Dreaming of Hawaii with Pu'ili, Hawaiian Rhythm Sticks, Music and Stories

Now this winter has been harsh for most of North America. The past two weeks it seems it snows five to six inches every few days here. I am so over winter and cannot wait for spring!! My friend, Daria, invited me to make pu'ili with Hazel and tell you about her fabulous giveaways!! Daria is giving away a ukulele and a pair of pu'ili [POO' ee lee] which are Hawaiian rhythm sticks. Now she thought of us because she knows about Hazel's ukulele and knows how much Hazel loves to play it as well as any instrument really. We have even made our own ukulele. I should also add that Hawaii is my dream vacation. Steve has already been there, but it is the place I really want to go. One day I hope...

We Shall Overcome -- How a Song Affected the Civil Rights Movement

Do you know the song We Shall Overcome? Do you know its history with the Civil Rights Movement? I found some books to share it with Hazel. The song itself comes from an old gospel song, I'll Overcome Someday composed by Charles Albert Tindley. In 1945, workers were striking against the American Tobacco Company in Charleston, South Carolina, and the workers sang We'll Overcome (I'll Be All Right) to keep up their spirits. Their melody was closer to I'll Be All Right than to Tindley's version. In 1932 Highlander Folk School opened near Monteagle, Tennessee. Its purpose was to help unions in the South. In 1946 some members of the Charleston union came to Highlander and taught We Will Overcome to Zilphia Horton, Highlander's music director. That same year, Zilphia sang the song to Pete Seeger in New York. Pete Seeger had traveled with Woody Guthrie and later became a part of the folk group called the Weavers. Seeger altered the song to fit his own style of singing and changed the will to shall.



In the 1950s the focus of Highlander shifted from labor rights to civil rights. Many civil rights leaders attended training sessions including Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Reverend Ralph Abernathy.

At an anniversary event for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Pete Seeger sang We Shall Overcome. It was the first time Dr. King heard the song and later found himself humming the tune. We Shall Overcome played a role in many important events of the civil rights movement like the March on Washington in 1963, the Freedom Riders and the Selma to Montgomery marches. At the famous, "I Have a Dream" speech, Joan Baez performed and sang We Shall Overcome.

Joan Baez 1963, Source: By Scherman, Rowland, U.S. Information Agency. Press and Publications Service. (ca. 1953 - ca. 1978) (NARA - ARC Identifier: 542017) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Throughout the Civil Rights Movement, people joined hands and sang We Shall Overcome. Lines in the song were added at some of the events like "We are not afraid." People reported that singing the song took away their fears even when facing a mob of Ku Klux Klan members.

To share this song with Hazel, I found two books at the library. The first, We Shall Overcome: The Story of a Song by Debbie Levy, is the one I read to Hazel. It is a picture book with much information about the song as well as the lyrics throughout it. It tells how the students at sit-ins sang We Shall Overcome while being abused by the white patrons of the restaurants as well as throughout the movement.

The second book, We Shall Overcome: A Song That Changed the World by Stuart Stotts, is more of a resource book for older children. It gives more history and much less pictures. I used it as a reference for this post. It did come with a CD with Pete Seeger singing We Shall Overcome on it.

The best part of this song is that it traveled the world and was sung in other countries like India, East Germany, South Korea, and the list goes on.

Resources for this post: Wikipedia, We Shall Overcome: A Song That Changed the World by Stuart Stotts, We Shall Overcome: The Story of a Song by Debbie Levy, and YouTube

Like my post last week on Thurgood Marshall, I will be adding this to the Multicultural Kid Blogs Black History Month Blog Hop.  Feel free to add your own posts on the Civil Rights Movement to the hop!

Around the World in 12 Dishes--Peruvian Purple Corn Pudding

Have you entered my current giveaway yet? There is just over a day left to enter!!

This month we are exploring Peru with Around the World in 12 Dishes. Now for Peru, I e-mailed my friend, Daria for recipe advice. Daria actually lived in Peru for part of her childhood. She suggested we make a mazamorra morado or Peruvian purple corn pudding. She even suggested a recipe for us. But before we get into our delicious recipe, let's talk about Peru. Now we discussed a little of Peru awhile ago when we reviewed Daria's A Child's Life in the Andes and the companion CD Little Songs of the Andes. Both are available for sale at Daria's Little Village Store.











