My “Top Five” lists are never met to be set in stone, and in the six years since I first came up with a list of my five favorite TV shows, my favorites have changed a bit.
I Love Lucy–This has been my favorite TV show for a long time. I’ve watched every episode more times than I can count, and yet I never get sick of it. Are there elements of the show that haven’t aged well? Sure. But there are also funny jokes, moments of great physical comedy, fantastic guest stars, and outstanding fashion and interior design!
M*A*S*H—Scrubs used to appear on this list, but I basically swapped one medical show with another. The boys and I watch a few episodes every night before bed, and when we get to the end, we just start all over again, and we never grow tired of it. It’s a funny show, but it was also way ahead of its time in how it addressed social and political issues, and I’ve really come to appreciate that.
Downton Abbey–The glamour and intrigue of this show never grows old. I love watching the lives of those who live upstairs and those who live downstairs, and how those lives intersect. Plus, did I mention the glamour?
Rick Steves’ Europe–After planning an entire summer school around this show, I guess it should be no shock that it’s one of my favorites. I love asking “where should we go today?” and then turning on an episode. I always feel like I’m learning something when I watch, too, so it’s not just mindless TV!
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic–The show is a bit of a wild card, but Bunny, Chickadee, and I are just finishing watching through the run of the show, and I find that I really love it. It’s so relatable, and each one of us has a pony whom we particularly identify with. It may be a children’s show, but it’s a lot of fun for me as an adult to watch, and I think I’ll look back and cherish this time that my youngest daughter, oldest daughter, and I had so much fun together!
I thought I’d feel bad about kicking Friends off the list, but while I do still enjoy watching it from time to time, I’m not as into it as I once was. I do feel a little guilty about removing Deep SpaceNine, though…it is still my favorite StarTrek show, however!
Can you believe this is the second time we’ve celebrated this holiday in the time of COVID-19?!? Of course, last year, we really didn’t know what we were in for yet, and this year, we’re all hoping that we can see a light at the end of the tunnel, but either way, our family celebration remained largely unchanged, although this year, we did start celebrating pretty early in the month with Shamrock Shakes (almost impossible to find in our area this year, so when we did pinpoint a location that was offering them, we jumped on it!) and a Green River Soda cheesecake from Eli’s:
We started the day with Lucky Charms and the leprechaun trap…spoilers, we didn’t catch him (again!)!
We read all of our favorite St. Patrick’s Day books, watched all of the Ireland episodes of Rick Steves’ Europe we have on disc, and also watched Aerial Ireland. I really enjoyed “Shamrock Day” in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. While it wasn’t a huge event like some, there were some special items, including what look suspiciously like Shamrock Shakes!
I also enjoyed giving a few of my favorite neighbors a Shamrock Suit to match mine:
The highlight of the day (for me at least) was dinner. I love corned beef and cabbage and all the trimmings!
And of course we had Guinness cake for dessert, which is a family favorite!
We had a nice St. Patrick’s Day, as we always do, but I really hope that next time the holiday rolls around, things in the world are a little more normal!
Time for another Top Five list! I’m not even going to pretend I can pick just five of my favorite episodes of Rick Steves’ Europe, though, but I did narrow it down to seven, which honestly, I think is pretty good. Not up for consideration on this list are the specials, especially Rick Steves’ European Christmas, because if I had included them when I was compiling the list, it would be even longer!
“Switzerland’s Jungfrau Region: Best of the Alps” (season two)–While I’ve always thought it would be cool to visit the Alps (probably because I’ve seen The Sound of Music so many times!), I didn’t realize just how many charming places like Gimmelwald there are in Switzerland until I saw this episode.
“Normandy: War-Torn, Yet Full of Life” (season three)–This episode introduced me to Mont St. Michel, an Abby built on an island which is sometimes accessible by foot. There is so much history in this episode, from the old tradition of keeping the beat while making omelettes for people on a pilgrimage to the abbey, to Monet’s lilies, and especially the beaches of Normandy, which still echo with memories of D-Day.
