Looking Back – February 2009

When I look back at my blog from last February I did pretty well covering our activities but I did miss one thing. Isabelle’s school held an international dinner to recognize the almost 20 different nationalities represented at the school. As a Canadian with Scottish, Irish and even distant Italian roots, I probably wouldn’t have too much to share beyond what was already represented but luckily I married an Acadian so the decision was easy we would make rapure (rappie pie). Since two great friends have written about making rapure with Paul, I will leave to them to get into the details (Taryn's Blog and Radia's Blog). Suffice it to say when all that was left but old potatoes and meat, Paul’s Acadian ancestors concocted this meal to get them through the end of the cold, hard winter. With Taryn, Paul could use pre-packaged grated potato available in the freezer section of a lot of Nova Scotia grocery stores but here in South Carolina we have to make it from scratch - well almost, he uses an electric juicer to remove the starch and water from the potatoes.

For the dinner, the children were also invited to wear traditional clothes if they had them. Paul’s parents had visited just before the dinner and his mom came prepared to make an Evangeline outfit for Isabelle.  So here she is dressed as a petite Acadienne.