Cooking- Labour Weekend

Labour weekend is a great time for our family and extended family to gather to reunite. I was excited for this occasion as everyone was coming to ‘Glendonald’ which is our family farm. My mum had told me that everyone would be arriving Saturday afternoon and staying until Monday.  I thought it would be a great gesture to make my favourite chocolate chip muffins, for the guests to have on arrival. This is a recipe from the Edmonds collection that my mother has. When I was twelve years old my sister taught me how to make these muffins.

Edmonds- Banana and Chocolate Chip Muffins

• 60g butter
• 2 cups self-raising flour
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 cup (200g) Chocolate Chips

1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Line a medium muffin tray (12 sections) with paper cases. Melt butter in a small saucepan or heat-proof bowl in the microwave. Set aside to cool slightly.
2. Sift flour into a mixing bowl. Stir in sugar. Make a well in the centre of dry ingredients.
3. Using a whisk, lightly beat milk, eggs and butter in a jug. Add to dry ingredients, along with mashed banana. Using a wooden spoon, gently mix ingredients until just combined. Stir in choc bits. Don't beat the mixture or the muffins will be tough.
4. Spoon the mixture evenly into the muffin cases. Bake for 20 minutes or until firm on top when lightly touched (get an adult to help with this). Leave in the tray for 3 minutes. Transfer the muffins to a rack to cool.

It was great to be home, with all the ingredients in the cupboard and all the equipment was kept in its special place and was clean. The kitchen is also a lot bigger than the kitchen in my flat, so I enjoyed spreading out and I definitely used this space to my advantage. I really appreciated having a dish washer at my disposal also.

For dinner Dad wanted to cook his favourite Stir Fry recipe. It is his personal recipe, so I’m not allowed to post it on my blog, unfortunately. I helped him prepare the meal as he was catering for at least eight adults and two children.  He was in charge and dedicated tasks for my mother and I to do, to simply make the cooking process run more smoothly. Mum was making our favourite lemon meringue pie for dessert. Dinner was bringing the family together, therefore affordances were noticeable.

Ambience – The Essence of Cooking

I have used ambience throughout my blog posts. However I thought I would make sure you understood what it meant and how it related to cooking.

Ambience is described as a feeling or mood associated with a particular place, person or thing (Sunderland, 2010). This quote helps me interlink what I think and feel about cooking.

I feel relaxed and calm when I am cooking from a recipe that is familiar to me or watching somebody else make the dish. However I am not so confident when I try a new recipe that I am not familiar with. I feel relaxed cooking at home as I feel there are no expectations to fill therefore I enjoy cooking a lot more. I become unsure when cooking an unfamiliar meal because I wonder if I have forgotten an ingredient or it may turn out wrong, especially if it is for a special occasion. When I cook a meal by myself and use a new recipe I feel a sense of achievement if it appeals to my taste and if   anything goes wrong I am the only one eating it and I can decide what other ingredients I could add to improve the taste. I do not need to justify to anyone what I might have done wrong in the cooking process.  Cooking for family and guests by sharing food can be a gesture through welcoming, farewells, to gain a conservation or even to show someone sympathy. 

I often use recipes that are passed down from my grandparents. When I make them it makes me think of them and I sometimes become quite overwhelmed but happy they have shared their recipes with me and I have been able to cook them, usually for my family members.

We cook to eat and we simply eat to help us survive. According to Green, (1968) labour “seeks not to add to life, but merely to sustain it.” It simply means that cooking is a never ending task.

When I cooked food this week I was by myself, since we agreed to cook separately as a flat. This week I cooked Devilled Sausages. I was cooking in my flat and it was very noisy because music was playing and several friends were visiting. I found that this did not really matter however, because this was a dish I was familiar with and I did not need to follow a recipe or use too much concentration.

Ambience can be related to cooking in many ways as I have eluded to.

Green, T. (1968). Work, Leisure, and the American Schools. New York:, Random House.

Sunderland, J. (2011). Participation in occupation: BT230001 [Lecture notes]. Dunedin, New Zealand: Otago Polytechnic, Department of Occupational Therapy.