“Dubrovnik and Balkan Side Trips” (season six)–Continuing with the theme, I had never heard of Dubrovnik until Rick Steves took me there. I have learned so much about the world from watching the show, and this was no exception, but now that I know about it, I think it would be an amazing place to visit, evening if watching the guy dive off the bridge does always make my heart race!
“Florentine Delights and Tuscan Side Trips” (season seven)–This might be my very favorite episode of Rick Steves’ Europe (other than the Christmas special). I never really thought Italy would be at the top of the list of places I’d want to visit in Europe, but seeing Pisa and watching Rick dine at a local restaurant sold me on the experience!
“Paris: Regal and Intimate” (season seven)–It’s Paris…what more do I need to say?
“London: Historic and Dynamic” (season seven)–I guess it’s not really fair to include this episode on my list, since I want to visit London so badly, but I think I did pretty well to only have one London episode represented here. It’s my favorite look at that city because Rick visits all the places I would want to go!
“France’s Loire: Château Country” (season eight)–The Loire Valley is another region I never really thought about visiting, but looking at all of the beautiful, stately homes makes me want to spend a day or three exploring the history of the area!
Maybe someday, I’ll even be able to travel to some of these places, and see them for myself! It’s nice to dream of a world where international travel is a possibility, isn’t it?
I promised a closer look at the foods we tried making at home for our Rick Steves’ Europe themed summer school. This was probably the most specialized cooking we’ve ever done for a school unit, and not only did we get to try a lot of new things (plus a few old favorites), we also learned some new cooking techniques and got to use some new kitchen tools!
Our first European meal featured French dishes. We started with a cheese course, the star of which was a famous French cheese, camembert:
For our (European) Christmas in July, we tried two recipes from the Rick Steves’ European Christmas book: Gimmelwald fondue and Norwegian Julekake. Both were excellent, and not too much trouble to make.
I looked forward to making a Spanish dinner of paella all summer, and it was delicious, and quite spicy! The dessert of flan was good, but a total pain to make.
Ladybug begged me to make chicken paprikash for Hungarian night, and it was also delicious. I really liked that instead of using sour cream like I expected, the recipe called for heavy cream plus white wine vinegar. For a side dish, I made nokedli (pretty much just our standard spaetzle). For dessert, I made a chocolate cake called Rigó Jancsi, and it was amazing…the star of the recipe was the chocolate mousse filling.
Our British dinner was a simple (but tasty!) one of bangers and mash, plus a lemon-berry trifle for dessert.
For our “Taste of Italy” I made mushroom risotto for dinner, and Panna Cotta with fresh berries for dessert. The Panna Cotta was sweetened (and flavored) with honey, which was a pleasant surprise.
We almost didn’t have a German meal, but while watching our very last episode of Rick Steves’ Europe for the summer, we saw him eating Black Forest cherry torte, and the children reminded me how much they like it when I make that dessert, so I decided to go full German and make rouladen, spaetzle, and sauerkraut, too.
Our final meal took us away from Europe and into the Middle East, because there are a few episodes of Rick Steves’ Europe that also step into that region. We tried Shakshouka (made with a new-to-us ingredient, harissa paste), plus pita bread and pomegranate juice, and it was also delicious!
Just like that, another year’s summer school has come to an end. I think our Rick Steves’ Europe themed summer school might be my favorite that we’ve done so far, because even though I didn’t have to do as much work (until it was time to start cooking), and hands-on activities and field trips were a little elusive (although I did make a few things work!), we all learned so much, and had a lot of fun while doing it!
