Cultural Studies-Vietnam and Salsa

I have not been the best at blogging, but I am still going strong on not eating what I call fake foods. It would be a lie if I were to say that I have been perfect with it, because I haven't. It is a journey.

 

Confession time: Instead of making homemade tortillas one day, I used store bought. The week before I made fresh ones, I just ran out of time this week one day. And another day we took a .trip to the Kansas City LDS temple, which is two and half hours away. We ended up making a day out of the trip and were unprepared for dinner, so we were forced to stop for fast food. I even ordered fries to share, we rarely order fries. To be honest, it was gross, especially the fries. Ick. My body does not crave that stuff anymore. I half wonder how I ever liked that stuff.

 

Now for the good stuff. I canned a large batch of salsa. We live near an Amish community and I was able to get boxes of tomatoes, and cartons of jalapeno peepers and some bell peppers for dirt cheap. I was so thrilled I was able to can 36 jars (1/2 pints and half quart size). It took a whole day but was totally worth it. YUM!

 

For homeschool this year, we are learning World Geography and loving it. I found an absolutely awesome curriculum that the kids are learning from: Trail Guide to World Geography. We have been having so much fun with it. To add to our studies, I thought it would be fun to try out some dishes from different countries each week. This week, I chose to make a dish from Vietnam: Vietnamese chicken noodle salad (from: http://mediterrasian.com/delicious_recipes_vietnamese_chicken_noodle_salad.htm) This just looked so fresh to me and that is why I chose it.

 

Things I did different, I used bean noodles instead of rice. Though my son and I liked the noodles, my husband and other children didn't love them. So next time I'd just stick with the rice noodles. I also had trouble finding bean sprouts, so I used snap peas instead and through in some cherry tomatoes. This had a very unique flavor that we loved and I would definitely make it again.