¡Comida Latina!

The last day of National Foreign Language Week coincided with our Comida Latina or Latin Food presentations.  Students researched authentic recipes from Latin American countries and had the option to prepare the dish for the class to try.  

Thank you to all of the families who helped out with this part of the project!  

Here are some photos from the day:

Alfajores from Argentina

More Argentine alfajores 

Flan

Pastel de tres leches - a cake served all over Latin America

Another batch of alfajores later in the day!

Pan trenza

Nuegados de masa from El Salvador

Helado de mango - a frozen mango treat

Empanadas de manzana

Empanadas de carne from Argentina

Chancho en piedra from Chile

Flan

Frozen orange delight

One group of students even made a short video about their Latin American cooking adventure!

Guest Speakers during National Foreign Language Week!

This week we are celebrating National Foreign Language Week at CMS, and yesterday Spanish students had the very exciting opportunity to talk with native Spanish speakers in class!  This is the second time I've teamed up with the Office of International Education at UVM to bring native Spanish speakers who are living and studying in our area to CMS to talk with our Spanish students.  This year four UVM undergraduate and graduate students from Colombia and Spain visited our Spanish classes.  Students had the chance to ask questions in Spanish and we also had some more in depth conversations with our guests in English.  It was a great experience that I think was equally enjoyed by the CMS and UVM students!

¡Tortillas!

As part of our Food and Restaurants unit, we spent a day in the kitchen the week before vacation learning how to prepare authentic corn tortillas from scratch.  Students followed these step by step instructions (method 2 - corn tortillas), and were quite successful in their efforts.  When the tortillas were prepared, we added cheese or queso to make quesadillas.  

Dried hibiscus petals steeping in simple syrup to make agua de jamaica

As an extra treat I prepared agua de jamaica for students to try.  Agua de jamaica is a sweet beverage made from the dried petals of the hibiscus flower.  This is a very traditional Mexican beverage that tastes somewhat similar to fruit punch.  

I've offered students extra credit for this unit if they make tortillas at home and document the process with a series of photos or a video.  The main ingredient, masa, can be found in the international aisle in most grocery stores and a rolling pin can be used in place of a tortilla press.  Check out our photos from this very fun class!