Ambience

Ambience is the essence of the activity. So with relation to cooking; ambience is the food that is then to be eaten. So looking at it in deeper terms the nature of food is to be consumed. Without food we will not be able to survive for long at all and therefore food keeps both our body and our mind together. 

I just want to tell you all another story. I have recently gotten back from Queenstown for a week of holidays. Going to Queenstown completely throws off the dynamic of the household as both my parents agree that they are on holiday as well and that we all have to help out with daily tasks. This of course includes cooking. I was so excited to be able to put some of my new skills I have learnt over the last couple of months cooking with Alysha that I automatically volunteered to do all of the cooking. Caulton (1995) states that ritual becomes a big part of your life, the looking forward to it, the anticipation of an activity, the getting ready and the looking back are also very big parts of a ritual. I often look back over the last couple of months since I began cooking with Alysha at her flat once a week and laugh at some of the experiences we have had. I have learnt a lot from cooking with her and my cooking skills have most definitely increased. My family all noted this as I cooked them dinner in Queenstown. I decided I was going to make a prawn stir-fry one night (after my recent discovery of my love of seafood), and they were very impressed that I was cooking such an elaborate meal! - I think they thought they were going to be living off two minute noodles for the week haha! Although we have to eat food everyday or we would not survive for very long, it has become a lot more than just something to eat for me, over this process. It has become "something to find and cultivate" (Visser, 1986, p. 12). Before going over to Alysha's flat each week I was always able to find food in our cupboard at home and never thought a lot about the process that people go through to get it there. For most of human history we have spent a large portion of our lives worrying about food, and plotting, working, and fighting to obtain it, than we have any other pursuit (Visser, 1992). Now days we are so lucky to be able to go to the supermarket and purchase food items to cook, if we lead very busy lives you can buy food that is pre-cooked and pre-grated.

References:

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

Visser M. (1992). The rituals of dinner.  London: Viking, The Penguin Group

Caulton, editorial  Occupation, Vol 3, no 2 December 1995

Aesthetics, Labour, Spirituality, Health and History

Today in class we talked about the aesthetics, labour, spirituality, health and history behind an activity. Because my activity is of course cooking; below is what I have related back to cooking. 


Aesthetics
Cooking can please many senses. The smell of fresh baking wafting through the house is bliss! Also the taste of new recipes and also old favorites is amazing. The sight of food in the frying pan with all the colors of the different vegetables together or the rising of a cake or muffins in the oven is very pleasing. There is also nothing like waking up in the morning and hearing the sizzle of bacon in the pan. 


Labour
Food is grown all over the world and harvested to send to supermarkets and other food stores. Farmers make a living growing crops or animals so that we are able to use these for cooking. "Whether in the world of man the gatherer of food or in our own world, the man is not free whose life is totally absorbed in labor. His energies are spent in response to necessity, under the aegis of forces that he does not set in motion and cannot control" (Green, 1968,np). No matter how advanced technology gets there is always going to be a need to grow and supply food. Cooking is no longer a job to me as it was before this paper. Work is described as an "activity which corresponds to the unnaturalness of human existence" (Arendt, 1958,np).


Spirituality
At Christmas there is an expectation in my family that there will be a large feast at dinner time to celebrate the day with family. The build up for the day begins days earlier as we do the shopping for food at the supermarket and begin to cook deserts and starters the day before. Everyone helps out or brings over something that they have cooked when they come over and no one seems to mind as it is all very exciting and built into who we are as a person (our spirituality). Cooking can be used as a excuse to get together and celebrate the year and enjoy one another's company. 


Health
The consideration of health is very important with regards to cooking. If someone has allergies then it is important to check ingredients properly to make sure there are no traces of the item in the food you are about to cook. Also it is important that you eat healthy foods especially if you are in the 'at risk' population and have high blood pressure for example. 


My history of cooking
My earliest memories of cooking will be watching my parents cook when I was very young. I always marveled over how exciting it all looked and wanting to be able to cook myself. I received a plastic set of food and pots and pans etc. for Christmas one year when I was young and loved pretending that I was cooking everyone food before presenting them with a plastic plate and knife and fork so they could enjoy their plastic peas and mash complete with a plastic sausage. This all went so well that when my younger sister received a toy cash register I suggested (or rather enforced) that we team up and open our own restaurant- she worked as a waitress while I completed all the cooking. I later went on to graduate my excellent cooking skills to work with actual food helping my mum prepare nightly dinners. I loved doing this and even if it was only peeling potatoes or doing jobs that my mum didn't really want to do I gratefully accepted and she gratefully gave these tasks. Eventually these skills gained as a young girl went on to get me a job working at the local ice skating rink cooking the fast foods such as chips and burgers for the ice skaters to purchase; at last my skills gained working in the kitchen of my very own restaurant as a young girl were paying off! 


References: 
Arendt, Hannah (1958) The human condition. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Green. T.F. (1968) Work, leisure and The American Schools. New York: Random House.

