmans has it.

Lunch/dinner:

vegetariansky Paprikas

Karboatky so syrom

stuffed tomato in bread crumbs

and

Jablkovy Kolac

A couple of people have asked why we do states as well as countries? The answer is that most states are the same size as a county and each state is very different. They have their own dialect, flag, culture, and food; and when families move from state to state, just like when they move from country to country, they keep these things and pass them on to their kids.

Take California, which we did today. I learned today that if California’s economic size were measured by itself compared to other countries, it would rank the 7th largest economy in the world.  We also learned a lot about grapes, wine, movies, and the gold rush. I also got to tell the kids about how my parents moved us to California when I was about p’s age to start a vineyard, but because of red tape and bugs we ended up living by the beach for a year and then moving back to the east coast.

We started the day a bit late with coloring flags.

Then brunch, the girls tried grapefruit for the first time and really liked it.

Because of some things going on this weekend, the menu got modified a bit. We cut the cobb salad and the rolls, but kept the rest.

After Monte Cristo Sandwich, Avocado spread on Sourdough bread and raisins we drove some of the streets on Google maps and talked a bit about the climate and earthquakes. P was very interested in the plate tectonics. Uncle Chris and Chuck did a great job explaining it all to her.

Chuck and p spent the afternoon in true laid back California style.

What state or country would you like to see us do next?