The Final Post

Well finally I have come to my last post. I hope you have all enjoyed reading my blog ... if anyone is out there reading it! I hope I have allowed you all to understand the importance of cooking to me. Within this blogged I have looked at the practical considerations, affordances, ergonomics, ambiance and the need of cooking for me! During this course I have discovered and realised that actually I am starting to enjoy cooking. I have realised that there is a need in my life to gain excitement, satisfaction and enjoyment out of this activity. Cooking provides me with independence and challenges which I enjoy solving.

Here is a list of 6 references and quotes I used...

1). “The gathering of nourishment, however, is not only necessary; it is also endless. Once done, it must be done again. Answering as it does to the requirements of life itself, it can end only with the end of life. The purpose of this activity is to provide for the seeds of consumption: food is taken from the earth, after all, in order to be consumed” (Green, 1968).

Green, T.F. (1968). Work, leisure and the American schools. New York: Random House.

2). "In any home, the kitchen is often the place where friends and family congregate. Sure, it’s where the food and the drink are, but kitchens are seldom just refuelling stations. Conversations, gossip humour and ideas flow freely in the relaxed atmosphere of the kitchen" (de Lore & Brooke-White, 2000).

de Lore, C., & Brooke-White, J. (2000). Every kitchen tells a story. New Zealand: Harper Collins Publishers Limited.  

3). "Cooking has many functions, and only one of them is about feeding people. When we go into a kitchen, indeed when we even just think about going into a kitchen, we are both creating and responding to an idea we hold about ourselves, about what kind of person we are or wish to be. How we eat and what we eat lies at the heart of who we are as – Individuals, families, communities". (Lawson, 2004. p.7).

Lawson, N. (2004). Feast: Food to celebrate life. England: Hyperion.

4). Mahy (1988) writes “when I saw it, I said that’s art! I said, that’s what art is about. It’s a cake – yes – but not just a cake. It’s a statement in its own right. My dear, it’s got such passionate equilibrium.”

Mahy, M. (1988). The door in the air and other stories. London: JM Dent & Sons Ltd.

5). Visser (1986) states “Food is ‘everyday’-it has to be, or we would not survive for long”.

Visser, M. (1986). Much depends on dinner. New York: Grove Press.

6). Quote from the film Julie and Julia.

“I didn't understand for a long time, but what attracted me to MtAoFC [Mastering the Art of French Cooking] was the deeply buried aroma of hope and discovery of fulfilment in it. I thought I was using the Book to learn to cook French food, but really I was learning to sniff out the secret doors of possibility.” (Ephron, 2009).

Ephron, N. (Director), (2009). Julie and Julia: 365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen [Motion picture]. North America: Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Here is the link to comments that I made on other peoples blogs.

Pip
Awesome story pip! I loved how by baking this cake, it lead and connected you to a whole lot of other things! The way you wrote the story showed how it’s not all about baking and had lots of examples of affordances within it. It would be good if you were able to unpick the examples of affordances out of the story so it would become clearer to the reader.


Rachael
WOW Rachael!! Your photos are AMAZING! You have a wonderful talent!! Great work! I really enjoyed this post on your blog. You really went deep into yourself and your feelings to bring out how photography affords itself to you. I love how you have analysed your activity very carefully and are posting such enriched information for us to read. It would be awesome if you were able to put in a quote or definition to explain and back up your ideas about affordance at the beginning?
Keep up the wonderful snapping :)


Matt
Hey Matt. I am loving your blog! It’s full of sooo much meaning and passion! You seem to have an awesome grasp on the ideas of communication, connection and the aspects on your activity. The information provided is really enriched and you can tell you have obviously put a lot of thought into it, which is awesome. To help this post make a bit more sense to the readers (people outside of our course) it may help to explain and give a few definitions about affordance as communication, connection and aspects are all a part of it. Keep up the good work J


