Practical considerations

Cooking for me is a very practical thing. I go on what I have available, and use what needs using. If it takes too long  or looks too complicated or uses to many dishes its very unlikely I will bother.
This sunday I had a time limitation as I was going out in the evening.. I wanted to use the limited time I had as productively as possible. so I had to make something that I could also have for lunch the next day and also be able to bake some muslie at the same time. So coordinating the timing was crucial to get it all done in time.
I had the muesli, curry and rice to do. It was important to pre-empt the coming steps and what would take the longest. for example I started by turning on the oven as the muesli would take the longest and the oven would take a while to heat up, while it was heating up I could start on the curry. in the curry the kumara would take the longest to cook so that had to go on first but before that i had to do the onions. and then progressivley chop and add the vegetables that would ttake the longest to cook. in the end I got it all done and was able to rush out the door just in time but I was constantly thinking ahead and planning. I think the ability to map out what I am going to do in what order before i begin in very important for me to be able to cook. 

comments on others blogs

Jones said...

that must have been frustrating! how specifically did you adapt from having no power? in what ways did you become creative, where there any parts you enjoyed of the challenge? could be interesting to link to a pioneering perspective.

24 October 2011 10:22 

http://alexpio.blogspot.com/2011/10/practical-considerations.html?showComment=1319476978813#c4241365625994959313

Jones said...

Thanks I found it interesting the way you classify cooking as both work and labour and how this is effected by how you feel about it. quote come to mind along the lines of "nothing is good or bad just thinking that makes it so". have you thought about linking the work/labour concept in with morality

24 October 2011 10:31  

http://annapo1.blogspot.com/2011/10/my-activity-and-me.html?showComment=1319477463602#c8130672618914334017

 Jones said...

Im glad you find cooking rice to be such a stress free activity, I think you did well to incorporate what it being stress free allows/afford you to do (eg be social, do other tasks).
have you thought of any potential practical challenges? how would you adapt? what would happen if you didnt have a rice cooker?

24 October 2011 10:41

http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=1901550750422829388&postID=4451517059956278312&page=1&token=1319478093790

Jones said...

Hi Erin
I think you have done well in discussing how the physical environment or how the choir is arranged and its impact on the outcome, making it all work together. I found for looking at ergonomics it quite helpful to use a POE perspective you might. find the same for examining ergonomic aspects of how the person and activity and environment fit together.

October 24, 2011 10:50 AM 

http://erinhancockparticipationinoccupation1.blogspot.com/2011/10/ergonomics-making-it-work.html?showComment=1319478624028#c7467114947322893037

Cooking applied to the overall framework 23/10/11

 Looking at an overall framework of the human condition there are different aspects of the labour of food. These include the ergonomics and affordances of cooking.

Ergonomics: At this current stage in my life as a tertiary student living in a flatting situation where I cook for myself there are several  social and environmental factors that influence and press on my cooking. The main environmental factors for me are that I have limited time and money to spend on food. This interacts with personal factors such as my values of eating healthy, eating vegetarian and being resourceful. The key social factors for me are that I am generally only cooking for myself and this removes the social pressures to impress others or to cook to their tastes.  

These ergonomics are what allows me the affordances of being creative and resourceful in my cooking. They simultaneously press and afford. I see it as challenge to be met to take the limited groceries I have in the cupboard into something tasty, to be in a way forced to make something new I have never tried before. To see the empty cupboard as an opportunity and not as a limitation. For this reason I enjoy going to the supermarket only fortnightly and I am given a sense of self satisfaction from the challenge I set myself.  I feel the same sense of satisfaction preparing something nutritious rather than buying fish and chips and this adds to my sense of wellbeing.  In this sense there is an element of spirituality in that “you are what you eat”.  What I eat represents my values. I feel wholesome and good when I eat good healthy food that I have made myself.

 My need is to be resourceful in making something good for me. This is why I do not reach for a packet of instant noodles. This creates a dynamic of moving from alienation or disengagement to being engaged in the occupation of cooking. 

The nature of cooking as labour 15/10/11

Green defines Labour as being the production of a consumable, of leaving no lasting artifact with its purpose to meet a basic human need. There is no end to labour. When looking at the gathering of food it is gathered to be consumed with no permanent accomplishment as soon as the task is fulfilled “it’s being undone; it is, in principle, never completed” (p 17). Labour is cyclic in nature with “Necessity and futility.... the two fundamental and interconnected features of labor”. In cooking once it is completed it is immediately consumed with nothing left to show apart from dirty dishes. As soon as it is completed it needs to be repeated again and again for breakfast lunch and dinner. Green identifies that   “The clever food gatherer, however, does not live only from day to day.... (Man)

can attain some expectations of things to come” in the way that in the harvest season he gathers and stores for the winter”. I see this in my own cooking. Recently making a pasta sauce for myself I was already thinking two or three meals into the future, predicting inevitably that again I would be hungry and need to cook again. So therefore I prepared enough for three meals, thinking of other ways that I could reuse it such in different dishes. . Before my current task has been completed it is already being reintegrated into the planning of future meals showing the cyclic nature of the labour of cooking.

