Friday, the 20th...

This morning we made flan. Never heard of it? Or heard of it, and never eaten it, or aren't sure exactly what it was beyond some type of food? Me too. It was on my list of one of those "weird" foods. Food I'd heard of, but would probably never eat. Maybe that's just me, though, since I was quite the "picky" child, and was never exposed to many different foods. My kids have eaten such a wider variety of foods than I ever did as a child.
So, Flan. I was looking in the pantry for breakfast when I spied a box of it in our pudding section. Hmm... Dh must've picked that up, because I surely didn't. No wait, maybe one of the kids picked it up thinking it was vanilla pudding. Turns out that's how it happened to end up in our pantry. We looked it up online before we made it, and found all sorts of interesting facts (and leads to other discussions). Travis (ds,age 11), and I read about it, and then he made it while I cleaned up the kitchen. We found out that the earliest evidence we have of it being made was in the Roman times, also the earliest recorded time of domesticated chickens. The Romans consulted the Greek's knowledge of cooking, and made a savory custard dish, nonsweetened. Over the centuries it evolved through different cultures. Spaniards made it into the sweet custard we know of today, and the English made their own version of flan by adding fruits and nuts, and also using a pastry crust for the bottom only. In English it is pronounced to rhyme with 'plan', and in Mexico (which was where the Spaniards took it to) it's pronounced to rhyme with 'faun'. I think the Mexican version sounds fancier, but will continue to use the English version as it is easier to prounce.
We also read about how the barbaric Medieval peoples, whose time was contiguous with Roman times, made flan. We had to use dictionary.com to look up what contiguous meant. There were other words that I was able to explain the meaning of to Travis (and yes, he asked what they meant), but that one wasn't one of them. Turns out that it means adjacent to in time, or close to without actually touching. So, our vocabulary words for today were: contiguous, savory, barbarian, pastry crust, and of course flan, as Travis had never heard of it. He now has an intimate knowledge of it, seeing as how he made it himself. :)

Other learning that has gone on today would be continued work with fractions and measurements during cooking, strategic planning and puzzle solving on the Twilight Princess Zelda game, science: Nathan, Jaidyn, and Aaron exploring and observing nature. They enjoyed the March 40 degree weather, and Jaidyn decided that she'd be better off in a coat, instead of her shirt. :) Those three have been playing with Lego knight figurines from a board game. They are really cool little guys that completely come apart and include a helmet, armor, a shield, and a sword, which is pretty amazing seeing as how they are about 2 inches tall. They played indoors and out with them, letting them slide off the trampoline on the slide that they'd set up a few days ago. I thought that the slide itself was pretty ingenious. We've had it around since I found it in someone's front yard, and dared to ask if they still wanted it. It'd cost about $100 if we bought it, but we got it for free!
My littles, Jaidyn and Nathan are now running nude, and I need to go do some more learning, instead of documenting.. :)