Peru is a country in western South America and was home to many ancient civilizations including one of the oldest in the world, Norte Chico, and the Inca, the largest state in Pre-Columbian America. The Spanish Empire conquered Peru in the 16th Century and Peru gained its independence from Spain in 1821. Peru has the peaks of The Andes as well as the rainforests of the Amazon Basin. Spanish is the main language in Peru, however many Peruvians speak Quechua or other native languages. (Source)

Now let's talk about our mazamorra morada. If you want a wonderful scent in your house, I suggest you cook this pudding. I can still smell the sweet pineapple, cinnamon and cloves in the air a day after making it. Now we used this recipe found on About.com. Normally I post my Around the World Dishes on the third Tuesday of the month, however I had some trouble finding purple corn. Daria had suggested a Hispanic market. I called six I found on-line. Only one answered (and one had been disconnected). The one that answered did not have purple corn, so I goggled it and found it at Amazon. I didn't get it until after the third Tuesday and then I had to get the other fresh ingredients.

Mazamorra Morada or Peruvian Purple Corn Pudding

Ingredients:
1 pound dried purple corn
1/2 pineapple (including rind)
1 quince (or a green apple if quince is not available)
1 teaspoon whole cloves
3 cinnamon sticks
1 apple
1 cup dried fruit: prunes, apricots and/or cherries (we used prunes)
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons corn starch
juice of 1 lime

The first step is to put the dried fruit in a heat proof bowl and cover it with boiling water. Then set aside to cool.

Next put the purple corn in a large pot and add 10 cups of water. Then cut the pineapple into small bite sizes. Put the cut pineapple aside but add the rinds to the pot. Quarter the quince and add it to the pot with the cinnamon sticks and cloves. Bring the water to boil and boil uncovered for about 30 minutes until the water is purple (which it is almost instantly) and the quince is very soft. While it was boiling, Hazel juiced the lime and we took a pineapple break with the other half of the pineapple. It was the first time Hazel liked a fresh pineapple though she did get a hurt tongue from eating too much of it.

Once the mixture is done, strain the liquid and return the liquid to the pot. Throw away the corn, pineapple rinds, cinnamon sticks and cloves. Take 1/2 cup of the liquid and put it in a small bowl with the cornstarch. Set it aside for later. Peel and cut the apple into small bites. Add the sugar, pineapple, apple, dried fruit (strained from the water), and a pinch of salt to the pot. Bring the mixture to a boil and boil for about 20 minutes until the apple is soft. Stir occasionally.

Add the cornstarch mixture and bring to a boil again. Stir constantly for about 5 minutes until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat and stir in the lime juice. Cool. Serve room temperature or chilled. Sprinkle with cinnamon when serving.

We loved it!! Steve thought it was a bit spicy, but he enjoyed it.

We of course enjoyed some stories from Peru. Hazel really loves hearing the different stories from all the different cultures.

We also listened to some Peruvian music with songs from these CDs. 

We also looked at some resource books.

Now a few of these books are craft books. The textile book suggested a Peruvian weaving as a craft. Since we did a weaving recently, I decided not to attempt this right now. We did however try the Peruvian clay whistle from the World Crafts Musical Instruments book. Ours did not turn out well though. (It was suppose to look like the yellow one on the cover.)

So that is our exploration of Peru. Have you explored Peru or made a Peruvian dish? Feel free to link up here and visit the others to see more dishes and explorations!! Also print out the Peru Placemat and Passport Pages to have explorations with your own kids.

Christmas in Jamaica--Christmas in Different Lands

I joined with a group of Multicultural Kid Blogs to present Christmas in Different Lands. I get the pleasure of presenting Christmas in Jamaica. Last week we made a Jamaican Sweet Potato Pone for Around the World in 12 Dishes. Cooking the Caribbean Way by Cheryl Davidson Kaufman said it was a typical dish for Christmas morning. All the references on-line suggested it being a favorite dessert. For the most part Christmas in Jamaica is similar to Christmas in the United States (and much of the world). They have Santa Claus or Father Christmas. They decorate trees and/or hang lights and exchange gifts. Many places describe it as a non-stop party time. I wanted to find things that made the celebration different from other parts of the world.

Around the World in 12 Dishes: Jamaica

Congratulations to Natalie from Afterschool for Smarty Pants on winning my latest giveaway!

