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

Here we go... again! Participation in Occupation 2

Week 35

So to my surprise we have to do another one of these... just as i thought i wouldn’t have to bother with this faulty technology for a very long time, boom they drop us another one... fantastic!

Well this course is called Participation In Occupation 2!! During this course we are to pick an occupation familiar to us and participate in that activity two hours a week consciously and really get to understand and unpick that occupation and see what it means and how this connects and leads to other things. After a lot of mucking about with different occupations i have finally came to the decision of doing cooking!

Cooking is an occupation that must be done in order to live. Cooking of food must be done every day, day after day and again and again. It is something we consume in order to carry on. Green descirbes this idea of cooking very nicely, here is a quote that sums up the importance and meaning of this activity.

“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).

Cooking is defined by the Oxford English dictionary as “preparing food or a meal by heating the ingredients, it is heated in order to become edible” (Simpson and Weiner, 1989).

I feel this definition is missing a lot of the important information around cooking and it only gives a very brief overview of what it is. Over the weeks of the course i am going to work on finding out what is really means to cook and help you viewers of my blog understand why cooking is such an important occupation to participate in. (giving the oxford dictionary a good run for their money).

Importance and meaning of cooking to me

Personally i am not that big of a fan of cooking. I feel it takes up a lot of time, its hard and rather boring! In class we were asked to come up with a few words that described the cooking for me. Mine consisted of... stressful, yummy, time wasting, hard, achieving, following recipes, tasty and not experienced.  As you can see by the words I am not the greatest fan of the occupation cooking. To me it is just something that just HAS to be done.

However if i put on my occupational therapy ‘cap’ i do easily understand how this form of occupation can be very meaningful for some individuals and how it makes for a great intervention technique.  Cooking can provide clients with yummy food to eat, engagement in meaningful activity, provide clients with sense of achievement, enables roles, gives independence, installs confidence, can work on life skills and fine motor skills, builds rapport and can create social interaction.

Practical Considerations

When deciding on the topic i was going to participate in during this course practical considerations was a biggy in me deciding cooking. The major issue of this was i had to perform this activity 2hours a week. I have a pretty busy schedule as it is and by having to fit another activity in there for 2hours i was much stumped as to what i could do. So cooking it turned out to be as i had to participate in this occupation during the week when cooking dinner for the flat and lunch making. So the major practical consideration of cooking for me is budget. As i live in a flat we have a specific budget we are to spend for food each week. This therefore puts pressure and does not allow that much freedom when cooking as the ingredients need to be all under the budget. Another practical consideration when im cooking is that i have to use whatever is in the fridge, freezer and cupboard. If someone has already used the meat this week then i will have to create another idea of what could be made. I have plenty of space and equipment in my flat kitchen which is fantastic and decreases pressure when i am cooking.

Here’s hoping that you all come back next week and have a good old read or laugh at my blog where  il be probably whinging about burning potatoes or something along those lines.

Happy cooking !

References

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

Simpson, J. & Weiner, E. (1989). The oxford English dictionary (2^nd ed). United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.