It’s been a really long time since we’ve had a chance to row a book! I’m so glad we made the effort to get back into it because it was just so much fun.
I love the book How to Make an Apple Pie and see the world. It’s a fun story and it’s easy to see the humor in it. Baloo and Royal love the page where the cow and chicken are parachuting.
We started off the week by reading the book and looking closely at each page. We talked about how different the pages in each country looked. We talked a bit about the signs at the beginning being in English, but when you get to other countries the signs are in different languages and the buildings look a bit different.
Baloo was really interested in the different countries so we spent a lot of time talking about them. He was particularly interested in the language spoken in each different language. I was more interested in the food! We ended up having a traditional dish from each country for 5 nights. For Italy we had pizza and Gelato for dessert. It was my first time having gelato and I have to say, I am addicted!! Ice cream has nothing on gelato!
For France I made Coq au Vin in a crock pot. It was my first time making or having it and I really enjoyed it. The flavors are so different from what I’m used to! Neither Royal or Baloo would try it…but I liked it so much I’ve made it again since then!
For our French dessert we had Crème Brulee! I love it and my mom makes it frequently, but she usually waits until the boys are asleep. So it was quite a treat for them to see the sugar melting!
Royal was all about the crème brulee!
Baloo was not interested at all.
But he tried it anyway! And he didn’t like it. Oh well, all the more for me!
For Sri Lanka I made a cajun inspired fish dish. Well, that was the plan. In reality I picked up a preseasoned salmon meal from the freezer section. I couldn’t find the spices I needed!
Next up – England! I was so excited about this because I have been craving Fish and Chips for a LONG time. Granted, we used frozen beer battered fish and it’s nothing compared to real fish and chips, but we were just going for the experience here! Aside from pizza in Italy, this is the one meal that Baloo actually ate! I also cheated and got sweet potato fries(chips). I just can’t get enough of the sweet potato fries!
Sadly, we ended up skipping Jamaica. I was a bit burnt out from all the cooking I wasn’t used to. We were going to do Jerk Chicken.
Lastly, Vermont. I realize Vermont is in the US and we also live in the US so it’s not much of a change. But I needed an excuse to buy Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream which was born in Vermont! Gelato might have ruined ice cream for me, but Ben and Jerry’s is the one exception.
We did a few fun experiments in preparation for our apple pie. We wanted to see salt evaporating from water so I set up a little bowl of salt water.
We watched over the next 3 or 4 days as the water level slowly went down until we had just salt!
We had to made butter out of cream. I have never done this before and I was quite curious too!! Thankfully (for my arm’s sake) we have a stand mixer right now! Baloo was very curious at first.
And he was even more excited when the butter started forming and buttermilk flew everywhere. (Quick tip that I read after we made butter – throw a towel over the mixer so you don’t get buttermilk all over your kitchen!)
We ended up with about 2 tablespoons of butter!
With our butter and salt ready, it was time to make the apple pie. The apples needed to be sliced thinly so we used a mandolin. Baloo actually cut a few of the apples very carefully!
This is the most beautiful pie I have ever baked. Ever.
And Royal LOVED the pie (which we had sans ice cream, just like the book!) Baloo wouldn’t try it. Oh my sweet little picky eater…
Now naturally with all this apple pie talk we had to try out some different apples. I picked up a few at the grocery store at random. We ended up with granny smith, red delicious, golden delicious, gala, and another one I can’t think of right now (McIntosh maybe!). I cut half the apple into slices and left the other half whole and with the sticker so we knew what we were eating.
Baloo’s favorite was the granny smith.
Royal enjoyed the red and golden delicious most!
We used these printables to play this matching game. First I had Baloo try to remember the order of the countries and then we went through with the book and got everything into order. We messed it up and put them back in order a few times.
I had hoped to do some fun apple themed activities with Royal but he really wasn’t that interested in this book. He tagged along for a lot of our tasting activities, but after that he was not very interested. I remember getting this book from the library when Baloo was 3 and he wasn’t too interested either. Maybe we will row it again in about 2 years when Royal is ready for it!
For some amazing ideas for rowing How To Make An Apple Pie & See The World check out Delightful Learning!