Today we are "traveling" to Jamaica with Around the World with 12 Dishes. As usual we have been exploring Jamaica with stories, books, music and food. We will be spending a little extra time in Jamaica since we are joining a wonderful group of Multicultural Kid Blogs to present Christmas in Different Lands and have chosen Christmas in Jamaica which we will post about on December 23rd! I hope you will come back to learn more about Christmas in Jamaica and a huge thank you to Sherika from Saturday Market in Jamaica who is helping me with my research and giving me some recipes to present this to you!!

Source: By Directorate of Intelligence, CIA [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea. Christopher Columbus claimed it for the Spanish in 1494. When he arrived in Jamaica there was more than 200 villages of indigenous people living there. The indigenous people are the Taino and the Arawak.  The Taino still inhabited the island when the British took command in 1655.When the British took over, the Spanish colonists freed their slaves and left. The slaves joined the Taino in the mountains. The group was called the Maroons and they fought the British throughout the 18th century. Under British rule Jamaica became the world's largest sugar exporter as well as the largest slave-dependent country. After the abolition of slavery, the British brought in Indian and Chinese indentured servants to do the work. Their descendents still live there.

Doll my grandparents brought me from their trip to Jamaica

In the beginning of the 19th century the ratio of black people to white people in Jamaica was 20 to 1. Jamaica gained its independence in 1962. It is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy. Queen Elizabeth II is the ruling monarch and head of state. Her appointed representative in the country is the Governor-General of Jamaica, currently Sir Patrick Allen.

The climate in Jamaica is tropical. The official language is English. However Jamaicans speak an English-African Creole language known as Jamaican Patois. Reggae music originated in Jamaica along with some other types. Reggae music helped spread knowledge of Jamaican Patois.

A bowl of our sweet potato pone

Ok, now onto our recipe. We made Sweet Potato Pone. The book, Cooking the Caribbean Way by Cheryl Davidson Kaufman said it was a popular dish for Christmas morning, but all the references I have seen on-line say it is a favorite dessert. I, of course, returned the book  by mistake before making it, so we used a recipe I found on-line at Real Jamaican Vacations.

Sweet Potato Pone
1 lb sweet potato, grated (this is about one large sweet potato)
1 cup flour (we used gluten-free)
1 cup evaporated milk
2 cups coconut milk (we used canned)
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 cup grated coconut
1 cup raisins
2 tbsp margarine


Combine sweet potato with milk, sugar, flour and spices. Mix well. Add raisins, coconut and margarine. Mix thoroughly and taste for sweetness. Add more sugar to taste. Pour into a greased baking pan and bake at 370F for approximately 1 hour, or until center is set.It took 70 minutes for us.

At first we tried shredding our sweet potato. However after we mixed it all together, I realized it need to be finer. At this point Hazel had lost interest (well more like lost energy due to being sick), so I put it back in the food processor all mixed together and got it more grated instead of shredded. This seemed to do the trick. Hazel helped peel the sweet potato and shred it. Then she helped measure (including packing the brown sugar down) and stir it all together. We had to pretend we worked in a restaurant which apparently needs new employees since she kept going off to talk to the ones not doing their jobs. Oh, the imagination of an almost five-year-old. Hazel said she liked the pone, but did not eat much of it. Of course she didn't eat much of anything that day since she was sick. Steve and I both liked it a lot.

Here are the books we used to look at recipes, crafts and more.

Then we enjoyed stories from these books. Hazel especially liked the Anansi stories. It is funny the difference a year makes. She did not like the Annasi stories when we read some of them from Africa.

Finally we found some Jamaican music to enjoy on these CD's. Much of the music is reggae or calypso, but it is fun music!

For some more Jamaican recipes stop by on December 23rd and check out these great posts. If you have a Jamaican recipe to share, please link it up. Also you can get the Jamaican passport pages and placemat. Plus join us next month as we "travel" to Peru!


Make sure you check out:

• A Caribbean Rapunzel
• A Caribbean Cinderella

Jingle, Jingle Bells

Have you entered my current giveaway yet? Also the Little Pim Giveaway?

So Hazel and I have been singing Old MacDonald's Farm on the way to school. We have added some more things to the song. One is that he has a Hazel whenever we both say the same thing. She giggles everywhere. We also added a Christmas tree to his farm. It jingles everywhere. This works perfectly with the wonderful ebook Daria has put out: Jingle Bells: 4 Easy Musical Crafts for Holiday Fun! Daria was kind enough to send us a copy of it for our use. I have chosen to review it here and did not receive any compensation besides a free copy of the book and all opinions are my own (and Hazel's).

