This week's country was France. It is also the last week of Genius Hour. I would like to keep trying out new recipes from different countries. I chose to do an acrylic painting of a lavender field. Lavender fields can be seen in Provence, France. Provence is located in Southern France. I chose to paint this because I thought it would be nice to paint the landscape of the area of France that is usually not talked about.
I used a palette knife for the first time, while I was painting. I used the palette knife to make some of the stems and grass in the background. To make the lavender petals, I used a cotton swab. It was a weird object that I didn't know you could use as a tool for painting. I also used a fan brush to splatter the white paint on to the piece of paper that I used. I think the step that I enjoyed the most was mixing the paint because it's satisfying. If you would like more information on French culture, you can click the button down below, and you also can admire this wonderful artwork.
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This week's recipe comes from a country that the U.S. shares a border with. I made poutine this week. Poutine is a dish that consists of French fries, gravy, and cheese.
Poutine Gravy:
The first step I did, was to cut the potatoes into sticks. I did this first because I needed them to soak for about an hour or more, so the starch could be released from the potatoes. Then I started with the gravy, I put the cornstarch with the water into a small bowl and let it sit. After I let the mixture sit, I melted the butter into a large saucepan. I added the flour to the melted butter. I stirred this mixture for about 5 minutes. Then I added the beef and chicken broth and brought the mixture to a boil. Once it reached the boiling point, I added the cornstarch, which thickened the gravy. I also lowered the heat, so it would be at a simmer. My brothers helped me to blot the potatoes, so there would be no moisture in them. As they were doing that task, I started to heat up the oil. I added the potatoes in small batches, so the pan wouldn't be full. I then would take them out. Once I fried them once, I increased the temperature of the oil. I then put the fries back in. I learned that if you fry them twice then it makes the fries crispy. After I did all the fries then I set them on plates lined with a paper towel, which allowed for the oil to soak into the paper towel. Then I put them in a bowl and added salt. After I put them in a bowl, added some gravy, and also added the cheese. The gravy melted the cheese, as it was still warm. This past week, Alexis and I decided to take a break because we both were going to be out of town. I went to Chicago, where the Marching Band marched in the McDonald's Thanksgiving Parade.
You can watch the parade by clicking the button down below. I didn't get to do the artwork for this week because I had left early to go to Chicago. I also didn't have any time to do the artwork during the week because I was packing and doing homework. Hopefully, I get to at least try and do the artwork, so I can have something for this week.
I at least got to do the culture portion before I left, so if you would like you can click the button down below to go there. This week, we chose Vietnam as the country. I decided to make Pho because it is a common known food from that country. Broth:
You can click the button down below if you would like to go to the original recipe.
This week, we did Louisiana Creole, which is what the culture/people are called there. When I looked for art that was made by the Creoles, I found a pictures of tomatoes. I looked into it and found out that there is a brand of tomatoes called Creoles. Tomatoes that are considered Creole are usually grown on Louisiana soil. The tomatoes are usually more ripe and stay on the vine for longer periods of time. Now lets talk about the actual painting. I painted one tomato a bright red to show the ripeness. It sounds like I didn't do much, but I had a hard time deciding which red and what green for the tomato. For this painting, I used acrylic paint. I started with the outline of my tomato. I probably should have done it a bit lighter as you can still see some of it in the final product. I then started painting the flesh part of the tomato red and then I painted the stem green. I messed up by not doing a nice neat job on the edge of the tomato, and I smeared some of the green paint that was part of the stem. The painting overall was pretty simple, and hopefully I can do some more challenging stuff before this project ends. If you would like to know more about the culture about Louisiana Creoles than you can click the Cultures Around The World tab or click the button down below.
This week, we chose Italy for the country. I made Carbonara, which is a pasta dish from Italy. As always, I will put the recipe here and leave the original recipe down below.
You will need:
The first thing, I did was bring water to a boil in a pot. After it reached a boil, I put the spaghetti into the pot and let it cook for 10 minutes. While that was happening, I started to cook the bacon in a saucepan. Once the bacon was cooked. I let it rest and drain on a plate lined with a paper towel. When the noodles were cooked, I drained them and left about a cup of the water for later. After the noodles were drained, I put them into the saucepan with the bacon fat and tried to fully coat them with the fat, but I messed up. I had forgotten how much spaghetti, had put to cook. After that mistake, I added the whisked eggs. I would say that this was probably the hardest part because I had to stir them in quickly because the heat of the pasta could cook the eggs. Then I added the parmesan. This is where I used the cup of water I kept. I would pour some of the water to make the parmesan into a creamy sauce. Then I added salt and pepper and the dish was done. This week was Germany. It was very difficult researching and finding a style of art that Germans use. I learned that German art is not very known, but I decided to do a pattern that is used on German folk clothes. The pattern was made with symmetric patterns. I was able to do these by folding the piece of paper in half, drawing the image, and then holding to the light. When I hold the piece of paper to the light, I am able to see what I drew and trace it. This pattern is usually on women's skirts. I looked up a pattern and used markers to draw what it looked like. If you want to learn more about Germany and its culture, you can click the button down below or go to the Cultures Around the World tab.
This week, we chose to do Cuba. The recipe for this meal is the one that follows or you can go to the original website, which will be at the end of this post.
The first thing that I did was to place the water, the spring of thyme, peppercorns, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and one of the juiced limes into a large pot. I let this get to a boil and then I added the pork chops. When I added the pork chops, I lowered the heat and let that simmer for about 1.5 hours. When the pork chops were done, I set them aside in the broth for 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes, I heated a frying pan with the olive oil and then placed the pork chops in. I let the pork chops to get slightly golden and crispy, while I started to chop up the garlic and onion. When I saw that the pork chops were slightly golden, I added the chopped up onions and garlic and let that cook for about another 15 minutes. When that was done, I plated my meal with some lime and cilantro. Ireland was the country that we chose for this week. Finding the kind of art that is used in Ireland was challenging to find. I found that in Ireland, Celtic spirals were used to decorate crosses. I tried to recreate the pattern of the spirals and used watercolor paint to create an ombré pattern. I first made the design with pencil, so I could erase mistakes. The hard part of this painting was how some lines had the effect of going under other lines. This was a challenge because I had trouble when I started painting. I didn't know what lines were going under or over. After I got over this challenge, I traced the pattern with a black sharpie, so the detail of the spiral can be seen better. If you would like to learn more about Ireland's culture then you can go to the Cultures Around the World tab or click the button down below.
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AuthorHi. My name is Cielo Pina and if you stumbled across the blog, Welcome. I don't have any skills in cooking, so let's see how this will turn out. Archives
December 2017
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