Dena De Clute
Author
World Geography Wednesday Visits England
The first time I visited the UK, I was studying abroad through my university’s summer school program. We were in Paris for the majority of the semester, but the last week of school was in London.
Though I did see Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre, the cultural highlights back then were pub crawling, flirting with the guards at Buckingham Palace, and watching punk rockers in the Underground. And the food in the dorm cafeteria was abysmal.
It wasn’t until I went back to London with my husband years later (no longer as a broke-ass college kid) that I got to experience a proper High Tea. For World Geography Wednesday, I decided to recreate this fun English tradition for my kids.
“I thought how unpleasant it is to be locked out; then I thought how it is worse, perhaps, to be locked in.” – Virginia Woolf
Teaching Kids About England
Having lived in Scotland (that’s another blog post), my kids already know that England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the UK). I dug out my old map of London, and we studied some new maps as well.
Even before I became an urban fantasy author, the first chapter books I read to my children were The Chronicles of Narnia by English author C. S. Lewis. Aside from being part of the canon for urban fantasy, these books unlocked my imagination as a child and established my ongoing love of fantasy novels. (Shameless plug to check out my books…)
In preparation for our High Tea, we watched the movie The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe based on the second book in the Narnia series. Though they’re set primarily in a magical land, they give a great account of English culture around WWII. We also revisited every British book we have, even the picture books.
Yankees in England
Here’s some of what we learned:
You might know that the Englishman John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, invented the sandwich. (He was a gambling addict who asked a servant to bring him some roast beef stuck between two pieces of bread so he could keep playing.)
So, it’s not surprising that the English tend to love cucumber sandwiches, Cornish pasties, sausage rolls, mince pies, or any other variation of handheld breading with filling.
But did you know that the World Wide Web was invented by a British scientist, Tim Berners-Lee? Go figure.
Or that the “English Garden” landscaping trend was actually a revolt against the geometric gardens popularized in France? You won’t find sculpted trees or forced straight lines in any self-respecting English landscape. No, ma’am.
Preparing a High Tea
Enough research, it’s time to start cooking!
Drinks and Salad
The foundation of any High Tea is a teapot full of hot brewed tea, plus milk (or cream) and sugar. Full stop.
It can be a Chinese blend (oolong), Indian (chai), or English (Earl Grey) – dealer’s choice. You can use tea bags or loose leaves; green, white, or black. But preferably, it should not be herbal (like chamomile), which doesn’t contain leaves from an actual tea plant. We went with Lady Grey, a strong black tea that smells like bergamot.
The salad was pear, walnut, and blue cheese. It was delicious and a perfect starter for all the breaded things to come.
Handhelds
Cucumber sandwiches are pretty straightforward. But I zhuzhed up mine with “Everything Bagel” seasoning mixed into the cream cheese. You’re welcome.
The scones (which are NOT triangular, as they’re named after the round stone ancient Scottish kings were crowned upon) are from a buttermilk recipe that I adore. But feel free to use canned biscuit dough – your kids won’t mind! Serve them with lots of butter (or clotted cream), jam, and lemon curd.
Foodie Police Disclaimer: If you’ve read my other posts, you know I sometimes simplify international recipes to make these meals more practical. Paul Hollywood (from The Great British Bakeoff) would probably not approve of store-bought dough. But it’s a school night, and we’re all doing our best!
I ended up making my own clotted cream. (I’m not a martyr, but they don’t have fresh clotted cream at my grocery store. Just the flavorless, shelf-stable stuff in a jar.) It was super simple to make. You just pour a pint of heavy cream into a shallow dish, put the dish in your crockpot, pour water outside the dish until it comes halfway up the sides, and let it cook on high for (hear me out) 12 hours. You’ll have to add water every 3-4 hours, but otherwise you leave it alone. DON’T STIR IT. Cover the dish with foil and let it cool in the fridge overnight so it separates. Scrape the clotted (solid) cream off the top, and save the liquid. The liquid is buttermilk, which you need for the scone recipe anyway. Win-win!
The quiche I made was a basic spinach and cheese. Here’s the process, in pictures.
Main Course
For a meaty centerpiece that my kids loved, I made an apple and sausage roll. It’s iconically British, easy to make, savory, and delicious with caramelized onions. The full recipe is below if you’re interested.