Breanna
Hey Bean! Awesome job on your blog so far! I love how much quality information you have in this post around how cooking brings communication into your flat. Love how your flat has created a 'homely' feel! That must be such a nice environment and atmosphere to be a part of! Fantastic that you have gone out and found the reference about the movie chocolat. It could be helpful to you if you explain what affordance is and also talk about the other aspects of affordance- Connection and moral properties, good/bad aspects.
Keep up the good work :)

The Whitebait story

During the holidays by father gave me a pound and a half of whitebait to bring back to the flat in Dunedin. I was STOAKED! I mean whitebait is expensive... I could sell that off for $30, which I really did consider, however I thought that my flat would enjoy it. My bringing whitebait back to the flat, it allowed me to provide for the flat and give my share by contributing. My flatmates come from farms so they are constantly providing meat for us. I was so excited to be able to finally give something. Especially whitebait... I have full respect for the bag full dad had given me. Do you know how hard those little white slimy creatures are to catch! Whenever I have tried to catch them they NEVER swim into my net! So trying to get the whitebait back to Dunedin was a little bit of an issue. As it is a nine hour drive back I had to make sure I could keep the whitebait as frozen as possible. That involved wrapping it in newspaper with MANY layers!! And sourcing a little chilly bin! Luckily when I arrived in Dunedin it was still cold and well... half frozen! I was very excited to cook the whitebait for the flat, especially because I had never cooked it before. It was always mum or grandma who cooked it. A couple of my flatmates had never had whitebait before. It is very much a west coast speciality so I was very proud to be cooking them something that came from my home and a thing that had caused such a culture to arise in my area. Before I began to cook I had to ring up grandma just to check how I was to do it. Once I had sorted out the recipe... to my surprise I had never actually realised just how easy it was to make a patty! So I began cooking. I experimented with the size of the patties, how much whitebait I should put in and learning when the best time was to flip them. As much as I tried I could NOT at all get them to look as perfect as grandmas do! I tried and tried but my patties were certainly not circles. O well it’s the taste that counts. I decided that I would cook mash potato and minted peas to go with the patties as that’s what Grandma always does. I went outside and picked a lemon from the neighbour’s tree, you can’t have a whitebait patty without lemon. As I was doing that I suddenly thought to myself that we definitely need bread. Thankfully there was a fresh loaf there and it was WHITE! My mother says that you ALWAYS must have white bread with your patties. Once I had finished cooking I served it up to my flatmates. Some of them were eager to try and a few were a bit unsure about the eyes and fins looking up at them from their plate. Over all I think the whitebait was a success. Only one of my flatmates didn’t like it, which didn’t worry me as it gave me a whitebait sammie for the next day!! I was very glad it had gone well and very happy that I could contribute to the flat, bringing a speciality from home.

Affordances part 2!!

There are three more aspects of affordances that were not mentioned below. These are aesthetics, spirituality and health. These are three pretty important aspects for us to grasp to fully understand the affordances of cooking. So here’s hoping I can explain to you and help myself understand these important concepts.

Aesthetics- I was struggling to comprehend what this word really meant. Good old un-trusty Wikipedia helped me out by explaining that it refers to...

“A branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty.^[1] It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste.^[2] More broadly, scholars in the field define aesthetics as "critical reflection on art, culture and nature" (2011).

When looking at the aesthetics of cooking we refer to things like- the presentation of the food, how it looks, how it tastes, the smell, the color of the food, its invitingness, how the food is culturally fitting.

You can look at aspects of cooking like the appreciation from others, the satisfaction in communication, the noisy and clattering of someone banging away in the kitchen, the beauty of fulfilling hunger, feeling just right, and even to that state of frustrated perfectionism.

Through cooking you can create absolute beauty, a wonderful work of art, which can be admired for a minute before satisfying our need to eat. Mahy describes how cooking can be and is art through the story ‘A work of art’. Mahy (1988) writes “when I saw it, I said that’s art! I said, that’s what art is about. It’s a cake – yes – but not just a cake. It’s a statement in its own right. My dear, it’s got such passionate equilibrium.”

