First Video!

Hi, Everyone!

I'm sorry, I am a little late posting, this video took longer to make than I thought it would. Speaking of videos, let me tell you the reason I have a video in the first place. I talked it over with my professor, and she thought that this blog topic would be best explored through video, so that you guys can see my interaction with the text and the food itself. So with out further ado, here is my first video: Mac & Cheese!

Thanks for watching!

Now, I want to tell you more about the book I am using: How to Boil an Egg: 184 Simple Recipes for One By Jan Arkless. It has an introduction that explains basic cooking knowledge, and includes shopping lists, conversion tables, and a glossary of sorts.

 It's language is pretty simple, and I change my focus to focusing on how the language is directed towards beginners, and how effective it is at helping them cook. All recipes I make will be from this book. 

~ Gaby

Introductions

Hello!

My name is Gaby Messinger, and this is my blog for my Literature of Food class that I am taking this semester.

Just who am I, you ask? Well, I am a 20 (soon to be 21) year old American student (English Lit Major/Book Studies Minor) studying abroad in London, England for a whole semester. I love books above all, but have a deep appreciation for bagel bites, pasta, and toast (which is a current list of all the things I can cook). 

Me with a large raven cutout, in celebration of Edgar Allan Poe, at the Baltimore Book Fest. 

This is my first time leaving the United States, and also my first time relying entirely on myself to cook. Without a meal plan, I must learn how to cook for myself. That's where this blog comes in. 

My thesis question for this blog project will be to see how language changes in cookbooks depending on skill level (beginners to more advanced). In other words, I want to see if the beginner's cookbook my mom gave me can actually teach me to cook, and if I can advance to higher skill levels after. I also want to explore the differences in language in cookbooks depending on the subject, and see if there is any difference if I try to make a recipe from a Food Network show. 

That is my basic plan so far, and I hope to stick with it. I will update this blog with my attempts at cooking, and perhaps other stuff along the way. I hope you enjoy this blog! I promise it will be more exciting from here on out.

~Gaby