So what did a primarily video-based summer school look like? We watched (if I counted correctly) 72 episodes of Rick Steves’ Europe over the course of two months. While we couldn’t “visit” every place I would have liked, we did get a great overview of Europe with “trips” to Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, The Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Slovenia, Greece, Turkey, Israel, and Palestine, plus a few other places. We also watched all three regular travel skills specials and the cruising special. We even found time for all three other specials: Christmas, Easter, and Festivals! (We watched The Story of Fascism in Europe last spring, and since it was kind of intense, we didn’t watch it again this summer.) I bought my oldest students travel journals, and Chickadee a sketchbook, and they wrote and/or drew something for every episode we watched. Places they hope to visit someday, interesting facts, travel tips…anything that jumped out at them. I really hope they’ll keep these journals, so that if they ever do have the opportunity to go to Europe, they can look through them, and see what their younger selves thought would be cool to visit, and maybe add some locations to their itinerary.
I mentioned field trips and hands-on activities. Some of them were a bit of a stretch, but I did my best. For example, we visited Frankenmuth, MI, this summer, which is known as “Michigan’s Little Bavaria.” I figured this was as close we could get to visiting a European town, and it really did look like I imagine some German towns do. We also got to eat a lovely German meal while we were there:
Speaking of food, we also tried a new-to-us cuisine this summer when we went to a local Bosnian restaurant. We were all very impressed, both with the dishes and the “slow-food” way of eating there…I’m sure we’ll be going back!
And how could we make it through the day we learned about traveling in Greece without having gyros?
The St. Louis Art Museum is hosting a special exhibit of work by a European artist, Paul Gauguin, which was a nice way to experience a bit of European culture:
Now, on to “other activities.” We played a lot of games this summer: Ticket to Ride Europe, 10 Days in Europe, and Ticket to Ride: My First Journey (European Map). These all gave us a chance to talk about the various cities/countries on the maps, and recall things we had seen watching Rick Steves’ Europe, and talk about the places we’d like to visit. I also gave my students a few special assignments…Chickadee made a poster about her favorite European city, (Paris), Ladybug wrote a 1,500 word essay about hers, (Rome), and my oldest students read Travel as a Political Act, and I have to say, I think our discussions about that book might have been my favorite part of the whole summer. They certainly learned a lot about life in Europe and the importance of travel, and I think their worldview changed a bit because of it! For one hands-on activity everyone could enjoy, we built the only Lego Architecture European skyline set we didn’t already have: Paris. It was a fun little build, and a nice addition to our collection!
And finally…cooking at home! This is always one of my favorite parts of summer school, but I have to confess, I kind of put this off to the end of the summer, and was rushing to cook all the things I had planned. In the end, we tried French, Swiss, Norwegian, Spanish, Hungarian, British, Italian, German, and Middle Eastern cuisines at home (full details on what we tried next week). I think we all have some new favorites, and I definitely learned a few new cooking techniques along the way!
Obviously, traveling to Europe as a large family isn’t a realistic option, at least not for us. But I did my best to give my children a glimpse into European culture and history, and more than that, I really I hope I inspired in them a desire to travel when they’re older and have the opportunity. There are so many interesting places and great people throughout the world, and I am grateful for any chance to explore them, even if we had to do it vicariously for now!
Last Thursday, I shared a picture of Chickadee with the poster she made for our European-themed summer school. Today, I’m taking a look at something else she did in summer school this year:
She’s played the US map of Ticket to Ride: My First Journey before, but this summer was her first chance to play the European map. She recognized many of the illustrations from watching Rick Steves’ Europe, and I didn’t even have to try to let her win…she’s a natural!
I know we put it off until the very last minute, but today we celebrated Christmas in July! And not just any Christmas in July, but (European) Christmas in July, inspired by our Rick Steves’ Europe summer school. Actually, most of my ideas for our celebration came from the Rick Steves’ European Christmas TV special and/or the accompanying book! We enjoyed Gimmelwald fondue (recipe found in the book) and Norwegian Julekake (also found in the book).
We also listened to the Rick Steves’ European Christmas CD, which always makes my spirit bubble up with joy…only 147 day until Christmas!
