Last Day in Canada!

Wow, what a week it has been! Canada has proved to be very enjoyable but also very tiring! I finished off the week with the last two recipes that I promised- pea soup (modern) and wild rice cakes (indigenous). There is something to be said about the food from Canada- while some of these recipes are time-consuming and some down right challenging, you can tell that the people of this country find food to be a way to express love. Taking time to make recipes that express one's culture shows this love very well. This week, my family shared in many of the foods I was eating and I felt great sharing the food with them because I had spent my time preparing the dishes. I also admire Canada even more than I did before because of the way they can keep alive two very different ways of life. The differences between the modern European-inspired dishes and the indigenous dishes were really quite evident by the end of the week. The indigenous dishes were very earthy and simple while the European-inspired dishes were very rich and complex. It's amazing to me that one country can represent both a simple and very satisfying way of life and a more complex but still rich way of life at the same time. I think that there is something very important about both of these ways of life because both have something great to offer. When I was preparing the indigenous food, I felt somewhat connected to the past and to the earth at its simple roots. It was so neat to make the fluffy bread with simply flour and water (and a bit of sugar) that was bannock and have it come out so naturally perfect. I was excited to try foods that were so simple and that carried such a history with them. When I was preparing the more modern food, I felt very culinary, for lack of a better term and very proud in a way to be doing the best I could to put skills in the kitchen together to make something wonderful. It was neat to see a fluffy and very pretty cauliflower souffle after vigorously beating egg whites and whisking together a rue (and staring in the oven to see if it deflated). Through your food Canada, you have shown me the two different but vital ways of life in your culture that can teach the world the things I have learned this week and more. Thank you Canada!

Wild Rice Cakes- I wasn't good at making them into cakes, but they were very good!

Pea Soup- because I don't eat meat, I couldn't put in the pork, but I followed everything else in the recipe, replacing the pork fat for olive oil- very fun to make!

More Pea Soup!

Three Sisters Soup- an indigenous recipe which includes butternut squash, green beans and corn- very healthy and pretty easy to make!

 Hi everyone! I am now half way through my week of Canadian cuisine and am really enjoying it. So far I have made five of the seven I have promised to make by the end of the week. Two have been indigenous foods and three are modern Canadian foods. The dishes can be time-consuming to make, but it is most certainly worth the time. It gives me satisfaction to know that I worked hard to make what I am eating. I have been eating at least one Canadian food with each meal and trying my best to eat the food with snacks as well. Sometimes with snacks, I will eat a small piece of Bannock along with what I am eating. I can assure you that between cooking the food and eating at least one thing with each meal, I am thoroughly experience this cultural aspect. With this post, I have posted a picture of each of the foods I have made so far this week- more will come at the week's concluding post. Have a fantastic remainder of the week- talk to you all soon!

Bannock- an indigenous bread that tastes like a biscuit made from flour, water and sugar- very fun to make and eat!

Apple Pancakes- a very thick and filling pancake with apples and cinnamon- my motivation to get up on time in the morning (if I run out of time though, I eat Bannock and have one of these for a snack).

Cabbage Salad- a Cole-slaw like dish made with cabbage, apples onions and topped with a dressing of sour cream,vinegar and sugar- chopping the cabbage sure took awhile!

Cauliflower souffle-  a delicious dish made with cauliflower, sharp cheddar eggs and milk- the most time-consuming and difficult dish I've made so far, but my personal favorite!

Week 4- Off to Canada!

Off to Canada! Thank you go.hrw.com for the picture!

 Hello everyone! I am so excited to begin my week in a neighbor of my own- Canada! This week, I will be focusing of the cuisine of this country. Because they do not have staples to the extent that the Congo did, I will not be eating only their food, but will instead be eating at least something of their culture in each meal and snack of mine all week. Because Canada has an indigenous culture as well as a French-inspired culture, I will be eating some traditional foods from each of these two pieces of their culture. Thanks to two very helpful websites (listed at the end of this post), I have found 3-4 recipes of both pieces. Yesterday I bought all ingredients and cooked until I dropped. Here are the recipes I will be making this week and eating with each and every snack and meal:

Non-aboriginal food-
-Pea Soup
-Apple Pancakes
-Cauliflower Souffle
-Cabbage Salad

Aboriginal Food-
-Three Sisters Soup- a soup of butternut squash, green beans and corn
-Bannock- a bread that resembles a biscuit made of sugar, flour and water

-Wild Rice Cakes wild rice, cornmeal and some butter

Throughout the week, you will get in-depth descriptions of what some of these dishes are as well as pictures of myself making and eating them. I will have made them all by the end of my journey in this country. For now though, homework awaits me. I will mention quickly though, that today I ate Bannock, Three Sisters Soup and Apple Pancakes, all of which I really enjoyed. Check back throughout the week- I won't leave you all hanging!

P.S- I have had to modify a few things because of my vegetarian diet, but not enough to make large differences in anything. Most of the recipes I have chosen though never had meat products to begin with.

The very helpful websites I have used- Thanks!!:
http://www.foodbycountry.com/Algeria-to-France/Canada-Aboriginals.html
http://www.cajuncookingrecipes.com/canadian/ (it's not just Cajun-promise)

Last Day in Guyana!

Lace on my shelves, a silk flower arrangement and doilies on the chair back and under my laptop

Hello everyone! I hope you all had good weekends. I know this post is a bit late, but my weekend was really chaotic with my brother's engagement, planning for this coming week and many other things. Here are some pictures that I took of my room. As you all know, this week I tried my best with the things I could find, to make my room look like those in the country of Guyana. I had a lot of fun decorating and really enjoyed being able to witness the culture of this country each time I entered my room. As you can see from the pictures, my room is bright already, but for a stronger  point, I posted tissue paper on my wall to mimic the bright colors of the walls of Guyanese homes. I cut the edges of doilies and put them on the edges of my curtains to look like lace curtains as well as on the edges of my shelves for the same effect. I even put full doilies on my desk and dresser. I put three silk flower arrangements around the room and a doily on my chair back to mimic a crocheted effect. Though the details were small, my room did look different by the time my decorating efforts were finished. Like I said, I did the best I could with what I could find and put my creativity into it as best as I could. What I noticed throughout the week was that I felt this strange connection to Guyana, a country that before now, I had really never heard of or knew much about. I felt almost like I was really sleeping and studying and dressing in somewhere other than my room. It felt warmer inside the tiny space and well, different. It is a hard feeling to explain, but it was very neat and something I will never forget. I am becoming more and more amazed each week with how connected I am feeling to these cultures even though the things I am doing are very small. If there is anything I have learned this week, it is that this culture a very warm and cozy one. The home is so important to most of us humans and I can really see that the Guyanese people embrace this in their culture. The way that their decorations flow together paint a certain welcoming picture to their guests and a picture of belonging to those who live in the house. The decorations are simple but pretty and heartwarming. As I am learning more each day of this journey, simple is good, especially when it comes to keep cultures alive. Homes are the place one invites those who they love and those who they would like to get to know more. An invitation to a home is a compliment and an honor. I now see what a fantastic impact the simple style of Guyanese homes have had on me in helping me to further respect this country and its culture. Thank you Guyana for making me feel welcome in your country through the style of your homes.

The edges of doilies give the appearance of flowing lace curtains

A silk flower arrangement and doilies

Tissue paper taped to my wall represent the bright colors that fill the walls of Guyanese homes.

More silk flower arrangements!