International Days and Borrowed Ideas

For the past few days, Daughter and I have been visiting other countries through our culinary skills.  We were bored with the same menu repeatedly and decided to venture out, making wholesome, home-cooked meals with fresh ingredients.  On Thursday, we visited Germany, preparing Sausage and Potatoes with Rosemary.

On Friday, we took a trip to Mexico, making handmade tortillas and using them to make Mexican style soft tacos, with shredded pork or taco ground beef served with fresh cilantro and chopped onion, sided with a salad and guacamole.

Saturday we traveled to Asia, preparing a pork stir fry with lots of fresh vegetables including some of the ginger I grew this past summer and served it over rice.

Today we stayed in Asia and made Red curry with Chicken, vegetables and rice.  Tomorrow we will make Ricotto and Mozarella and fresh pasta dough to make homemade Ravioli with spinach and cheese filling, served with some of the pasta sauce I canned last summer and a salad of fennel bulb and carrot.  After tomorrow, we will have to decide where next to visit.

As for borrowed ideas, we have had an eight year old who in spite of a home library of books, a bookshelf of games, a garage of outdoor toys and two beautiful days, Legos and many other indoor toys, has repeatedly announced, “I’m bored.”  Daughter saw a great idea on Pinterest, a “The Bored Jar,” a jar with tokens each with a chore or suggestion such as “Read for 30 minutes” and we decided that we would implement it.

Instead of a glass jar that could easily be broken, we bought a small galvanized bucket with a chalkboard label on the side.  With a paint pen, the label was completed and we bought a bag of 25 wooden disks on which I have been adding the suggestions/chores. Once we have disks all completed, we will fill him in and each time he states “I’m bored,” he will have to draw a disk from the bucket and spend however much time the disk requires or the task takes.  This should teach him some responsibility for entertaining himself and perhaps get a few chores accomplished without constant reminders.