Spirituality- This is a very difficult concept to explain. Spirituality can be defined and mean a whole lot of different things. In relation to affordances I found a definition off Wikipedia that states that spirituality is “an inner path. It refers to a person's efforts to discover the essence of his/her being or nature; or to the deepest values and meanings by which people live. Spirituality is often experienced as a source of inspiration or orientation in life”.  So in a sum up sentence spirituality is about looking at what is the potential for feeling connected with the universe through an activity, mine being cooking.

This could be things like...

·         Cooking providing a sense of meaning.

·         It provides an opportunity to serve others

·         Gratitude in giving/receiving and making for others.

·         It has sacred meaning

·         It can make people be at peace

·         Can provide connections to the land, through using and cooking food grown in the earth.

·         Celebration

·         Connection to ancestors through recipes and the passing on of knowledge

·         Belonging

·         Being connected to cyclical time – different foods are cooked at different times of the year, also different foods are grown.

·         Values/ethics of the activity/values eg- underpinning endurance and waiting for a meal

·         Grace before meals – part of gratitude

Health- In cooking, health is a major aspect and is constantly drained into society. The idea of healthy eating is pushed into our society, yet so many people out there do not do it. Food can provide energy, it gives vitamin and iron to the body, has antibiotic properties, can make you fat if you choose to eat the wrong foods, it can control conditions, and also can cause you to become sick. Cooking can be used in the way of health as a relaxing/de-stressing tool, can be therapeutic to an individual but this can also be in reverse for some people eg- increase stress etc. There are also other aspects like hygiene eg- washing hands before cooking and the prevention of catching bugs eg- keeping meat refrigerated and making sure it is well cooked so people to not catch things like salmonella and food poisoning. Food must be consumed in order for a person to live. Visser (1986) states “Food is ‘everyday’-it has to be, or we would not survive for long”.  For people to carry on living we must put this fuel, being food into our body in order to keep kicking.

References-

Mahy, M. (1988). The door in the air and other stories. London: JM Dent & Sons Ltd.

Visser, M. (1986). Much depends on dinner. New York: Grove Press.

Wikipedia. (2011). Aesthetics. Retrieved form http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesthetics

Wikipedia. (2011). Spirituality. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirituality

The need and importance of cooking to me during this course!

The importance of cooking to me is a very difficult statement for me to comprehend. I automatically think... cooking pfft, I really do not like it! It’s long, boring and tiring! But when I truly start to think about cooking, my experiences and my skills I have around this activity I’ve realised that this automatic negative thought I get is really not that true. By participating in the activity of cooking for this class I have had to be mindful, conscious and aware of what I was doing, trying to really unpick the activity of cooking. Reflecting on my experience of cooking so far in this course I have discovered that my need during the weeks has changed. When I first began cooking for this course my need was to please my flatmates as peer pressure influenced this, and the need to be accepted. I disliked cooking and saw it as a chore that must be done, always looking for the easiest and quickest meal to cook so my job was over and done with. Now coming towards the end of this course and in the stage of reflecting back on my experience and really trying to draw out the meaning and importance of cooking, I have discovered that my views and needs at the start compared to now have changed immensely. I didn’t think that I would ever look forward to cooking dinner ever... but now I am constantly finding myself looking forward to and excited to cook. My need has changed from needing to cook because it’s something that must be done, which pleases my flatmates, into an activity that brings me excitement, gives me independence and a sense of defining me as an adult, it brings fun, lots of challenges to overcome and full fills a  need of enjoyment and satisfaction. Maybe there has always been a need for cooking to give me enjoyment and excitement in my life but I was not consciously aware of this. By engaging mindfully in this activity it has opened me up allowing me to feel these emotions and express this within the activity of cooking. Although my need is still to please my flatmates and provide them with yummy food and continue to belong within the flat, I think I have discovered that there is a deeper need within me that I am also trying to please.

This is a quote from the film Julie and Julia explaining the idea that cooking can be  more than just the doing. It statisfies needs of fulfilment and excitement.

