Iceland: Pancakes, Chocolate Soup, and Geysers {Around the World in 12 Dishes}

It’s time again for my (this time only a bit late) monthly post for “Around the World in 12 Dishes,” the series in which each month participating bloggers travel the world with their kids by cooking a dish from another country and perhaps reading a book, doing a craft, or learning fun facts about it.

This month we visited Iceland.  When we pulled out our children’s atlas, of course my budding geologist spotted the volcano and geysers right away.  He has studied quite a bit about volcanoes, so I thought it would be fun to explore about geysers.  We talked some about how they are related to volcanoes then I found some videos online showing actual geysers.  Here is one of the Strokkur Geyser.

Monkey and I got a big kick out of Little Monkey’s reaction to the video.  His eyes got huge, and he cried out “Agua!  Agua!  Aguaaaaaa!”

I showed Monkey some of the recipes I found for Iceland, and no surprise he opted for pancakes and “chocolate soup” rather than fish stew 🙂

Both were big hits.  Icelandic pancakes are quite a bit like crepes.  I did not alter the recipe I found, so I won’t repeat it here.  They should be very thin and are often enjoyed stacked, sometimes with a filling.  If you are used to cooking the thicker pancakes we make in the US, be careful not to burn them, as these cook much more quickly.  (Not that I speak from experience, ahem).  They would go great with maple syrup!

The chocolate soup was also delicious.  The spices smelled just heavenly.

I have to admit doubling the amount of sugar for Monkey, who really wanted hot chocolate.  I was curious that the website said that this is often served as a main course, but it made more sense once I realized that it isn’t very sweet.  I remember when I was in Bolivia that a cup of chocolate would often be served as dinner in many poor households.

Well, ours was served as a delicious afternoon snack with perhaps a few marshmallows, but we still learned about geysers, didn’t we?

What have you been cooking with your children lately?

Check out the other participating blogs to see what they have been cooking up:

Adventures In Mommydom, Afterschool for Smarty Pants, All Done Monkey, Crafty Moms Share, Maroc Mama, Creative World of Varya, Glittering Muffins, Kid World Citizen, Mermaids’ Makings, The Educators’ Spin On It and The Mommy Talks.

If you try a dish from Iceland, we’d love to hear about it! And don’t forget to download this month’s placemat and passport! You can also link up your dish or craft here to share your post on all the participating blogs: