Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Cookbooks & Passports in Brazil

Brazilian Black Bean Soup with sour cream and an orange slice

Today was a busy day in Cookbooks & Passports summer camp!  We learned about Brazil by exploring the rainforest, visiting the Brazilian butterflies, listening to Brazilian music and making Brazilian foods and crafts!

We started out by finding Brazil on our world maps, getting our passports stamped and coloring a picture of a toucan and cattleya orchid, both native to Brazil.


We then headed to the rainforest biome in the Conservatory and went on a scavenger hunt for Brazilian plants, animals and butterflies.  We found plants that are native to Brazil and met Mic and Max, the Conservatory's blue and gold macaws, in the rainforest biome.  We sang Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star to Mic and checked out the chocolate tree (the campers wanted us to cut down a cocoa pod so they could eat it, we talked about how chocolate is made, if we tried eating the cocoa pod right off the tree, it wouldn't taste like the chocolate we love!).


We finished our scavenger hunt by visiting the butterflies, this year most of them are from Brazil!  Our crafts today were carnival masks and tissue paper butterflies (inspired by the Tropical Blue Morpho Butterfly activity from Kids World Citizen!).  While working on our crafts and making snack, we danced to Brazilian Radio on Pandora!

For snack we made Brazilian Black Bean Soup from The New Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen, Brazilian Pão de Queijo (Cheese Rolls) from Kids World CitizenSweet Brigadeiros and Beijinhos (Brazilian party candies, also from Kids World Citizen) and Lemongrass-Ginger-Pineapple Iced Tea inspired by Pineapple and Lemongrass Tea (Chá de abacaxi com capim-santo) from Flavors of Brazil.



Overall today's recipes were pretty popular, except for the soup!  The black bean soup had only two 'thumbs up,' two 'sideways thumbs' and six 'thumbs down.'  Five campers weren't interested in trying the soup at all.  I'm surprised at how few campers liked the soup since the campers in Global Chefs two weeks ago really seemed to enjoy it!  The Brazilian cheese rolls, of course, were very popular!  Ten 'thumbs up,' one 'sideways thumbs' and four 'thumbs down.' The campers also loved the Brazilian party candies.  The chocolate ones were the most popular, but overall the campers gave them thirteen 'thumbs up,' two 'sideways thumbs' and no 'thumbs down!'  Our last recipe today, the pineapple iced tea was pretty popular, probably because the pineapple flavor was so strong (I could taste a 'hint' of ginger, the lemongrass wasn't noticeable.  The campers gave it eight 'thumbs up,' two 'sideways thumbs' and five 'thumbs down.' 

Tomorrow we travel to Mexico!

Creative Kids Culture Blog HopI am linking this post about our adventure learning about Brazil with Around the World in 12 Dishes and the Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop #7!

 
For more international craft and recipes ideas, check out my Pinterest board Global Chefs + Crafts! 

2 comments:

  1. I've been thinking of having a Brazil playdate for my little one and his friends, and you have given me some great ideas. I'll be pinning this and your other posts as well.

    I have truly enjoyed your Cookbooks & Passports summer camp. Your posts are detailed, and complete. Wish I was there, too! Thank you for linking up at Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop #7.

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    1. Thank you Frances! Brazil was definitely one of my favorite days from this camp and the Global Chefs camp I taught. The food was delicious, especially the cheese rolls! Good luck with your Brazilian play date - sounds like fun!

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