“I didn't understand for a long time, but what attracted me to MtAoFC [Mastering the Art of French Cooking] was the deeply buried aroma of hope and discovery of fulfilment in it. I thought I was using the Book to learn to cook French food, but really I was learning to sniff out the secret doors of possibility.” (Ephron, 2009).

References

Ephron, N. (Director), (2009). Julie and Julia: 365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen [Motion picture]. North America: Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Ambiance

Firstly this week I thought I would start this posting off with a story from my experience of cooking this week.

The Burger Story

Tuesday night was my night to cook this week. As I was feeling a little under the weather I decided to look through the pantry and freezer to see what the easiest meal I could put together would be. There I discovered patties, lettuce, cucumber, tomato and cheese. Dah dah burgers it is. However slight problem we had no buns! This therefore meant tracking down the flatmate with the flat money and wondering down to the supermarket, however to my advantage I did a little persuading and one of the flatmates went to get them instead (as she also needed a few things herself). This now allowed me time to prepare dinner. I first started with making fries. Potato is differently a favourite in my flat. So off I set cutting those potatoes into chips. I find very hard judging how much to cook for five people. This would definitely be one of my biggest challenges when cooking. If I cook too little then everyone starves, if I cook too much then we either fight over who gets the leftovers the next day or we eat way too much! My advice if anyone has this dilemma make too much so then at least your flatmates can argue with each other about leftovers and not argue with you about being hungry! Any way back to cutting those potatoes... have you ever thought about how many different ways there is to cut potatoes?? I feel a little sorry for my flatmates as when they received my fries they got fat ones, skinny ones, long and short ones, rectangles, squares, triangles and wedges! It makes cooking a lot more fun if you can be a little creative. Once all the potatoes were chopped up there was one last thing before they went in the oven to do. That of course is to get the flats secret spice... ok well maybe not secret just favourite- that is Moroccan.  This spice goes into absolutely everything we cook. I really do recommend the purchase of this, it really does give the food extra zing and yummyness! So next into the oven were the beef patties. These patties were the chunkiest, yummiest, REAL looking meat patties I had seen in a long time. We were luckily enough to get these from my flatmates parents who live on a farm. Compared to the skinny, fake, cheap, plastic supermarket patties we usually get, we were in heaven! Next step I did was to prepare the fillings of the burgers. I peeled and grated the juicy carrots, being very careful to keep my fingers away from the grater as I didn’t think my flatmates would appreciate orange carrot with red dots. Now onto cutting the cucumber. Cucumbers are very funny shapes aren’t they? I wonder why they grow long and skinny??. Now onto the slicing of cheese YUM and the washing of the lettuce. Just as I had finished preparing the fillings my flatmates back with the buns. Perfect timing! I quickly set the table and check the fries and patties are cooked. I put all the fillings onto the table along with the interesting looking fries and the hunky, juicy patties! SWEET dinners done. Phew that’s cooking over and done with this week!

Ambiance 

Ambiance is used as a way of describing the feeling that comes from doing the whole activity. It can be viewed in a way as the spirit and essence of the activity.

When looking at the ambiance of cooking, cooking fits under the idea of food. Food is something that must be consumed in order for individuals to carry on. The essence of cooking is a biological necessity and a cyclic process that is to be done.

When I am cooking the ambiance of cooking is primarily about the need to eat and consume in order to function and live, however secondly the feeling that comes from the whole activity of cooking is it provides me with a sense of accomplishment and achievement.

This quote here from Julie and Julia shows how the character Julie thought that by cooking all of Julia’s recipes would provide her with confidence and luck however when she looked more closely into the whole activity she found that the spirit or the feeling provided her with joy (ambiance).

“Julia taught me what it takes to find your way in the world. It's not what I thought it was. I thought it was all about - I don't know, confidence or will or luck. Those are all some good things to have, no question. But there's something else, something that these things grow out of. - It's joy” (Julie and Julia, 2009).

Reference

Ephron, N. (Director), (2009). Julie and Julia: 365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen [Motion picture]. North America: Sony Pictures Entertainment.