Mrs. Williams a pioneer of the late nineteenth century  as cited in Leach (1997) identifies that labour itself meets the need to be self-sufficient and. She has found labour to be joy stating “It is wonderful how, in a few months, you will find labour a pleasure and health a thing to be felt and a cause of thankfulness” (p.13). We see that when she is forced to do the labour herself and to be resourceful she gains a sense of self satisfaction that she would not otherwise experience that contributes to her own sense of wellbeing. I see a resemblance to myself and cooking, maybe it is the pioneer spirit in a smaller scale but having to make do with limited ingredients  that I felt in the posting Affordances : communication, connections and morality when faced with an empty cupboard. There is both a mental challenge to be creative but also a sense of satisfaction from the physical act of labour of doing it for myself. 

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

 Leach, H. (1997, June). Are we selling out on domestic life? Occupation, 5(1), 10-16.

What is the need that cooking meets 3/10/11

Cooking as a labour meets the basic needs of sustenance.  Cooking meets my basic needs for survival but there is much more to it.  Recently my mother came down to Dunedin. We took a trip down to the Catlins staying in a batch. My mother is a busy woman and gives a lot of her time and energy into helping others. So when she was here my need was to be a good host to her and look after her. Going away for the weekend it was her need to not have to think about where we were going, doing or specifically what we were eating.  So for me it meant making a mental note of plan of what we would be eating. Making sure we had the ingredients, if not purchasing them, taking everything we would need with us. And being able to judge what my mother needed or wanted.  It was unsaid who would do the cooking but assumed it would be me. I checked in with her what she wanted was she hungry and made a meal that I knew would work and be tasty making the effort to make something that would meet her needs. I made sure both our needs were met in that there would be enough left over for lunch the next day. As the dinner was being cooked she was able to relax and enabled us to chat and talk about the past. Before the meal was made I had already met my need by allowing my mother to rest and us to connect.  The anticipation that dinner was on the stove and someone else was looking after it was enough.

The need was really the need for reciprocity for what my mother does for me and for others. Of course traditionally my mother had been the one to do all the looking after of me, cooking having been a major part of this. But in recent years it has changed not to me looking after my mother, but the balance of give and take becoming more even. Cooking is one of the most oboist ways for me to care for my mother and show her affection.  And it is a need of mine to show her my level of competence and ability to look after others.  

Affordances continued: Aesthetics, spirituality, health 26/9/11

Last night I was cooking vegetable soup. In relation to affordances mentioned earlier soup was my choice to make as it was intended to save time in the future going on the idea of cooking once and eating six meals. As I am limited by my budge it is an environmental press that leads me to make meals at a low cost. I decided to experiment with a standard soup mix of lentils and barley. As per usual I refused the idea of using a recipe instead having a quick look at the pack and based my plan of what to do base on past experiences. As I began to cook I added onions olive oil garlic and rosemary. For me this is a wonderfully aesthetic in its smell. It is a very pleasing smell that evokes many memories of cooking or being around others cooking. I was reminded of a particular play in a small theatre that utilized this very power of scent to activate a sense of reminiscence in the audience by frying on stage garlic and rosemary. This particular smell certainly gives me a sense of homeliness and comfort. In cooking there is a change in aesthetics as the product develops, ingredients are added, through the cooking process shape, smell, texture, taste and appearance can change dramatically  hopefully with an end product that is overall  aesthetically pleasing.  So with my soup I added ingredients such as curry powder and turmeric in indeterminable quantities dramatically changing the smell and appearance, making it a little less aesthetically pleasing in appearance and smell. In went all the ingredients, didn’t look too good but soup usually doesn’t. As I am cooking for myself there is less pressures socially to present something that looks beautiful and I feel able to experiment and try new things.  The end product didn’t turn out as I had hoped. All the lentils and curry powder turned it into more of a thick dhal. Aesthetically is reminded me of how my mother makes dhal. We all accidentally turn into our parents sooner or later and by the time we realize it’s too late!

So how was my spirituality represented in this meal?  This is a vegetarian meal which reflects my beliefs about eating meat.  For me being a vegetarian is not due to religion such as that of Hinduism but is due to my beliefs about the negative impact of farming on the environment. This gives the meal a sense of meaning for me and a sense of being a part of something wider and bigger than myself with a connection to the earth and trying to avoid having a negative impact as much as possible.  This connection with the earth and trying to avoid doing harm is part of my spirituality and forms part of my core beliefs.

My health is also affected by this meal. Food and cooking has the ability to either negatively or positively influence health.  My first choice of making a meal at home rather than getting takeaways like fish and chips is a healthy alternative. Being a vegetarian I also considered what I needed nutritionally to make a healthy meal.  Healthy eating can be used as an alternative to taking medication. In my case I could be very conscious of eating a nutritionally balanced diet so that I no longer required taking iron supplements. Eating well always makes me feel a sense of overall wellbeing knowing that I’m putting something good into my body.

