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
Wow, this is Future Ticia 2025 and I’m updating this post later on, and I just didn’t provide context for so much of this. Like, I just stuck this in here. So, here is the Georgaphy Now video we used. I love these videos, and they provide most of the information we need.
Then, I like to find a couple of different websites, and these are the ones I found then.
Albania unit: notebooking pages
We used the Europe 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
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
Albanian meatball recipe, quick and easy to make
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
- Mix together ground beef, onion, egg yolks, bread crumbs, and spices.
- Form into meatballs about the same of a golf ball, then smash them flat.
- Start to heat the oil in a pan on the stovetop.
- Mix together the egg and egg white, then dip each meatball into the egg mixture.
- 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.
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.
Albanian sodabread
A nice quick bread that doesn't require a rise time.
Ingredients
- 2 3/4 cups flour
- 3 cups greek yogurt
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
- Mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
- Add in the yogurt, mixing until it is all the way mixed in.
- Knead the dough on a floured surface, add extra flour if it is too sticky. It will still be somewhat sticky after kneading.
- Shape into a round, mostly flat loaf on a pizza stone.
- Bake for 40 minutes at 400 degrees.
Notes
Sometimes more flour is needed to get the right texture.
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
By Photo: Chris Walts – https://www.flickr.com/photos/crashadventures/29647840462/in/album-72157673937327166/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52560679
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