 

Affordances

Week 37

Affordance is an outcome of an activity. It’s what ordinary activities bring about. Under affordances there are three topics i am going to look into in relation to affordance. These are communication (what does this bring about?), connections (how one activity leads itself to another. This is describing the story and what happened next), good and bad aspects- moral judgement.

Firstly i think i will tell you all a wee story about the last time i cooked and then i will clearly link the main aspects of this story into those three heading under affordances. Hopefully that will therefore make a whole lot of sense to you and help me actually understand what’s going on here too!

Story

As i was grabbing the chicken out of the freezer i was thinking of all the things i will have to do in order to create eatable curry which was the plan for tonight’s tea. I find cooking a long and tiring process so after i put the chicken in the microwave i ran over to the stereo to blast the sounds to try and get rid of my negative thoughts around the task in hand. So off i went chopping to the beat of those sounds, until by flatmates plonked themselves at the kitchen table which this therefore lead to a whole lot of chatting while i was preparing. This chatting sure lead to a whole lot of laughing, bantering and sharing as it always does in our chatty wee flat. Well you could put it down to 5 girls who love to TALK as we sure do! While i was about to put the rice on i had a flashback to last time i had cooked rice and lets just say that the white rice and grown some black freckles. This mistake has definitely made me aware for this time. As people always say trial and error is the best way to learn. Early that day i had rang mum to get her advice on how to cook it. However i was still uneasy about cooking it so i asked the flatmates for some input. By asking them i have discovered just how many different ways in which there is to cook rice. Every one of my flatmates had a different way or variation. Crazy huh! This therefore lead to a massive teaching session, in which every flatmate got the chance to explain and show how they would cook the rice. The way in which everyone cooked the rice was the way in which they had grown up having seen it or being taught it by family members. After all the knowledge and information getting thrown around the room stopped i decided to cook the rice the way in which my mother did it, as i have seen it done and know it does work! Before i new it dinner was nearly ready to be served up. I was shocked at how quick time and gone as i was thinking it would drain on forever. I realised that the time passed to quickly due to the social interaction of be asking for opinions and information from the flatmates, plus all the singing along to the radio as well. Setting the table i began to think what wonderfully weird conversation will get brought up while we are eating as something always pops up that we tend to argue and put our viewpoints forward. As we sat down the compliments of the curry were coming from all directions! Fantastic i had managed to cook the chicken and have all white rice and it wasn’t too gluggy! Wahoo success!

Through telling you this story i am able to unpin alot about affordance.

Communication

Through the cooking of this meal, it brought about a lot of things. Communication on this particular night was huge. Everybody just wanted to chat! We laughed at each other-about stories one another told, when one of my flatmates dropped the rice and at memories we have shared before. We joked with one another and  gave advise to each other when talking about the cooking of the rice and how we have been taught, what was the ‘norm’ way for our families to that activity. There was plenty of time to slip in a little bit of gossip as girls always need to do and we shared a whole tone of stories. We taught each other and learned copious amounts of knowledge around the way in which to cook rice.

"In any home, the kitchen is often the place where friends and family congregate. Sure, it’s where the food and the drink are, but kitchens are seldom just refuelling stations. Conversations, gossip humour and ideas flow freely in the relaxed atmosphere of the kitchen"  (De Lore & Brooke-White, 2000).

Connections

When thinking about this activity it leads itself to many things. The major thing it lead to was teaching and learning. Through the flat coming together and teaching each other different wasy of eating rice and learning how my flatmates came about cooking it that way gave as a greater understanding into each other and provided our knowledge base to expand. It lead to building memories as that was a significant night, all of the girls huddled in the kitchen talking about rice. It provided the swapping of information about the different methods of cooking rice and i used trial and error as the first time i had cooked rice i failed miserably and then through trying and asking i achieved success!

