French the Natural Way

One thing I did enjoy when living in England was the traditional Sunday lunch. We would either head to our local pub and enjoy a roast or head to our friends and spend most of the day eating, drinking and talking. This was partly because one of our friends was French and she did enjoy as much as we did sitting at a table for half the day enjoying the food and conversations about nothing and everything! As a matter of fact this is what French do when they have a meal, they like to spend quite some time at the table! Now that we live in Germany, we don’t have a pub or “Sunday lunch” friends to head to but I like to spend time in the morning preparing a full Sunday lunch.

This morning I roasted an organic chicken using a method I learned from a TV cooking program in England (I cannot remember which one nor whose famous chef showed it). The trick is to slice a lemon halfway trough lenghtways and insert a sprig of thyme into the slit and place it inside the cavity of the chicken. During the roasting time, the lemon releases its juice which melts with the chicken’s juice and the combination of both flavors just work out perfectly! The other trick is to cover the chicken with 2 to 3 garlic gloves, olive oil and thyme leaves which you blend together until it becomes quite liquid. Place the chicken in a roasting tray with plenty of sea salt and black pepper. Cover the chicken loosely with foil and roast in the oven for about 30 minutes at 200 degrees (depending on its weight). Then remove the foil and roast for another 30 minutes at 160-180 degrees. The chicken is fully cooked when the juices run clear. Turn off the oven and let the chicken rest for at least 10 minutes before carving it. I accompany the chicken with lovely roasted potatoes and buttery green beans.

I also usually like to bake a cake or tart. Today, I decided to bake a gooey chocolate cake which is super easy to prepare. Melt 100g dark chocolate and 90g butter in the microwave until you obtain a smooth consistency. In another bowl, whip together 3 eggs and 130g caster sugar until it becomes smooth and pale. Add 50g flour (I added wholemeal flour) and then add the melted chocolate and butter. Pour the mixture onto a baking tray and put it in the oven for only 10 to 15 minutes so that it is gooey in the middle. In my case, I baked the cake just after I had removed the chicken from the oven.

For a starter, I did a simple cucumber and chives salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing.

These are simple moments I treasure!
What about you? How do you usually spend your Sundays?

Last night I watched Kon-Tiki which is about the expedition across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands in a raft which took place in 1947. Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl wanted to prove that people from South America could have settled Polynesia in pre-Columbian times, although most anthropologists believed they did not. “His aim in mounting the Kon-Tiki expedition was to show, by using only the materials and technologies available to those people at the time, that there were no technical reasons to prevent them from having done so. Although the expedition carried some modern equipment, such as a radio, watches, charts, sextant, and metal knives, Heyerdahl argued they were incidental to the purpose of proving that the raft itself could make the journey.” The film is quite interesting because it describes how Heyerdahl came up with this idea and how he desperately looked for fundings when no one believed in him. It has also several thrilling set pieces: there is a powerful storm; a tense, blood-soaked shark attack; a close encounter with a whale; and a deadly reef to navigate. Besides, there are beautiful pictures of the sea and sea animals, and the Earth. However I did think the film did not focus enough on the human part of the expedition, on the crew’s feelings and emotions. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile watching just to get a sense of wonder !

I would now like to see the documentary about the expedition, also called Kon-Tiki which was produced from a write-up and expansion of the crew’s filmstrip notes and won an Academy Award in 1951.

 

 

Last night I posted a video about Spanish table manners from Ben and Marina. Here is another video from Ben and Marina to learn and/or review Spanish fruit and vegetables:

As well as the video, you can get the full list of vocabulary on Ben and Marina’s website. I thought that after having watched and talked about the two videos, students could work in groups and set a Spanish table to then pretend to have a meal. They would use the vocabulary and expressions in the videos such as:

• ¡Pásame la sal/el aceite, por favor!
• ¿Dónde está mi servieta?
• Quiero un manzana/ un poco de ensalada…
• ¡Estoy mas sana que una manzana!
• ¡Tampoco te pases!
• Están super ricos/malos…

For the plates, glasses and cutlery, the teacher could bring some disposable ones. As for the food, the teacher could either bring plastic toy food (I know I can borrow some from the primary teachers at my school!) or students could draw some. I posted the resources and activities on Spanish curriculum wiki under grade 9 and 10 IGCSE topic “eating and drinking”.

What do you think? Do you do a similar activity with your Spanish students?

This video is great when teaching the topic of “eating and drinking” in Spanish. It is about Spanish table manners which are actually quite similar to the French table manners, apart from the olive oil on the table. I sympathize with Marina about the napkins. I actually do also find it “violent” not to have a napkin when eating! In fact, I cannot eat without a napkin!

Conversations to follow could be:

• ¿ Cuáles son las costumbres en la mesa en tu país?
• ¿ Te parece violento comer sin servieta?
• ¿ Cómo se pasa la sal en tu país?
• ¿ En tu país, qué se come mucho?
• ¿ Eres un(a) chapuza?

The reason why I didn’t post anything for the last week is that I was away in beautiful Italy on a yoga retreat. It was the first time I went to such a retreat and I did yoga so intensively (2 hours in the morning, one hour and a half in the afternoon everyday) and it was a wonderful experience to be repeated. I went with my mum and little sister and we had much fun together. I started practicing yoga last year after the birth of my third son Augustin and it really helped me to regain energy and to get my body fit again. Before I always thought yoga was not much work out, just a way to relax. But when I started doing it following the free lessons on Yoga Today website, I started to realize it was quite challenging for the body. It also helped me calm down at times when it was overwhelming to look after three boys! In fact, I enjoyed the practice so much that I looked on the Internet for a way to attend an intense training. I stumbled upon yogatraveller which offers retreats to several beautiful destinations in the world. But it’s not only about yoga, it is also about having a real break: “a beautiful location, some sun perhaps, nice food, fun activities, good company, new friends and some time to do what YOU want.” As well as developing my yoga practice, I discovered a beautiful part of Italy, Umbria with beautiful landscapes and villages and gorgeous food.

I also got to spend quality time with my mum and sister. My mum has multiple sclerosis . Before she became ill, she had been practicing yoga for many years every morning. Due to the illness, she was now practicing a bit on her bed but not a mat. Our wonderful yoga teacher, Laila Sell helped her get her confidence back and my mum was back on a yoga mat which was fantastic. At the end of the week, my mum, sister and myself decided we would keep up practicing yoga every morning. So we set up the yoga one year challenge community on Google+ where we tell the yoga we have been doing everyday. This is a way to encourage each other to keep practicing. The community is private and I just noticed that I cannot change the privacy setting but anyone can join. Just ask me to join in the comments and I will add you as a member.