This year’s summer school is going to be a little different, because instead of focusing on books, we’re going to be focusing on episodes of Rick Steves’ Europe. Here’s a look at all the shows we’ll be watching (you’ll have to wait and see all of the different European recipes we’ll be trying to go with our viewing!):
Rick Steves’ Europe: The Blu-Ray Collection (70 shows!!!)
Rick Steves’ Europe: The Complete Collection (Which I only got because it was super marked-down, and contained some episodes that neither the blu-ray collection nor our other discs had).
Rick Steves’ Travel Extras
Rick Steves’ European Easter
Rick Steves’ Europe: 12 New Shows 2015-1016
Rick Steves’ Europe: 10 New Shows 2017-2018
Rick Steves’ Europe: 12 New Shows 2019-2020
Of course, there will be some books, too:
Europe Through the Back Door
Travel as a Political Act
London
French, Italian & German Phrase Book
Rick Steves’ European Christmas
Rick Steves’ European Easter
Rick Steves’ European Festivals
Rick Steves’ Europe Planning Map (yes, not technically a book, but I didn’t know where else to put it!)
And even a CD (perfect for Christmas in July!):
Rick Steves’ European Christmas CD
For fun, because I always like to have something hands-on as part of summer school, I got the Lego Architecture Paris skyline set for us to build. We’ve collected quite a few of these skylines now, in addition to the Eiffel Tower model we have, and I think it will make a nice addition to our display!
I also got the children travel journals to go with our viewing. My plan is to have them keep one page for each episode, and list specific places they would like to visit in the future if they are able for each location Rick highlights. My hope is that they will keep these journals, and someday, when they hopefully travel to Europe, they will already know which are must-see locations for them.
I’m really excited about this year’s summer school, and quite honestly, I don’t know why it took me so long to come up with the idea, because I’ve been a fan of Rick Steves for quite some time!
It is my sincere hope in writing this that through the wonders of the internet, Rick Steves himself will read this letter, and know what a profound impact he and his show have had on our family’s life. But I also hope other parents will read it and realize what a great resource “Rick Steves’ Europe” is, and share it with their children, too.
Dear Mr. Steves:
I have never been to Europe. Actually, I’ve never left the U.S., not even to visit one of our neighboring countries. But I dream of it constantly. Visiting London is at the top of my list. But in addition to traveling to that great city, there are other places I would also like to visit on that list. Germany…specifically at Christmastime. The charming little town of Switzerland. I’d love to tour Italy, one historical location and great restaurant at a time. Not to mention beautiful Sweden, the ancient ruins of Greece, and of course the Loire Valley in France. And that’s just the beginning! If I could, I would travel from North to South, from East to West, across that great continent, and see and taste as many things as possible.
If that sounds like a pipe dream, then the idea of my husband and I traveling with our five children, of showing them the great sights of Europe, is a dream beyond my wildest imagination. Taking that many children “across the pond,” staying for any length of time in Europe’s great cities, visiting the museums, historical locations, and restaurants is basically impossible. It is not something I think many families, certainly not families of our size, could ever afford to do.
But I want my children to know there’s more out there, even if we can’t travel together to see it all. I want them to be the kind of people who would never be mistaken for “Ugly Americans.” I want them to realize that the millions of people living across Europe are fantastic people, with unique cultures, great cuisine, and amazing histories of their own.
Your show has given me the perfect opportunity to “travel” with them. We have explored interesting and diverse cultures, and learned a bit of their histories. We have seen great architecture, landmarks, and works of art. We have heard music and the stories of fascinating people. We have felt that in some small way, we have stepped out of our own home and visited the world. We have watched our favorite episodes so many times that occasionally, we feel like we’ve actually been to some of those places!
I hope that someday, my children will have the chance to travel abroad, and see for themselves the places we’ve learned about on your show. I hope they will experience those cultures firsthand, try the cuisine, visit the museums, talk to the people. But even if they don’t, they have had a glimpse of the greater world, and they have an appreciation for it thanks to the journeys you have shared with us!