 It is an active choice not buying pre-prepared highly processed food. The poem ‘food glorious food’ by Boothroyd identifies a dissatisfaction with the influence of technology on food.  He asks the reader “Which ones have you chosen? Soups powdered in plastic bags”. With this line it is highlighted that our food choices reflect who we are and the idea that ‘you are what you eat’.  Boothroyd is critical and highly processed, packaged and sterilized way food is in today’s modern society.

I feel this in the way in that I feel a loss of connection to what I eat when I have brought something prepackaged. The food becomes increasingly less wholesome the further it is on the production line and this effects the spiritual affordance of the cooking experience. It loses its value as ‘soul-food’.

J.B. Boothroyd, J. (2002). Food glorious food. In F. Fernández-Armesto (Ed.), Near a thousand               tables: A history of food (p. 187). New York: Free Press

Affordances: communication, connections and morality 19/9/11

Affordances are considered to be what the activity lends itself to, leads to or allows. Food in the way it meets our most basic biological need can be considered to afford everything as it is what affords us life. Visser stated “as soon as we can count on a food supply... and not a moment sooner we begin to civilize ourselves” (Visser, 1989, p 12). I have a secure food supply, it is the supermarket and I am guilty of taking it for granted. But food is “never just something to eat” (Visser, 1986, p. 12) it is something that defines a society or culture in what they choses to eat, its presentation, the time and place allocated to it and the rituals surrounding it (Visser). And so it is for me on an individual level. It affords   me an opportunity express myself. Every time I choose to make something from scratch rather than a prepackaged meal I am doing so. Every time I choose market brought seasonal vegetables rather than something exotic I am doing so and defining myself at the same time. 

The other night I was came home and I was very hungry. My flat mate was home and it looked as if she was starting to bake. As this takes a little longer than the fast meal I had in mind I asked her if she minded if I did some cooking as well in our smallish kitchen.  I looked into the cupboard knowing that I had the cupboard was fairly empty but had several key ingredients. These ingredients cued me, linking into me previous knowledge to be able to put them together as something Thai- ish and I was able to improvise the rest. The empty cupboard afforded me an opportunity to be creative and resourceful in my cooking. This sense of resourcefulness provides me with a sense of self satisfaction and of frugality at making do. As I began cooking there was much need to communicate with my flat mate as I soon realized she was also cooking as well. Was she using that frying pan? Would I be in her way if I use the front element? Can I use this space? Even moving across the kitchen required maneuvering around each other there had to be a lot of negotiation around space and equipment. My flat mate is relatively new and we haven’t had much time to get to know each other. We communicated out of necessity but also being in this environment doing the same activity of cooking simultaneously afforded us the opportunity to get to know each other better. We talked about what we are currently doing, our backgrounds and where we came from. There was a need to be thoughtful, courteous, polite and friendly to each other and there was an idea of welcoming or some kind of initiation into the flat.  

   

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

Ergonomics 12/9/11

Ergonomics is the “applied science concerned with the characteristics of people that need to be considered in designing and arranging things that they use in order that people and things will interact most effectively and safely” (“ergonomics”, Miriam Webster Online)

Ergonomics is about the fit and interaction between the person, activity and environment. These factors can either afford or press the activity.

In my experiences of cooking as the person there are many considerations that impact on the ergonomics of my cooking. This includes my past experiences of cooking which gives me knowledge of recipes, methods and gives me the skill set that I use when cooking. This both affords my cooking as it gives me the building blocks to cook but simultaneously ‘presses’ my cooking  in I am limited by what I don’t know. My past experiences influence my self-efficacy and how competent I feel in cooking. My preferences for different foods influence what I cook. For me the biggest presses that influence my cooking are the time available, energy, motivation and the costs involved. My sense of agency, or why I am cooking, impacts on how much effort I put into cooking. Usually when cooking for myself it can be simply a matter of sustenance while if I am cooking for others I am more motivated to put more thought and effort into making a meal to impress. It is different when I am with my family where I am expected to cook. This both reflects the roles I have chosen to take in my family and also wider societal values in which women are expected to cook.

The nature of the activity itself can be determined or adapted by many factors. In cooking this can be how processed your ingredients are.  This is on a continuum from what is considered from scratch to pre-made. This greatly influences the activity by how much labour is involved. .  The activity is changed whether or not a recipe is used (which is something I rarely do) or by adapting a recipe. It can be simple or complicated in both ingredients and method, traditional or more experimental.

Wendy Molony (1997) describes the fit between her and her “waste not, want not” (p.31) approach to life. Because of financial presses of “never having money to waste” (p.31) she speaks with pride that she “can live on the smell of an oily rag” (p. 34)  stating that it comes from the pioneer in you, the way you’re brought up” (p.34). Similarly I feel that the presses of being a student both financial and time available influence and have pressed me to adapt what I cook. 

Ergonomics. 2011. In Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved May 8, 2011, from http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/ergonomics

Unknown author. (1997, June). [Interview with Wendy Molony]. Occupation, 5(1), 28-34.