Sweets
Normally, sweets are the highlight of a proper High Tea. The dessert stand should be stacked with chocolate bonbons or truffles, petit fours (bite-sized iced cakes), cream puffs, macarons, or biscuits (cookies) of all kinds. Because I was already giving my kids caffein right before bedtime on a school night, I just served one dessert: mini chocolate cream pies. They were totally worth it…
Sausage Rolls
INGREDIENTS:
½ white onion
½ apple
olive oil
brown sugar
1-lb breakfast sausage (preferably sage)
garlic
½-punnet button mushrooms, sliced
Tony Chachere’s “Original” Seasoning
rosemary
2-cans crescent dough
1 egg
sesame seeds (optional)
TOOLS:
baking pan
aluminum foil
heavy skillet with lid
spatula
small bowl
whisk
pastry brush
PROCESS:
Preheat the oven to 450˚. Cut the onion and apple into small pieces. Line the baking pan with aluminum foil. Spread the onion and apple pieces on the foil, drizzle them with olive oil, and sprinkle them with brown sugar. Toss it all together, spread it out, and bake it for about 30-min. to caramelize it.
Put the sausage meat in the skillet and turn the heat on High. Add the mushrooms and garlic, and season it with rosemary and Tony’s. When it starts to sizzle, lower the heat to Med-Hi. Brown the meat, breaking it up into small pieces with the spatula. Once the onions and apples are ready, add them to the skillet, and stir everything well. (Remove and recycle the aluminum foil but keep the baking pan out.) Reduce the oven temperature to 350˚.
Sprinkle a little flour on your counter and open a can of crescent dough. Unroll it into one big rectangle and lay it on the flour. Spoon half of the sausage mixture down the middle of the dough (like filling a taco), fold it over on both sides, and pinch the ends closed. Lay the roll on the baking pan, then repeat with the other can of dough and the other half of the sausage. Whisk the egg, brush it on top of both rolls, and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake the rolls for about 15 minutes until golden brown.
I hope you enjoyed this article on teaching your kids about England! Check back here for more kid-friendly geography ideas.
World Geography Wednesday Visits Brazil
I had the unbelievable privilege to live in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for a year and a half. Our apartment was in the heart of Zona Sul on the coast in the Flamengo district, right across the street from the Carmen Miranda Museum and within view of Sugarloaf Mountain, “Pãu de Açucar”. My son says it was like being on a tropical vacation that never ended.
“Look at me and tell me if I don’t have Brazil in every curve of my body.”
Carmen Miranda
I’d take my kids to the playground across the street by the beach, where we’d eat coconut cake and search for cicadas. Cicadas dig holes in the ground to suck nutrients from tree roots, and they live in Brazil by the millions. We’d also ride our scooters on the hard-packed paths and collect windfall star fruit to eat at home. My kids had so much fun there!
There was never a shortage of things to do and see in Rio. We lived like tourists and found somewhere amazing to go almost every weekend, like Escadaria Selaron. We were still in the Honeymoon stage of our time there when we had to move back to the states, and we never lost our sense of wonder.
Teaching Kids About Brazil
For this World Geography Wednesday, we pulled out our Rio travel guides, South American maps, family photos, and Brazilian story books. My son was in kindergarten and my daughter was a toddler when we left, so I really wanted to remind them what living there was like.
We read “Afternoon on the Amazon” by Mary Pope Osborne, and “The Parrot Tico Tango” by Anna Witte. We also watched the movie “Rio” – which was surprisingly accurate in terms of carioca culture (the people who live in Rio de Janeiro). Personally, I was never served chicken gizzards there, but it wouldn’t have surprised me.
Gringos in Brazil
During our first week in Rio de Janeiro, my husband ordered a Coke at a kiosk in Copacabana beach. This is what they served! (“Coca” means coconut in Portuguese, and he did not articulate it well.) Needless to say, it was deliciously refreshing and he didn’t send it back.
In addition to tons of fresh fruit sold at “sucos” juice stands all over the city, the surrounding rainforest was ripe with exotic animals and vegetation. We’d visit Jardim Botanico for impromptu biology lessons on lizards, bamboo, orchids growing from trees, and freaky little monkeys scampering around scavenging for mangoes.
Cooking Brazilian Food
Drinks and Nibbles
In homage to our magical time there, for our Brazilian World Geography Wednesday we started with fresh watermelon juice, “suco de melançia”. To make it, you literally just put chopped watermelon in a blender. You don’t even strain out the seeds. Kiwi and pureed açai, a berry that grows in the Amazon, made a nice fresh salad.
