Today's What's For Dinner? post is about a FEAST we had to celebrate a study of Ancient Africa (as done in chapter 11 of The Story of the World). I used two recipes from the activity guide and they were wonderful, so I wanted to share. If you click on the link you'll see a sample of all the activities from a chapter, via The Well Trained Mind website - awesome!) I'll also share a cute and easy craft idea, and a sweet idea my daughter came up with on her own.
As always, if you have a recipe you would like to link up, please share at the end of this post! All I ask is that you link back to my site, either by linking to me in your post, or grabbing my cute What's For Dinner? button and placing it on your blog or in your post. Thanks!
On to the recipe: (this appears in the activity guide for Volume 1 of Story of the World)
1 lemon
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup water
1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
8-16 oz. dried figs (we used Mission Figlets)
salt to taste
parsley
Preheat the oven to 400.
Peel and slice the lemon. Place lemon slices and figs in the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan. Add the chicken legs.
In mixing bowl, combine the brown sugar, vinegar, water, and lemon juice.
Pour mixture over the chicken. Sprinkle chicken with salt and parsley.
Bake, covered with foil, for about 40 minutes. Remove foil and bake for approximately 20-30 minutes. Baste frequently during the last 20-30 minutes. Remove chicken, figs, and lemon slices and place on a serving tray.
Skim off any fat and use the remaining juices as a sauce for the chicken.
* We served the chicken with green beans and rice. The chicken was amazingly juicy and the baked figs are a new found love of mine! For dessert we made fried plantains. We used a recipe from Food Network instead of our activity guide, and it was delicious! My nine year sliced the plantains - I fried them in the oil - then she sugared them and added whipped cream. YUMMM!!!!
For fun decorations we printed and colored African Masks. To print them, go here. I thought they turned out really cute.... we laminated and taped them onto a straw so they can be used in the future. We also read a little about the history of African Masks/art here. My daughter also looked up African proverbs, copied some onto little pieces of paper, and set one at each person's place. (I wish I had gotten a picture of them, but here is a wonderful list of proverbs -- perfect for copywork!)
My daughter's mask - done to perfection, just as she likes it!
Isn't this guy cute? My six year old is an enthusiastic artist
Once again, The Story of The World proves itself to be an invaluable resource in our homeschool. I can't recommend this enough!
Feel free to share a recipe with me via a comment or by joining the linky. I look forward to seeing What's For Dinner in your house!
