School Projects

I think I told you all earlier that this week my son had two school projects to do. They are all complete now and thankfully there aren't anymore (that I know of) to deal with.

His first project was due yesterday and that was to:

1: find out what the poorer class of Ancient Romans would have ate for their meals. He did that and found out that it was mostly porridge that was consumed back then by the poorer familys.

2: find an actual recipe for that type of porridge. He found that.

3: actually make that recipe and take it in to school for all the kids in his class to sample.

Doesn't sound too hard. I had to make a trip to the grocery store to buy the majority of things that he needed for this recipe since they weren't any that I'd normally have on hand. The veggies weren't a problem. I found the leeks, garlic and onion at my normal grocer, but the barley flour....that was a different story. My grocer didn't carry it, none of the other local stores here did either. I ended up having to go to a specialty health food store to find it so that right there should tell you that it wasn't too cheap. After getting all the things that were needed, I brought everything home and my son and I proceeded to make this porridge.

The recipe itself really wasn't that hard. You basically took chicken broth and added your onion, leeks and garlic. Let it come to a boil then add your barley flour. Cook for fifteen minutes to get rid of the raw flour taste, season with salt and pepper then garnish with leftover onion/leek mixture and serve. Doesn't sound hard at all. And it really wasn't. It only took 30 minutes to make the stuff, but it was the NASTIEST thing that I have EVER made! It stunk, it looked disgusting and although it really didn't taste terrible, there's no way that I'd want to eat it. It looked like vomit. I mean, it was awful. But, we put it in a bowl and he took it to school the next day. He brought most of it back home. I don't blame the kids for not even wanting to try it. I'm sure when he opened it back up yesterday that it smelled even worse. Hopefully there won't be anymore cooking projects to do.

His second project wasn't bad. He had to make an island model for a book that he'd read. I did have to get some special items for it too, but nothing that was out of the ordinary. At least this turned out good. He took it to school today and we're both hoping that he gets a good grade on it. It wasn't anything major. I guess the island in the book was deserted and there really wasn't much on it. Just a few palm trees and a shack really. We got the sand from our yard, the water is play dough, the palm trees are car air fresheners (that's why they're blue:) and the shack was made from popsicle sticks. The little thing laying beside the shack is supposed to be a fire. Apparantly it went out though because the tissue paper flames weren't there this morning when my son took it to school. His island will be on display for a week so we won't know what type of grade he's going to get until the first of April.