We made two of the four projects so far. Yes, we plan to make all four. 

Hazel had the best time playing with them. Sorry I couldn't get the video to rotate on here. It is fine off-line.

 We made the jingle bracelets and the jingle sticks.

Hazel showing both of hers

The jingle stick is pretty simple and you can be creative with colors.

My Jingle Stick

 The jingle bracelet is very simple as well. 

My Jingle Bracelet

So head over to Daria's Little Village Store and purchase a copy of her Jingle Bell e-book for $2.99 and join us in some jingle holiday fun!

Around the World in 12 Dishes: Korea Chap ch'ae

Have you entered my current giveaway? It ends Tuesday!!

Around the World in 12 Dishes is traveling to Korea this month. On Sunday we shared a Korean Cinderella tale called Kongi and Potgi. Today we are going to share our experience trying some Korean recipes and music and stories. We also did a few easy Korean crafts.

Coloring Page from RainbowKids

The dish we spent the most time making together was Chap ch'ae or Mixed Vegetables with Cellophane Noodles.  We found the recipe in Cooking the Korean Way by Okwha Chung and Judy Monroe. We compared recipes in a few books. We all loved this meal.

Chap ch'ae (adapted from Cooking the Korean Way)
4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
1 clove of garlic finely chopped
4 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds
1 boneless chicken breast cut into bite-sized pieces
1 package of cellophane noodles
6 tablespoons oil (unless you have the pan I have)
1 large onion, chopped
4 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 2 inch pieces
1 cup baby spinach, washed
5 teaspoons sesame oil
(Note: we took out the black mushrooms and water for them and the bean sprouts)

1. In  a large ziploc bag combine 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 teaspoon sugar, garlic, 2 teaspoons sesame seeds. Add chicken and seal and distribute the mixture among the chicken. (Note: if you do not have toasted sesame seeds, toast them first by putting them in a frying pan with no oil and on medium heat. Stir and cook until they are brown and smelly nutty.)
2. Cook and drain noodles according to package. Place in a large bowl and set aside.
3. In a large frying pan or wok, heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil over high heat for 1 minute. Add the chicken and fry, stirring frequently, for 2 to 3 minutes or until chicken is white and tender. Remove from heat and add chicken to noodles. (We have a new pan that does not require oil to cook, so we did not use any oil for the cooking. I love this new pan!)
4. Wipe out pan. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil and cook vegetables. (The recipe says to do this separately, but we did it together as a stir-fry.) Then add vegetables to chicken and noodles. 
5. Combine 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 teaspoon sugar, sesame oil and remaining sesame seeds. Pour over mixture.
6. Serve warm or at room temperature.

 While this was cooking and we were eating we made Oi naeng guk or cold cucumber soup (the recipe also came from Cooking the Korean Way). We however did not really like it, so we are not going to share it with you. A different night I made Pulgogi (Barbecued beef) which we loved, but Hazel did not help make it and I didn't take any pictures (it was eaten before I got my camera out). The recipe also came from Cooking the Korean Way.

We have been enjoying some Korean stories as well. Here are the variety of picture books we have found at our library. One goes through the alphabet and describes things in Korea. Another counts to ten in English and Korean and relates each number to something in Korea. Then there are traditional stories as well as modern stories.

 We also made some crafts. One that we did was a simple version of the Korean game, Yut-nori.  There are simple instructions on TLC. We used dot markers instead of stickers and I let Hazel do it. We used glass gems as our playing pieces.

We also made a traditionally dressed paper doll. We got it from Education.com. Hazel loved this craft and wants me to make more clothes for her.

We also made a Tradtional Korean Sam Taeguk Fan from a template found at 4 Crazy Kings. I let Hazel choose the colors and had not shown her theirs, but she picked the same colors.

Our final exploration of Korea has been listening to some music we got from the library. The first two CD's we listened to came from the adult section and they were all right, but we did not listen to them too long. We have not listened to the children's music yet, but I'm planning on bringing it in my car tomorrow on our way to school.

So that is our exploration of Korea. Have you cooked any Korean food that you would like to share in our trip around the world? This blog hop is brought to you by the following amazing blogs! Please be sure to visit them to see what they cooked this month.

