The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch

Skill Level: Intermediate

Finally, a chance to do another book and dinner.  The book this week was The Paper Bag Princess.  This is the story of a princess, a dragon, and a prince.  In this story, the Princess defeats the Dragon and rescues the Prince.  She does this wearing a paper bag since the Dragon had burned all of her princessly clothes.  Unfortunately, the Prince feels that the Princess is exhibiting a lack of style. 

 

This led to a few discussions about what’s ugly and what isn’t. Remember Grummy, when I thought you wrapped my birthday present in the newspaper? Remember when it was a CLOCK for me to learn to tell time with?  It was a clock in a newspaper. 

 

After some prodding, guidance and outright giving them the answers, the boys accepted that the Princess wasn’t ugly, but the Prince was.  We discussed a few other examples of this.  Some snakes look pretty but are dangerous.  Some food looks good but isn’t good for you.  So the boys ended up learning the word ‘Consequences’, and how you get them in addition to the story's moral about looking beyond the wrapping.

The menu for this story wasn’t nearly as important as the serving vessel(s).  I used brown paper lunch bags to hold the entire meal and to cook the dessert.   I made some bags out of parchment and tape (shaped like those birthday goodie bags).  I even cooked some of the vegetables in “bags” and served the salad in them.

First, I wanted to make beggar’s purses.  And I didn’t want to go to the store.  So I found a recipe for wonton skins and made the dough.  It’s an awful lot like my pasta dough, but here’s the recipe:

 

Wonton Skins:

2 cups all purpose flour, sifted 1 egg ¾ tsp salt ¼ cup water

Sift the flour into a medium bowl. In a small bowl, gently beat together the egg and salt.  Add the water. Make a well in the center of the flour and pour in the egg mixture. Work the mixture until it forms somewhat dry dough. Kneed for 5 minutes. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.

 

 

While the wonton dough was resting, I cut up some chicken into dime sized pieces and started them browning in about a teaspoon of oil.  I then shredded some carrots, diced some garlic and pickled ginger, and added some chopped pecans.  Once in the pan, I added some celery.  You could add whatever you have on hand, remember, I didn’t want to go to the store.

 

 

 

For our vegetable, I chose green beans with almonds and a bit of lemon juice.  Okay.  I added a teeny bit of butter.  I wrapped each portion in a small piece of parchment and cooked them (seam side down) in the microwave for about a minute.

 

 

The salad was a lettuce roll with some of my herbed ricotta, thinly sliced carrots and cherry tomatoes.  I rolled them up and wrapped them in some parchment so they looked like they were in little bags.

 

Now that the dough was rested, I made the beggar’s purses.  I rolled the dough out in thin sheets, working with a small amount at a time to reduce frustration.  Using a pasta cutting wheel that leaves edges that look like they were cut with pinking shears, I cut the dough into squares around 3” on a side.  I put a heaping tablespoon of the chicken mixture on each, then folded them up into purses.  First join opposite corners and pinch the dough, then bring the two remaining sides together and lift the dumpling into the palm of your hand.  Cradle the dumpling while gently twisting the top and pinching off a “neck” in the dumpling to make it resemble a drawstring bag.

I don’t have a bamboo steamer (remember, no visits to the store today), so I used my double boiler with its strainer insert to steam the dumplings.  I steamed them while I assembled the dessert.

 

Dessert was popcorn – in a bag – of course.  I put 3 tablespoons (one for each serving) of popcorn kernels in a brown paper lunch bag and folded the bag over once and taped it.  I put it in the microwave, tape side up and cooked it on high.  You really have to listen to the kernels and when they stop popping for more than 3 seconds, stop cooking.  Once the popcorn was done, I put 1 teaspoon of coconut oil and 1 tsp of chocolate milk powder in the bag, folded it over and shook for a half a minute.  I put each dessert portion into one of the bags I’d made out of parchment paper.

While I was cooking and packaging everything, I had the boys color some lunch bags that I’d already started with the word “Dinner” on them.  Once those were finished, I packed the entire dinner up in the bags, and we had our Paper Bag Princess Dinner.

 

 

Title	The Paper Bag Princess
Author	Robert Munsch
Illustrator	Michael Martchenko
Publisher	Annick Press
Highlights /Tie in	Paper Bags, bandana/napkins
Reactions to the Book	·         Loved tying napkins (bandanas) around their necks like the dragon did ·         She didn’t like the Prince because he thought she looked ugly.  (With a bit of prompting …)He was ugly. ·         Grummy, you know we’re boys, right?
Meal	·         Chicken dumplings (pauper’s purse sort of) ·         String beans, lemon, almonds in a ‘bag’ ·         Salad wraps in a ‘bag’ ·         Chocolate popcorn in a ‘bag’ ·         The whole meal in a brown lunch bag
Reactions to the Meal	·         This is a lot of paper Grummy.  ·         It’s SCHICKEN! I told you Grummy’d make us schiken again. ·         The youngest ate the bag to get the chocolatey popcorn goo off. ·         You had me  color my bag so we’d know that was my dinner, not theirs.