Happy Thanksgiving! (Time to Party Like It's 1599)

Our homeschool history period of study for this year is 1600-1850, which means... Jamestown, and Pilgrims, and Indians, oh, my!

Of course, one of our activities for the week covering the Pilgrims was a First Thanksgiving Feast. We served turkey (okay, it was a chicken), mashed potatoes, "stewed pompion" (pumpkin), succotash, and Indian cornbread.

It was great!

Stewed pumpkin is not at all sweet. It's spicy and a bit tart (from the vinegar). Actually, it wasn't too bad - and thankfully, it was super-easy to make.

Succotash was great! We chose the kidney-bean option over the lima bean option, being that we had the former but not the latter on hand.

 

The children had a great time. (Sorry for the blurry picture - it's all I have.)

We were supposed to end the night with Indian Pudding, but unfortunately a limiting ingredient (no milk!) put a stop to those plans. It's on our to-do list for this evening.

Instead, here's a picture of the butter that we made for our recent study of the state of Wisconsin.

Do you know how insanely easy butter is to make? I'd been afraid of trying it for years, and after all that, it was a cinch. One cup of cream. One hand-mixer. Ten minutes. Bam.

It was delicious, too! We had homemade bread that night, and both it and the butter made a fast disappearance.

I have found consistently that one of the best ways to teach history and geography is in the kitchen. Not a bad way to do school!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!