Adventures In Mommydom - Afterschooling for Smarty Pants - All Done Monkey - Crafty Moms Share - Creative World of Varya - Glittering Muffins - Here Come The Girls - Kid World Citizen -  Mermaids’ Makings - The Educators’ Spin On It - Maroc Mama

Also check out Around the World in 12 Dishes on Pinterest. Be sure to follow so you will not miss a thing! The Korean Placemat is available here and the Korean Passport Pages are available here. Now it is your turn to share or to be inspired to try some of the recipes shared at this blog hop!

Around the World in 12 Dishes--New Zealand Kiwi Cake

This month we are "traveling" to New Zealand with Around the World in 12 Dishes. Now one of Hazel's favorite fruits is a kiwi. I don't always buy them due to the cost at certain times of the year, but she can literally eat a couple in a sitting if I let her. At the end of August she asked why we couldn't grow our own kiwis. I decided to see if there were any books on growing your own at the library and found two: Eat the Fruit, Plant the Seed by Millicent Selsam and Jerome Wexler and Grow It Again by Elizabeth MacLeod. We checked them out and gave it a try. Currently we have a bag of soil with kiwi seeds in our refrigerator. You have to chill them for five to six weeks so they think they are planted through a winter. We will be planting them in a pot in October.

Coloring Page available at DLTK Kids

Since Hazel loves kiwi it only seemed fitting to try a kiwi recipe. We decided to try a recipe for kiwi cake. We adapted the recipe from The Search for NZ's Favourite Recipe for kiwifruit and ginger cake. The first thing we had to do was figure out how to make it gluten free since the whole family has gone reduced gluten now or really no gluten when we can control it. Plus we had to figure out the measurements and oven temperature.

Ingredients
Butter (about 9 Tablespoons or 1 stick and a tablespoon more)
1 cups Sugar
2 Eggs
5 Medium Kiwis, peeled and mashed (Hazel loved mashing them)
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 Tablespoon Boiling Milk (I put it in the microwave for 45 seconds and that was a bit too long, so try 30)
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
2 cups Gluten Free All Purpose Flour
1/2 teaspoon Xanthan Gum
1 teaspoon dried ground ginger
Chocolate Frosting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8-inch or 9-inch cake pan.

Hazel showing off the green batter

Cream the butter and sugar with your mixer. Hazel loves controlling the mixer plus adding things to the bowl.

Add the eggs. Hazel always beats them slightly for me.

Dissolve the baking soda in the boiling milk. Then add this mixture and the mashed kiwi to the sugar mixture.

Combine the flour, baking powder, xanthan gum and ginger and then add it to the rest of the ingredients.

Put in the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool and then frost with chocolate frosting.

Cooling right out of oven

We could not wait for the frosting to try it, so we cut into it before it was completely cool.

We loved it. In fact we each had two pieces before we frosted it. Hazel loved to point out the black dots and tell me they were the seeds of the kiwi.

We bought a can of pre-made frosting which I hardly ever do, but Hazel had a cold and was home sick from school when we made the cake. We both frosted the remainder of the cake. Then had a piece for dessert at dinner. Steve did not like it, but that does not surprise me since he does not like kiwis or anything new for that matter.

We of course read stories and looked at many non-fiction books to learn more about New Zealand. We discovered Margaret Mahy, a New Zealand author who has many books here in the States. We really loved her book, Making Friends. We read many Maori stories and legends. The Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand.

We also looked at reference books.

And we looked at some of the wildlife unique to New Zealand--in particular birds.

Hazel really loved The Moa book by Tamara Green. She read it to Ducky the next morning and loved looking at the pictures of the extinct or almost extinct bird. We learned a new word, ratite which the moa and the kiwi are members of. Ratite is a species of flightless birds which include the ostrich, emu and others.

As always we also listened to some music from New Zealand. Here are some of the CD covers we found the music to listen.

So that has been our exploration of New Zealand. Hazel still wants to make a kiwi tart, so we may be doing some more with this wonderful country. However now it is your turn to share and to visit. Please visit these other wonderful host blogs.

Adventures In Mommydom - Afterschooling for Smarty Pants - All Done Monkey - Crafty Moms Share - Creative World of Varya - Glittering Muffins - Here Come The Girls - Kid World Citizen - Kitchen Counter Chronicles - Mermaids’ Makings - The Educators’ Spin On It - Maroc Mama
 

Also check out Around the World in 12 Dishes on Pinterest. Be sure to follow so you will not miss a thing! Here are the passport pages for New Zealand. Here is the placemat for New Zealand.

Please share any dishes you have tried from New Zealand or crafts, activities, etc. to teach your child(ren) about New Zealand.