Narnian Meals Morning and Night

This year we are reading our way through The Chronicles of Narnia.

We are using a curriculum from the same Cadron Creek company that published our last year’s choice – Prairie Primer.

It’s been a completely different journey thus far.

For a lot of reasons I guess.

I really like Narnia.  I’m a fan of C.S. Lewis for certain.

I have a confession to make, however.

I have never actually read the entire series completely before.

Not ever.

I’ve read the first three or four books – some as a kid and some as a teacher – but never have I completed the entire series.

Therefore – the incredible affection I feel for Laura Ingalls based on childhood readings and family readings and Riley readings has simply not existed for Peter, Edmund, Lucy and Susan.

Also, those four charmers are not featured in every novel.  It’s just a little different vibe to shift from time and place and character and setting.  Instead of being immersed in one primary character for nine months, we are bouncing in and out of stories and sagas.

And one other factor.  This curriculum is not as project-friendly as the Prairie Primer was.  The pioneer, true-life, first-person narratives simply lent themselves beautifully to cooking meals and making corn cob dolls and visiting maple syrup farms and dressing up and all sorts of hands-on style learning.

Narnia has plenty of options for creativity and certainly more than other novels might have and the curriculum is still well-done, but it just feels ….. different.

However – the kids and I have really enjoyed the this and the thats that we have explored and experienced thus far through Narnia.  And the writing and the imagery is seriously remarkable and moving.

Yesterday it seemed like our day was bookended by Narnian food.

Actually, it didn’t seem that way, it literally was that way.

Sometimes, you know, it is impossible to do a specific activity on a specific day.

Last week we wrapped up The Horse and His Boy and this week we started Prince Caspian.  Last week the guide suggested we serve a meal that Shasta would have consumed at Archenland.  This week the guide suggested serving a breakfast the children enjoyed at Cair Paravel.

It just so happened that our weeks worked out best to serve both of those meals yesterday – one for breakfast and one for dinner.

It was a Narnian day for sure.

Kevin volunteered to prepare the more difficult menu item for breakfast.

You know – I just went ahead and let him.

For breakfast we feasted on pan-seared trout and fried apples.  (Kevin cooked the fish, obviously.  Fried apples are a breeze.  Fish is … tricky.)

Sounds kind of wild, doesn’t it?

Trust me, Piper Finn and I had our reservations.

But you guys – it was so tasty.  Probably the best fish I’ve ever eaten.  And what a lasting breakfast.  We were not hungry until mid-afternoon.

We pretty much just snacked because dinner was already looming nearby at that point and it was quite a meal as well.

Monday night is the night the kids plan and prepare dinner now so I just played the role of manager last night while they prepared a Narnian dinner – eggs, porridge and bacon with mushrooms.

Mosely prepared the porridge according to the Narnia Cookbook and it included using milk in the oatmeal instead of water.  So much better.  Why haven’t we done this before?  I think I like porridge far better than oatmeal.  (With maple syrup, naturally.)

It was a good food day guys – that’s for certain.

All of this Narnian thinking reminds me that I have not really chronicled The Chronicles of Narnia very well this year.  (You see what I did there?)

It also reminds me that I never finished my last Little House on the Prairie Adventure post – the one about her Mansfield home.

Well, you guys know this about me already – it’s hard for me to keep up.