It has been a very long time since I have shared about our end of term celebration we call the Feast For the Famous, so for the sake of those who are new here, and also to give an easy reference post to point others to down the road, I will share all the details about the what and the why we do this feast before I share the specifics about this particular feast.
Feast for the Famous came about a few years ago as we were looking for a way to celebrate the end of a term. Our boys love food and somehow it all just fell together – let’s have a feast celebrating the people and events we just enjoyed reading about by representing them in various food dishes. It was a bigger hit than would probably make sense in most families … but for my food loving crew, they truly loved it and we have managed to pull it off almost every term (three per school year). There’s been a few we’ve missed. This is a tool to enhance our lives, not a drudgery we are obliged to.
Each feast we find different people to invite to celebrate with us. The boys pick who they want and we’ve had everything from neighbors we barely know to young couples who haven’t a clue about homeschooling, to visiting family, to church friends, to previously homeschooled adults. I just warn the guests that the menu might not make sense (we piece it together based on the boys choices and there’s been some odd assortments) and tell them it’s a celebration of the people and events the boys have read about. Then I let go of any feeling of it needing to be anything other than fun for my boys.
Now that we have been at this for years the boys have ideas throughout the term for what they can do for the feast. I encourage them to keep a notebook page for ideas, but inevitably the feast comes together in one official sit down meeting before my final grocery shopping trip before the feast. I aid and direct (and say no!) to their ideas, but the whole point of this isn’t to have the perfect connection, but rather, that they are remembering people and events and considering through how they can represent it in food.
I will from time to time offer up ideas about food items I have that they can avail themselves to, such as; “I have giant turkey legs in the freezer you are welcome to.” There’s been a number of items over the years that I have told them I have in the pantry or freezer that *I* think are fun that they wouldn’t otherwise know are an actual food item. But they have giant imaginations and sometimes need to be told no. Like the meal they wanted lamb (yes), mussels (yes), chicken nuggets (yes) and octopus (no.)
And while they are a big help in all the work, I try to lay out the work involved in their ideas so they have a balance between things we can prep before hand, things that need to be day of, things we can just open and dump, etc. Because even though they are a huge help, it is still on me to keep things moving and the balance is so key to keeping it a joyful event.
A couple of times I have asked company to bring a part of the meal and that was SO helpful! I don’t always ask because it isn’t always a big deal, but, for example, when it was our neighbor I actually just ran over some things that just needed to be heated and asked her to bring them over hot. That little thing was super helpful to me. And when company arrives we put give them jobs so they can be a part of getting this feast on the table.
For each meal I create menu the day before or morning of. The boys (Judah especially) like coming up with little riddles or puns so they often get put in. I print a copy of the menu for each guest and put it at their place setting. Generally, the menu names the item, has a little pun, and names the book it came from.
Over the years the table settings have changed. Sometimes it’s just the food. Sometimes they do Lego creations from their books and display those. Sometimes other art creations have been on the table, or around the table. Sometimes I have used dishes that match the time period. It all depends on what I have on hand and how much energy I have. haha.
Sometimes we have played the terms composer during dinner. Sometimes I forget and there is no music or other music in the background. Sometimes we have read our poet during dinner. Sometimes I forget and we don’t.
Once we are all seated at the table we give thanks for the food and then the boys quickly go through the menu, explaining any little detail that might otherwise be missed. Then we eat! And that’s basically it. There is usually a lot of food left over, which is great because that means I can just feed them left overs for the next day or two and not think about cooking for a little while. ha!
Now that I have completely over explained it let me share about this specific feast we just finished!
If you want to read about other feasts we have done in the past you can find the few posts here. I have done a terrible job at documenting them over the years!
The boys have just completed term one of year 7 and year 8 and this menu was made up from the books completed in those years from Ambleside Online.
This menu has the pun/funny name and then the actual food item listed beside it and right underneath it is the book that inspired the food item. In their brief introduction before the meal they explained a bit more of the connection between the character or book scene and the food item.
*”Maybe O Fallacy” should read “Maybe A Fallacy”
Yup! Actual dried crickets, served on a petri dish. They’ve been doing a microscope study Thursday evenings with a neighbor tutor/friend and this was a nod towards that.
I titled the book incorrectly on the menu, it should be The Chemical History of the Candle. Judah is reading it (well, he’s taken to watching the lectures on Youtube.) I thought my coconut rolls were the long ones, but they were super short so he stacked them on a kabob stick to make longer candles. Wes
Wesley is reading Beowulf this year and chose to use chocolate milk to represent the swampy water where Grendol’s mother lived. The ice cube person with the plastic sword represented the many people she killed.
The plastic swords come up at just about every Feast for the Famous! The boys love using them. You can buy the food safe plastic sword picks here in a large lot. I keep them tucked away in a drawer and they know they’re a resource they can use for a meal.
The other useful tool is the Lego minifig ice cube tray. They use it often for ice cube or chocolate people. You can buy the Lego minifig mold here.
I appreciate having those two items on hand, but everything else I make do and it changes based on the menu. I hope this has been helpful, and if you do your own version of a Feast for the Famous I would love to hear about it!
*Amazon links were used and I do get a tiny commission from purchases made through my link.
