You want to hear a hilarious argument? Greece and Macedonia have been arguing over the name Macedonia. They finally settled it, Macedonia was allowed to keep the name Macedonia, but only if they added the word “North” in front of it. And that is the first fact you have now learned from our North Macedonia Unit as part of our geography lessons.

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North Macedonia resources

North Macedonia unit geography Europe 10th

For some reason, my library didn’t have any books for North Macedonia, not even any books on Alexander the Great. I guess if you’re trying to cover several thousand years of history in a children’s book section you can’t have books for every historical figure.

Since this is one of the generally earlier videos (from 2016), and he was using the official UN list of alphabetical countries, at the time it was officially called the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. There has been a lot of diplomatic discussions to finally settle on the Republic of North Macedonia.

And since this is one of the videos that has a separate video for the flag, here’s the FLAG FRIDAY video.

North Macedonia recipe: Garlic sauce

I found this garlic sauce, it looked delicious and I love garlic sauces, so we made it.

Macedonian garlic sauce over noodles main dish recipe

Ingredients:

1 head of garlic, yes you read that right, a whole head of garlic
salt
5 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons vinegar
1 2/3 cups warm water
2-3 small hot peppers
plain yogurt (2 tablespoons-1/4 cup)

Remove the skin from the garlic, and trim off the ends, and put it in your food processor. Puree that sucker. The original instructions say use a wooden bowl, and smash it in there, but I don’t have one, so I can’t tell you if that wooden bowl gives a better flavor.
Add salt, then oil, and mix to unify.
Slowly add in the vinegar, then the water. Finally add the yogurt.
I’m pretty sure I skipped the hot peppers to ensure my spicy averse daughter would eat it.

Macedonian Garlic Sauce

Garlic sauce recipe great for putting over noodles

Ingredients

1 head of garlic
salt as desired
5 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons vinegar
1 2/3 cups warm water
2/3 small hot peppers (optional)
some plain yogurt

Instructions

Remove the skins from the garlic and drop in your food processor.
Add salt as desired, then add the oil and mix.
Add the vinegar and mix again.
Finally, add the water, mixing again.
Add a small amount of plain yogurt (2 tablespoons-1/4 cup) to create a smoother sauce.
Serve over hot noodles.

I served it over hot noodles with cooked chicken. In all it was enjoyed, but no one said, “Oh I really love it.” Probably because if I’m going to make a creamy garlic sauce, I’d rather just make an alfredo sauce.

North Macedonia notebooking pages

The big thing I got from our North Macedonia unit is the HUGE controversy over the name, which as of when we’d studied it a year ago was only barely settled.

I’m also intrigued by the number of countries that gained independence from USSR without blood. This especially stands out because it’s lumped in with the Balkans (hence former Yugoslavia Republic), which weren’t known for a peaceful ending.

And just to make sure I say it, these are the Europe notebooking pages.