Moral Properties

This evening cooking provided everyone to share a part of themselves. This was evident when we all shared memories and ways in which to cook rice. This provided reward and allowed each other to express ourselves. It provided a way to honour people as my flatmate was taught how to cook the rice by her grandmother who had recently passed away. The moral properties of this story were positive, and I am struggling to find any bad aspects.

Cooking can bring about many things, affording and leading itself. This quote by Nigella Lawson (2004) describes wonderfully just how cooking lends itself.

"Cooking has many functions, and only one of them is about feeding people. When we go into a kitchen, indeed when we even just think about going into a kitchen, we are both creating and responding to an idea we hold about ourselves, about what kind of person we are or wish to be. How we eat and what we eat lies at the heart of who we are as – Individuals, families, communities". (Lawson, 2004. p.7).

References

De Lore, C., & Brooke-White, J. (2000). Every kitchen tells a story. New Zealand: Harper Collins Publishers Limited.

Lawson, N. (2004). Feast: Food to celebrate life. England: Hyperion.

ERGONOMICS!

Week 36

What is that you may ask? And what does it have to do with cooking?

Well ergonomics is defined by Caulton and Dickson (2007) as “constantly making slight invisible adjustments to an activity to adapt to the needs of those taking part and ensure that it continues to work for its intended purpose”.

Ergonomics is all about the ‘fit’ between the person, activity and the environment.  In other words it is about creating the best relationship between the environment where the individual carries out their activity and the skills they use and need when participating in it. 

Person

·         I bring minimal skills to cooking as my knowledge base of this activity is very minimal. This is due to the fact that I have very little experience in this occupation

·         My preference of what to cook generally depends on the easiness of the recipe. I like to cook things that are not to difficult but of course need to taste yummy.

·         I tend to have about  4 or 5 dishes that i rotate between cooking each week and i always like to follow the recipe as i don’t want to take this risk of it tasting yuck because of the pressure of the flatmates eating it

·         Financial abilities- we are on a student budget, so this means nothing fancy. You use what is there

·         There is a sense of responsibility when i cook as i want to provide and give back to the flat a yummy meal

·         Energy will definitely influence what i cook as i will choose something very easy and quick if i am tired and can’t be bothered

Activity

·         Most of my cooking still needs a wee input from the good old handy cookbook. However through experience i am now able to cook easy simple things without the need of looking at a recipe. I still rely heavily on recipes as they do help in not making mistakes

·         This activity can be performed at anytime of the day. I have been speaking of cooking at night time however i cook my breakfast, be that eggs on toast or porridge. Lunchtime sometimes includes cooking, maybe pasta or a toasty. Cooking can occur at all times of the day and can take a few seconds or a couple of hours.

·         By cooking for my flat this means that it is a lot cheaper. This is because things usually come in bulk and the more people the more money getting put in. Also by cooking as a flat that means i only have to cook once a week and i therefore receive 4 other meals that week. YUM

·         Cooking acquires equipment. Luckily my flats kitchen is bulging because of this

·         Cooking can be an individual or group task

Environment

·         The physical environment in my kitchen- lots of bench space, lots of cupboards, the kitchen has a small floor space which can create havoc if more than three people are in there bustling around

·         Have lots of equipment available

·         Depending on the seasons will depend on what we cook. Eg- soup and stew for the winter and salad for summer. Seasons also effect the type of fruit and vegetables that are around and the prices of items

·         Cooking in the kitchen can provide a social environment as flatmates are always popping in talking and tasting. I think that when you are cooking this creates conversation as others know you will have time for talking so they generally come for that purpose knowing you will willing  talk and will have time to. I no if someone in my flat is itching to have a big chin –wag they will usually pop into the kitchen and chat to that person cooking. This is because it is easier than knocking on someone’s bedroom door. The kitchen is a communal place and everyone feels comfortable there

Well i hope that made sense to you all! By for now .....

References

Caulton, R & Dickson, R. (2007). What's going on? Finding an explanation for what we do. In J. Creek & A. Lawson-Porter (Eds.) Contemporary issues in occupational therapy. Chichester: John-Wiley & Sons Ltd