Learn all about Albania!

The most amusing fact I found for Albania had to do with Mother Teresa. Did you know Mother Teresa was born in Albania? It’s true, but since she was born the lines of Europe have been redrawn a few times, and her birthplace has moved into a few different countries over the many decades, and currently it is in Northern Macedonia. The things you learn during geography lessons. So our Albania unit had a bit of fun with that.

(I’ve got affiliate links in here)

Albania booklist, the start of our Albania unit

• Eaglet’s World– Albania, like many countries, has the eagle as its national symbol, so I looked around for a good book on them and found this one
• Mother Teresa: Itty Bitty Bio– I’ll be honest, we didn’t really use this because it’s so clearly aimed at early elementary/preschool
• Mother Teresa: helping the poor– by contrast, this is geared for middle school
• Magic hoofbeats: horse tales from many lands– I love folktales, and finding folktales about horses, is just about the best thing ever
• Albania– used for reference purposes and for pretty pictures
• Albania– used for reference purposes and for pretty pictures

 

Albania resources I found online

 

15 fun and interesting facts about Albania

Cool Kid Facts of Albania

20 facts on Albania

 

Albania unit: notebooking pages

Our Albania unit only had three items to put together:

First we learned about Mother Teresa, and we had a lot of fun comparing the two different portrayals of her.

Next, we learned about eagles, and I had the kids write about a rising eagle, which they rolled their eyes over.

Finally, we learned about a talking horse, which reminded me of many of the other talking animal stories I’ve read over the years. Like I said, I like folk tales.

 

 

My favorite part of the Albania unit: the Albania recipe

Albania soda bread

Albanian meatballs

Now, just these two by themselves would be rather bland, so I decided to add in some salad, asparagus, and mashed potatoes. My kids are nuts for mashed potatoes and love them with meatballs.

 

Albanian meatball recipe

I did somewhat modify the Albanian meatballs because it called for ground lamb, which I don’t have easy access to.

Albania meatballs

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Albanian meatball recipe, quick and easy to make

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes

Total Time 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 onion minced
• 1 cup breadcrumbs
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tablespoons parsley
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 2 teaspoons oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons pepper
• For dipping
• 1 egg and 1 egg white
• For cooking
• vegetable oil

Instructions

1. Mix together ground beef, onion, egg yolks, bread crumbs, and spices.
2. Form into meatballs about the same of a golf ball, then smash them flat.
3. Start to heat the oil in a pan on the stovetop.
4. Mix together the egg and egg white, then dip each meatball into the egg mixture.
5. Drop the flat meatballs into the oil to cook, flipping after a minute or two. You can probably cook 4 or 5 at a time in your pan depending on its size.

Notes

These go well with mashed potatoes or Albanian flatbread.

As you can see, it’s a pretty straightforward recipe. I changed it up slightly from their recipe, and it was a little different to eat fried meatballs rather than baked meatballs. I think next time I would probably just bake them.

 

Albanian flatbread

Sorry, it’s a soda bread, not a flatbread, but it looks fairly flat to me, so I tend to think of it as a flatbread.

Yield: 1 loaf

Albanian sodabread

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A nice quick bread that doesn't require a rise time.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 3/4 cups flour
• 3 cups greek yogurt
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Instructions

1. Mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
2. Add in the yogurt, mixing until it is all the way mixed in.
3. Knead the dough on a floured surface, add extra flour if it is too sticky. It will still be somewhat sticky after kneading.
4. Shape into a round, mostly flat loaf on a pizza stone.
5. Bake for 40 minutes at 400 degrees.

I ended up adding a fair amount of flour to be able to work with it much. I’ve noticed in my home I usually need an extra 1/4-1/2 cup of flour from what recipes say.

 

More geography lessons

• North Dakota Unit
• Me on the Map: My neighborhood
• Oklahoma booklist
• Montana unit
• Luxembourg potato cakes