Our appetizer was cheese buns, “pãu de queijo”, our favorite snack made with cheese from the Brazilian state Minas Gerais. These were store-bought from the frozen food section, since (unsurprisingly) I couldn’t find the right cheese in Houston. They were actually authentic and delicious, and I buy them every time I see them in the grocery store.
Main Course
Our main course was the Brazilian national dish: black bean stew with rice, “feijoada é arroz”. Where I’m from in South Louisiana, red beans and rice are very common and follow the same basic recipe (though Brazilians typically use black beans). You just sauté onions, bell pepper, celery, and garlic. Then add pork sausage and beans and simmer covered until the beans are tender. In Rio, I would use “linguiça Portuguesa” sausage, but here I had to use cured pork sausage.
To see how to cook feijoada step-by-step, check out my video: WORLD GEOGRAPHY WEDNESDAY VISITS BRAZIL.
Dessert
To satisfy our sweet tooth, we had coconut cake and homemade brigadeiros, or “soldiers”. Brigadeiros are a velvety chocolate truffle made famous by Brigadier Eduardo Gomes around WWII. My Portuguese instructor made a huge batch of them for my daughter’s third birthday party, and we’ve loved them ever since.
They’re super easy to make and fun for kids. Here’s the recipe if you’re interested. Enjoy!
Brigadeiros
INGREDIENTS:
3 TBSP butter
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
¼ cup cocoa powder (or chocolate milk powder)
sprinkles, chopped pecans, shredded coconut, etc.
TOOLS:
small pot
can opener
whisk
cookie sheet
rubber spatula
mini cupcake liners
small bowls for toppings
PROCESS:
Melt the butter in a small pot over Med-Hi heat. Add the condensed milk and cocoa powder and whisk it until it starts to bubble. Lower the heat to Low and cook (stirring often) until it’s thick, about 10 minutes.
Pour the chocolate mixture onto a cookie sheet and spread it out. Refrigerate it until it sets, about an hour.
Put your toppings in small bowls. Rub a little butter between your palms to get them greasy. Scoop up about 2 TBSP of the mixture and roll it into a ball. Roll it around in whatever topping you want, then put it in a mini cupcake liner. Keep doing this for all your mixture.
I hope you enjoyed this article on teaching your kids about Brazil! Follow my blog, or Subscribe to my YouTube channel, WORLD GEOGRAPHY WEDNESDAY for more kid-friendly geography and cooking ideas! Hope to see you next week.
World Geography Wednesday Visits Scotland
Aberdeen, Scotland was our first overseas assignment in the oil and gas industry. (We eventually moved to Holland, then Brazil). We lived there for three brilliant years – my son was actually born there – and acted like happy tourists the entire time. Our Scottish neighbors joked that we’d visited places they’d always wanted to go to but had never been.
Revisiting the photos, food, and maps of the Highlands to write this World Geography Wednesday post has been a true pleasure.
Teaching Kids About Scotland
To begin with, we read Scottish stories like, “Hamish the Hairy Haggis” by A.K. Paterson, and “Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster” by Richard Brassey. My kids still aren’t 100% sure if these creatures are real! Then we pulled out our maps of Europe, The UK, and Scotland with its capital city Edinburgh.
If you’d like a free tour of Scotland (or are planning a trip), visit Historic Scotland and check out the map of all their properties. They have castles, manor homes, gardens, forts…you’d be hard pressed to see it all! Their Facebook page also has many videos to check out, even some for kids.
I could never do the region justice with just a short blog post. Rabbie Burns (more on him below), the Hogmanay Fireball Ceremony, Highland Games, and a tribute to Culloden could easily fill a book – and rightfully inspired my next novel, FIGHTING FOR THE CROWN.
But as a mom, you learn that small hands are easy to fill. And teaching my kids about Scotland was easily achieved with an authentic Scottish meal, looking at photos of our time there, and watching the movie BRAVE after cleaning the kitchen.
Scottish Culture
Let’s unpack a little bit about Scottish culture, starting with Robert Burns. Known as Rabbie Burns, he was the national poet and bard of Scotland. Most of his poems and songs were written in the Scots dialect of English. If you’ve ever sung “Auld Lang Syne” on New Year’s Eve, then you know at least one song by Rabbie Burns!
Scotland celebrates his birthday every year with a “Burns Supper” on January 25. It starts with the Selkirk Grace and progresses to the “Address to the Haggis” – which is the main course – served with neeps and tatties (turnips and potatoes) and LOTS of whisky. And YES, every man in attendance wears a kilt if he has one!
The Selkirk Grace
“Some hae meat and cannae eat. Some nae meat but want it. We hae meat and we can eat and sae the Lord be thankit.”
(Some have meat and cannot eat. Some no meat but want it. We have meat and we can eat and so the Lord be thanked.)
There’s always a piper (someone playing the bagpipes) at an authentic Burns Night Celebration and plenty of Scottish country dancing. We were lucky to attend several Burns Suppers during our time there, and each one was a blast.
Hiking is also a big part of Scottish life, especially where we lived in the Highlands. From Aberdeen, we were within a 30-minute drive of several castles (Drum Castle, Crathes Castle, and Dunnottar Caste, just to name a few), and each one had its own well-manicured “wilderness walk”. Most Saturdays, we would drive out to a castle, hike the 1–3-mile paths that meandered across the estate, then have tea at the manor house before heading home. It was absolutely idyllic.
We were also close to the Grampian Mountains if we really wanted a proper hike, and several lochs with paths open to the public, like Loch Kinord. We didn’t have Fitbits back then, but I guarantee we put on some miles!
Cooking Scottish Food
I pulled out our Anderson tartan napkins (derived from “son of Andrew”, the patron saint of Scotland) and a heather-patterned tablecloth, one of the national flowers of Scotland.
We used our Highland coo espresso mugs for the whisky. Don’t judge – they were the perfect size!
Starters
We started with sharp Scottish cheddar and Walkers oatcakes. You could also spoon a bit of ploughman’s chutney on top if you can find it in your grocery store’s international food section. It’s a blend of onions, apples, garden vegetables, dried fruits, brown sugar, and malt vinegar.
I also made – our favorite – Cullen Skink. It’s a rich, creamy, smoked fish soup. My kids (and husband) ADORE it! I’ve included the recipe below, in case you’re interested.
Main Course
For our Scottish main course, I served grilled salmon. It’s very easy to cook; I taught my kids, and they love making (and eating) it. Here’s a short video on how to do it.
You basically just sear a skinless salmon fillet in a hot skillet for 90-seconds on each side – long enough to form a crust, but not long enough to cook the center. Then you bake it uncovered in a 425˚-degree oven for 10 minutes for well-done, or (better yet) 8 minutes for medium.
The sides were skillet potatoes and roasted Brussels sprouts tossed in bacon fat. Pretty much ANYTHING roasted in bacon fat is delicious, and these sprouts are no exception! (You could use olive oil if you prefer.)
Another FANTASTIC side for your Scottish meal is Scotch Eggs! (We actually eat is as a main course.) If you want to see how to make Scotch Eggs, check out my World Geography Wednesday Visits Scotland video.
Dessert
The whisky was as bracing as I remember – sláinte! – and the ginger shortbread was a nice finale.
Next time, I’ll show you how to make cranachan, a layered dessert with raspberries, whipped cream, and toasted oats with honey.
Cullen Skink Recipe
Ingredients
3-4 Russet potatoes
1/2 stick butter
1 onion, chopped
1 bay leaf
about 4 cups of milk
8 oz. smoked haddock, or smoked salmon
2 catfish fillets, or tilapia
pepper
about 1 cup heavy cream
green onions, chopped
Tools
potato peeler
cutting board and knife
large pot
large measuring cup
cooking spoon
potato masher
Process
Peel and rinse the potatoes, then chop them into bite-sized cubes.
Melt the butter in the pot on High, then add the onion and sauté it for about 7-minutes. Add the bay leaf, milk, and potatoes, and bring it to a boil. (If there’s not enough milk to cover the potatoes, add some more.) Lower the heat to Med-Hi, and let it simmer for 10-minutes.
Meanwhile, chop the smoked salmon and white fish into small pieces.
Add them to the potatoes, add pepper, and simmer for about 10-minutes more until the fish are cooked and the potatoes are tender.
Remove the bay leaf, and gently mash the potatoes and fish in the pot – not completely, just enough for a chunky texture. Add enough heavy cream for a soupy consistency, then bring it back to simmer. Turn it off as soon as it bubbles.
Taste it and only add salt if needed. (The smoked fish is usually pretty salty.) Enjoy!
I hope you enjoyed this post about World Geography Wednesday in Scotland! Please Follow and Subscribe to my blog and my WGW YouTube channel to see more fun content on world geography for kids. See you next week!
