Culture

For the last 7 years that I have taught Second grade I have been waiting for Travis to get the chance to do this school project.  In class one of the stories in our reading book is about a boy who has to choose a food item to bring to school that reflects his culture. He brings a jalapeno bagel because his mom is Hispanic and his dad is Jewish. Anyway, we always let the students bring in a food item that reflects their heritage.  Thank goodness for Travis he is "just" Russian. (I say that because if he were my biological child he would be many different things!) Since we have a picky eater on our hands, and we are not very good at eating Russian foods on a regular basis, we had to find something for him to make and bring.  Our first stop was to Cost Plus World Market. I thought I had seen some Russian cookies in there one time.  Not today.  All they had were Russian Style Pickles... made in Belgium!  Uh, no thanks!  Our next stop was Google.  We looked up Russian desserts and found Russian Tea Cakes.  Imagine my surprise when this wonderful recipe only had 5 ingredients! (We left out the nuts since one classmate has a nut allergy, so ours had 4).  All you need is butter, flour, vanilla, and powdered sugar.  I printed off the recipe and we were off to bake some cookies.  Thankfully Travis has had a lot of experience in the kitchen so he did a lot on his own.  However, when it came time to "shape the dough into 1 inch balls" it was tricky.  The dough was very powder like but when you squeeze it in your hands it shapes into a ball.  He got frustrated so I finished that part up. Otherwise, I was just supervising. Here he is in action.

 Measuring out the powdered sugar.

 A very proud boy!

 These are the finished product. I should have put them on a pretty plate for a nice picture, but of course we were short on time. We are just lucky we took any pictures at all!   They turned out perfect.  Travis was so excited and proud to bring them to school. Evidently they were a big hit!  Later that day several of his classmates came up to me and told me how yummy they were.  His teacher told me that during his presentation Travis mentioned to the class that he was born in Russia.  One little girl raised her hand and said, "So you are an immigrant!!"  Too funny... they have been studying pioneers lately so I guess immigration was on her mind.  Classic.  (Daryle had to add, "At least he is legal!!!")  I guess it is a good sign that he keeps asking to make some more. Maybe they will be come a regular around our house.

Today I was making some banana bread.  A few days ago Red Truck Grandpa brought me some very ripe bananas.  Finally I had some time to bake some bread.  Connor decided to be my helper this time. This kid LOVES banana bread!  It is so nice to have a non-picky eater in the house. 

Oh my, look at him flashing a peace sign! He wants to be "big" so bad!  He really was a great helper. I hope my boys are always comfortable in the kitchen and grow up able to make a few things. I hope their future wives appreciate it too!