Class blogs

As part of this assignment we are required to leave comments on other students blogs. We are required to give feedback that is both helpful and constructive but also leaving a comment on things that they have done well throughout the posting. There is four blog postings in total that I have commented on and I have linked these below for reference.
Nicole Jordan
Charlotte Cowley
Heath M
Pip Watt

Affordances

On Wednesday I went over to my friend (Alysha's) flat for dinner. We had talked earlier that day about what we wanted for dinner and had decided on a lasagna. Wednesday night catch up's were some what of a tradition now as we got to catch up on the past weeks events while having dinner. When I got to the flat, Alysha asked me if I felt like potatoes with the lasagna and went on to tell explain that she wanted to try out her Nana's recipe that had been passed down to her mother and eventually to her as well. She explained that she had made them for her boyfriend a couple of nights ago and even though he was very fussy- he loved them. So we walked up to the supermarket where we purchased paprika (for the potatoes) and also decided to try some prawns. Alysha loved them and wanted me to try them also; I had tried shrimp while on placement, suddenly discovered my love for seafood! Once we got back to the flat, Alysha and I began to make dinner. She was teaching me how to cook prawns and I was intrigued when she began adding crushed garlic and pepper for extra flavour. I couldn't help but try one as the aroma was amazing! It was so good and Alysha taught me how to get the meat out of the tail with one easy step. Then we began to cook the potatoes and the lasagna. While Alysha cooked the mince I started on the potatoes. Alysha completed the first potato so I could copy the rest of them. She cut it in half long ways and the proceeded to cut it like a checkerboard but not all the way through. Then we melted the butter and spooned that onto each potato. Once this was completed we sprinkled a generous amount of paprika onto each potato and baked them in the oven. While I was doing this, Alysha started to make her mums cheese sauce recipe from scratch, while I moved onto adding in the sauce and chopped onion into the mince. I had been wanting to learn to make cheese sauce for awhile so I got Alysha to talk me through what she was doing while I multi-tasked and watched as well as make the mince. We always talk non-stop while making our wednesday dinners and this time was no different. We talked about what big things had happened at work for her and how hectic life was at the moment and gossiped about our boyfriends. Dinner was smelling amazing and while we dished it up we couldn't help but finish off the rest of the prawns.. Bliss! We had to wait a bit longer for the potatoes as Alysha explained how it was important to get them crispy. As soon as I got home that night I had to explain the potato recipe to my mum, as they tasted delicious! I will be cooking them for my family soon no doubt.


Labour/food
We must cook to survive and this goes hand-in-hand with cooking to tend to other people. There is still in some cultures a demand for the women to tend to her family by preparing dinner for them each night. There is a cultural expectation so to speak of what we cook and when we cook it. Thanksgiving in America sees American's cooking a turkey to share with their families and Christmas see's us all having a huge Christmas dinner and spending all day preparing for it. Cooking brings people together. In my household we must have dinner at the dining room table. This is the only time in which we are all sitting together at once and we use it to catch up on what each other has been up to for that day. As a student, money is tight and planning on what you are going to eat each week is important. One of my friends sits down each sunday night and writes down all the meals she is going to cook each week and the ingredients she will need for each recipe. This way when she does the weekly shopping she knows exactly what to get so she doesn't go over budget. Cooking is also a individuals responsibility to make sure that they are eating healthy and abiding to diet requirements for example one of my friends is gluten free therefore they must make sure that all the items of food the consume do not have any traces of gluten in it. Because they have recently moved out of home it makes it very real to them that there is no longer someone else to look after them and make sure they are eating the right foods. 



Craft/Paper/Work
Through cooking we are able to create something that is visible and tangible. By cooking we can make gifts such as a birthday cake for a loved one or a batch of cookies to share. At funerals we can make a tribute to the individual through cooking their favorite dish or when leaving a place you can cook them something to remind them of you. However time can have a great impact on what we cook and when we cook it. In today's society, everyone is so rushed and constantly busy that the 'frozen food' industry has rocketed. No more are the home cooked meals and the fresh baking always readily available and heavy schedules are the underlying cause for this. 




Plays
There are so many cooking competition shows on television today; new prospective 'Master Chef's' coming to try their luck in the seasons hottest television show. Although cooking can be seen in this competitive form of play it can also been seen as a light, fun interactive activity for people. It gives them a chance to experiment with different flavors and textures and gives them a break from everyday stresses to try new things. I had not tried prawns before and cooking gave me the opportunity to discover my underlying interest for seafood. What we cook can define us, who we are as an adult and as a person. It reminds us that we are all so different and what we enjoy and dislike differs greatly. Cooking can also give us a sense of being in control. We decide what we want to cook and what we are going to add in to the meal. Cooking is made easier these days through the use of adapting or modifying cooking by reducing demands, the use of assistive devices (blenders, ovens, microwaves), or changes in the physical or social environment (Fisher, 2001). 


References:


Fisher, A. G. (1998). Assessment of motor and process skills: Vol. 1. Development, standardization, and administration manual (4th ed.). Fort Collins, CO: Three Stars Press.