Are you looking for a new and fun approach to teaching U.S. history to your younger student? Then read on about the newest book we reviewed from Ann McCallum Books called Eat Your U.S. History Homework.
The Book
This hardback 8.5 x 11 book is full of engaging images of fun characters. The glossy pages bring the images to life!
The book is filled with six recipes that were around way back when. This book isn’t just filled with recipes though, it is full of history! Fun stories and facts are sprinkled in and around the recipes for a through comprehension of the time period in the lesson.
There is a cute introduction that covers what the book is going to be about and also provides a timeline for reference. Then the most important section – kitchen tips.
Each lesson (or recipe) typically covers 5 pages in the book. The pre-lesson, the recipe, then the post-lesson. Check out the list of yummy foods we got to try out:
- Thanksgiving Succotash
- Colonial Cherry-Berry Grunt
- Lost Bread
- Southern Plantation Hoe Cakes
- Revolutionary Honey-Jumble Cookies
- Independence Ice Cream
There is also a history review in the back after all of the recipes. This is a wonderful way to wrap up the history book. I appreciated the glossary here too because it provided additional information on subjects that we had not fully touched on before.
How This Book Was Used
On the day I decided to take pictures, my oldest son actually wanted to be the lesson (recipe) reviewer. So, thanks to Isaiah, I was able to get some pictures of the Revolutionary Honey-Jumble Cookies during the making process!
The recipe was easy to read and understand. And the recipe was broken down into sections:
- Before you Begin – this was the prep time, cooking time, and total time along with oven temperature, cookie yield, and difficulty level
- Ingredient List – every item you would need for the recipe and how much would be required of each
- Equipment – every item you would need for the cookie making process
- Method (Directions) – very well laid out step by step directions for the making process
Isaiah (being 14) was able to follow each of the directions without any issues. The cookies turned out beautifully and they were so scrumptious to eat! We were pleasantly surprised to taste them and realize that they are snickerdoodle cookies. According to the book, this recipe was the original recipe that prompted the snickerdoodle cookie. That was a fun fact for al of us to learn!
We read the entire book during our review period and we did manage to prepare another one often dishes suggested.
Sadly, this one was mostly supervised by mama, so there was no picture taking for the Thanksgiving Succotash.
Ana did a wonderful job though! The recipe was very simple to follow and we all appreciated the fact that we were able to use frozen vegetables in the recipe. I was a bit concerned when I first read that it had succotash in the book. I just knew for sure that we were going to have to use fresh vegetables because that was how it happened with the Pilgrims! Needless to say, I was quite relieved to learn otherwise!
By far this was one of our favorite recipes!
We enjoyed the delicious taste that the bacon added as well as the chicken stock. This was the best tasting vegetables that we have eaten in a ling time. So yummy in fact that each of my children finished their vegetables first during dinner! That alone should tell you had perfect this recipe was!
Overall, this was a wonderful book that we were blessed to review. We all enjoyed the pictures in the book and I loved helping my children create dishes that went along with a sprinkling of history. It was a fun way to spend time with the kids and be confidant that they were learning something at the same time.
I am looking forward to picking up some of Ann’s other books:
Visit my fellow Review Crew members to see what books they reviewed from Ann McCallum:
I hope you enjoyed this latest review and that you visit again soon to see what else we share with you.
In His Grace.
Callie
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