World Geography Wednesday Studies France
One Summer in Paris…
Some readers ask how I researched Paris when writing THE WRATH OF NIKE – especially since it influenced the title theme. Am I French, with this doozie of a last name? Did I once live in France?
What gives??
When I was in college, I spent a summer in Paris studying European sustainable design practices through my university’s study abroad program. Being Cajun French (and with student loans being what they are), I was lucky to take advantage of an affordable opportunity to visit my roots and get a little European polish along with college credit.
OK, fine. I just wanted to wink at cute Parisian guys over glasses of red wine in chic bars named after black cats. Don’t judge me.
It’s the Journey, Not the Destination!
That summer instilled in me an enduring love for good coffee, pastries, and international travel. A desire that was partially satisfied when my husband and I moved overseas for nine years as oil expats.
Both of my kids were actually born in Europe, so it’s understandable that I want to instill this love of cultural curiosity in them, as well.
When writing THE WRATH OF NIKE, it was awesome going through my scrapbook to write certain scenes, pulling out my tattered and dogeared metro map to find which stops my characters needed to get off.
Yes, Google Maps would’ve been more efficient. But it’s the journey, not the destination, right?
Teaching Kids About France
If you missed my first post, WGW is where I teach my kids about a foreign country via food, maps, a movie, and travel photos (if I’ve been there). I don’t stress about planning the lesson, because as the Dutch say, “Small hands are easy to fill.” They’re grateful for anything interesting that I throw at them.
Most of the international food I buy is pre-made, as I don’t have time to shop for exotic ingredients I’ll only use once and would probably prepare incorrectly anyway. Shortcuts aside, it’s still my family’s favorite night of the week.
It helps that they’re not skittish about eating weird foreign cheese, because nearly every country has one.
Unsurprisingly, for one of our first WGWs, we studied France. We watched Nat Geo Kids videos on Paris, and perused my collection of art books for French artists and the historic Parisian art scene.
Cooking Easy French Food
We ate Coq-au-vin, haricots vert, frites, and French bread with brie and chèvres, then had macarons and madeleines for dessert. My husband and I drank Cab Sauv and let the kids have Perrier from wine glasses, which they thought was gross.
Afterwards, we watched The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which I hadn’t seen before and thought was slightly terrifying. The kids noticed that Quasimodo had been quarantined for 20 years, and they empathized.
Here are a few more photos of France, before and children. If you’re interested in seeing Paris in a parallel universe, you should read book 1 in The Infinite Crossroads series: THE WRATH OF NIKE.
World Geography Wednesday Studies Japan
Like most of you, I’ve been searching for interesting activities to occupy my children other than letting them play video games until their eyeballs bleed.
And we’ve been missing going to restaurants since Covid restrictions began. (Sadly, my interest in whipping up culinary masterpieces at the beginning of our marriage morphed into microwaving chicken nuggets after we had kids.)
We travel a lot, and we love eating international food. You learn so much about a culture by their cuisine. Both my kids were born overseas, so this is something I want to instill in them.
The win-win solution came to me in the form of…teaching my kids to cook! Thus World Geography Wednesday was born.
World Geography Wednesday
It’s been a pleasure to resume my hobby of going through my international cookbooks and shopping for weird ingredients. But although my kids are getting older, I still don’t have time to make everything from scratch. The good news is, they don’t mind if I buy as much of it pre-made as possible – they’re just happy to spend time with me and prepare something delicious that they get to eat.
Still, I’m only doing this once a week, because I’m not a martyr.
Pull Out Your Maps
I don’t make a big deal about planning the lesson, because I don’t have the energy with all my other projects in the works. All we do is pick a country to eat from, look up maps on rainfall, population, etc. in my college geography book, read some obscure facts from THE WORLD’S MOST ADVENTUROUS KID by Dylan Thuras and Rosemary Mosco, and watch Nat Geo Kids videos.
Twenty minutes, tops. (Although admittedly, cooking takes longer.)
Then we eat and watch a movie from that country. If I can’t find anything suitable, we read a book. Hands down, it’s become our favorite night of the week.
Even mine.
Teaching Kids About Japan
Here are some photos of our first one, on Japan. The powdered miso soup was understandably meh, but they adored the seaweed salad. And I’m so grateful my kids eat sushi!
I was pumped to watch ISLE OF DOGS – until my son reminded me of the gory surgery scene. We agreed that my daughter (she’s younger) would probably freak out and watched GODZILLA instead. Afterwards, we read NINJA by Arree Chung, because – you know – BOOKS!
