Affordances

Okay so this week in class we looked at affordances. In my own words affordances are the possible outcomes. So what are the outcomes going to be from completing my chosen task of cooking? Food? communication and stronger friendships from cooking with a friend, learning new things.. wow there are so many affordances! This week in class we also looked at how activities build up connections and make up a story. For example how one activity can lead itself onto another one. For my chosen activity this could be described as how by cooking dinner leads to eating dinner. So our activity in class was to discuss the communication, connections (action properties) and the good and bad aspects; below are a few which we came up with. 


Communication
There is such a range of communication that can come from cooking. When I cook with friends there is always a lot of laughing and talking and we always make plans to do things in the future. If one of them is having a problem then I console them and advise them on what they can do. When I am cooking with my mum there is always an aspect of teaching and learning as I learn how to critique my own skills. 


Connections
When cooking together with other people it can be useful sometimes to explain to them the certain ways you like doing things and the certain ways they like doing things. This way by setting some ground rules it can avoid later confrontation. Cooking with friends and family allows bonding to occur and you find similar beliefs and interests. Cooking greatly encourages teaching and learning and trail and error. I was able to learn how to cook this meal through watching Eden cook (Fergus, 1999). Through these experiences building memories occurs and you begin to generate patterns and ways of being. Recipes can be passed down through generations and can become a legacy so to speak. There is also a cultural way of doing things and depending on you culture can depend on what you cook and when you cook it. 



Good and bad aspects
When I am cooking with my sister she always makes a lot of food, and she does not like eating leftovers so there is always a wastefulness of resources, which is one of the bad aspects of cooking. When I am cooking with my friends in their flats they always decide to add in extra flavor to the dish we are making. Because there are always dishes of herbs and spices around they just use them even though this is stealing another flatmates food. There is also an element of improving things in cooking. A dish may be undercooked after following the recipe closely so trail-and-error proves a way in which you can improve it for next time you are cooking the same dish. You can be greatly rewarded with cooking when the friends and family you are cooking for praise you for the meal you have cooked. 


A couple of weekends ago I went over to my friend's (Eden) house for a catch up and to watch a movie. While I was there we were getting quite hungry and we discussed that we would make something to eat for dinner. While looking through the cupboards and fridge for something to cook we discovered chicken which had to be eaten that day or it would go off. After a brief discussion we both decided we would like chicken stir-fry. Eden had an amazing recipe for chicken stir-fry with lemon and ginger and other exotic foods which we decided we would make. She advised me that her parents had made this for dinner before and it had turned out really well and explained the ingredients that they had used that differed from those on the recipe. We talked a lot while making dinner about what we had been up to lately and we always make each other laugh- so there was definitely a lot of laughing happening! We also decided to be extra adventurous and make some chocolate chip cookies for desert - Yum! however after making them there was a bit of miscommunication happening and unfortunately we left them in the oven a little bit too long and they burnt on the bottom! Eden also wanted to put in some extra soy sauce to the stir-fry; as we both love it, although it didn't mix well with all the other sauces we had in the stir-fry and it did not end up tasting very good at all! However all was not lost as we found a packet of peanut butter m&m's in the cupboard (Eden and my favorite's) and we had an amazing supper while watching a movie. I definitely learned a lot while making this dinner- one being to always follow a recipe and don't try and be to much like Jamie Oliver! We both taught each other new things about what ingredients to put into the stir-fry; Eden was telling me that we must put in fish sauce and although I was a bit unsure about this I trusted her and we added it in. We also built memories together- I won't easily forget that night! We also experienced a lot of trail and error- with adding in the soy sauce and afterwards regretting it as it overpowered the taste of the other ingredients. I also gave the non-burnt cookies to my family when I got home as gifts. 
Good and bad: 
-We did not have any ginger to add into the recipe so we had to improvise and use other ingredients to get some extra flavour.
-We didn't mix the sauce properly before adding it into the stir-fry and the final result had a lot of liquid. We wanted it to be more fried, but it didn't really end up that way. 
-Eden didn't like the final stir-fry result and threw away her portion which was wastefulness of resources. 


Reference: 
Fergus, B. (1999). On being a woodturner. Occupation, 7(1).