Creative commons use; author Simm 2009
This is our 3rd post as a part of the “Around the World in 12 Dishes” series! This month we visit GREECE! Can you find Greece on a map? What is the body of water next to Greece? Let’s look at the terrain and weather of Greece:
- more than 250 sunny days per year
- 80% of Greece is mountainous
- No point in Greece is more than 85 miles (137 kilometers) from water. Greece has about 9,000 miles of coastline, the 10th longest in the world
- the wild olive tree originated in ancient Greece, and it currently is the 3rd largest producer of olive oil in the world
- Greece has between 1,200to 6,000 islands, depending on the minimum size taken into account
Greek Food and Ingredients
Being on the Mediterranean, Greek cuisine has characteristics of Italian and Turkish cuisine, as well as features from the Balkans. Common ingredients in Greek food include olive oil, vegetables (such as eggplant and zucchini) and herbs, grains and bread, wine, and proteins such as fish, chicken, rabbit and pork. Meals feature olives, cheese, and yogurt, while desserts use nuts, honey, and filo pastry.
We decided to make moussaka, a common dish in Greek food made of layered eggplant, ground meat, and a béchamel cheese sauce. I used a recipe from greek.food.com and it turned out delicious. (*easy to make gluten-free!) My kids helped to chop the onions, slice the eggplants with the mandolin (always use the finger guard!), opening the tomato sauce, and stirring the ingredients together. The helped to layer the ingredients (which reminded us of the process to make lasagna). I have made eggplant before, but I think the kids ate it without realizing what it looked like in it’s whole form. 3 out of 4 approved (and I saved some broiled eggplant and tomato sauce for my veggie-loving, meat-averse daughter).
Here are more fun facts about Greece.
Now it’s your turn! Visit Adventures In Mommydom, Creative Family Fun, Domestic Goddesque, Glittering Muffins, Here Come The Girls, Juggling with Kids, Kid World Citizen (me!), Kitchen Counter Chronicles, Mermaids’ Makings, Montessori Tidbits, Mummymummymum and The Educators’ Spin On It to get inspired! They will each help you on your food journey by cooking Greek food with their children and posting about it. Then go out there, cook, blog, and join in the linky fun.
If you do this, we’d LOVE to see a photo of it. Email it to us or post it on our Facebook page. We’d love to do a Facebook album, a Pinterest board and a page of your creations 🙂
Please link up your Greek dish and/or craft in our linky below, we would love to see it!
Lots of good info in there. Glad the majority liked it 🙂 Thanks for participating again!
You are invited to join my new weekly link-up “Say it Two Ways Thursdays”! I would love for you to link up activities like this that teach your child about other languages and cultures. Link up at toddlefast.blogspot.com/2013/01/link-up-say-it-two-ways-thursdays.
Perfect, I will link up!!! 🙂 Thanks!