Reflection

Hi, Everyone!

I decided to just have a post on my general feelings at the end of all this. Now, when I say "this" I mean:

• the end of the semester,
• the end of this blog,
• and quite possibly, the end of me cooking

I started this blog in the beginning of the semester to see if you can really cook as a beginner from a beginners cook book. Over the weeks, I have talked about the language used in the text, going from what it literally says to the assumptions it makes about the reader themselves.

The book How to Boil an Egg is geared towards people who have gotten to a point in their lives that they are alone and need to cook for themselves. It is implied that it would be useful to university students, but it does not limit itself to that. It includes lists of things one should keep in a kitchen (which is a bit too long for a student) and measurement tables. I have to say, the fact that the measurement were also in the metric system did make it a lot easier. Their were still uncertainties, such as vague wording for certain amounts and cooking time being drastically off. I  could blame the Roehampton ovens but I never got the timing quite down. My meals seemed to take much longer. Perhaps the total time was after you practiced a bit and got good at the recipes, it could be the minimum time needed.

Over all, what surprised me most was how I felt when it implied that I was lazy, and would be looking to take the easy way out, even though it's true. The past few months have not made me love cooking, yet the pizza recipe made me feel as though the book was making fun of me, not even wasting it's time telling me something I will never choose. Even though I am a beginner, and even though I am rather lazy when it comes to cooking, my pride was still hurt when I saw what little faith the book had. I truly believe that the cook book could have been great, if it had more confidence in it's readers, because now I never want to cook from it again.

Sorry if it got a bit dark there at the end, but I have had a lovely semester with all of you!

~Gaby

6th Video: Pizza!

Hi, Everyone!

I had to do this recipe, simply because I could not believe it was actually printed in a cook book. I have seen displays of short-cut cooking in this book before, such as it giving me options to quicker, store made products that would speed up my cooking process. I have always taken the longer option, to help me practice my cooking skills. The strange thing about this recipe was that there was no other, longer option.

This recipe made assumptions based on the intended market of this book being people who don't cook. This recipe is exactly as it says, just buy a frozen pizza and put the toppings on 5 minutes before it's done. The book even says that "it hardly seems worth the effort" to make your own pizza from scratch.

It is also good to keep in mind that this book does try to steer the reader towards the cheaper alternative, this seems more to do with the reader's implied laziness. Although it is one of the best tastings meals that I have made, it did not feel nearly as rewarding.

~Gaby

5th Video: Toad in the Hole!

Hi, Everyone!

I decided to take the English theme and run with it by making the traditional breakfast of Toad in the Hole. I was told by my English friends that I must make Toad in the Hole, as it is the best breakfast one could make. I was a little skeptical (as it just seemed to be a popover filled with sausage) but I was willing to give it a go.

This recipe was worded interestingly, as you can see my trouble with the pinch of salt and also multitasking the milk pouring and whisking. I really thought the batter would be too runny, but it turned out just fine. It did balloon up just like a popover, and as you all can see, my burning streak continues.

What I do want to talk about on this post was the taste of the Toad in the Hole. To be perfectly honest, I was not looking forward to trying this particular dish. I am generally pretty picky about the foods that I eat, and making this one did not make it appear more appetizing.

Ingredients 

Finished Product

As you can see, the final product was burnt around the edges, an egg-like texture in the middle, and had a couple sausages with a boatload of grease in the pockets they were in. This is exactly the type of food I tend to shy away from. In the end, I am glad I tried it. It was like having a full breakfast of sausage and eggs, but all the flavors had run through together. This taste revelation made me realize that this book did not talk very much about taste at all, which for a beginner's cook book seemed surprising. 

All in all, it was a good recipe.

~Gaby

4th Video: Scalloped Potatoes!

Hello, Everyone!

I decided to take a step back up and challenge myself with two skills that I think I could improve on: slicing and baking. Yet, I didn't want to make things too complicated for myself after the butter catching on fire incident. This recipe is actually pretty simple, but, as the other recipes did, does leave some vague wording on the amounts I am suppose to be using.

As some of you may have noticed, my food has taken a slightly English turn. It seems that the British are fond of their potatoes and hearty foods, but that does not make them easier to make. It seems that I almost burn everything, but it ends up tasting okay. Is that what cooking really is? Just burning until you improve and burn less? I have been trying to get simpler and simpler to ease myself into cooking but perhaps I just need to fully focus on the task at hand. The language in this book allows me to have some room for error, and I have trouble waiting an hour for food that I would normally never make.

I think that for beginning cooks, the language is misleading. But I am willing to cook more and try to get through it.

~Gaby

3rd Video: Grilled Cheese!

Hi, Everyone!

So for this week, I decided to tone down the level of difficulty from my last recipe, Chicken in Wine. I mean, I am really a beginner cook, shouldn't I ease myself into these difficult recipes? That is why this week, I found what I thought would be an extremely easy recipe: the grilled cheese sandwich.

I don't know about all of you out there, but I LOVE grilled cheese sandwiches. I'm a pretty big fan of all things cheese, due to the fact that I work as a cheesemonger in a cheese shop. One thing that we happen to make a lot of is grilled cheese sandwiches.

Me at work with my favorite cheese

That being said, I have never actually made a grilled cheese sandwich. Perhaps it's because I was too clumsy and prone to breaking things busy doing other work, but it just was always made by the time I took my lunch break. I figured it had to be simple enough. I mean, it's just cheese and bread. Two ingredients. What could go wrong?

Turns out what could go wrong was that tricky third ingredient: Butter.

So Simple.

 As you can see from the video, I set the butter on fire. 

But, I can explain.

I do know the old rule of DO NOT PUT METAL IN THE MICROWAVE, but I honestly thought that the butter was wrapped in a fake shinny piece of paper. I know it sounds ridiculous,but I figured even if there was a bit of metal in the paper, that it would be fine because it was just going to be in there for a few seconds. But overall, I think I handled the fire well. 

The actual making the grilled cheese was not that hard. As always, I am always surprised that food does not start frying immediately in the pan when it is put in. Some of the cheese flipped out of the sandwich when I first switched it, but overall, it was an excellent sandwich!  

Finished Product!

 The instructions for this recipe were definitely easier to understand, but that could be because there was very little I could misunderstand. There were no definite amounts, so it seemed that there was no way I could mess this up.

This recipe seemed to actually give me more information than I needed, except for the whole butter incident. That information would have been nice. But this recipe is step-by-step very easy, very cheap, very quick, and relatively painless to make. This recipe is what all the recipes in this book are striving to be: quick and easy recipes that anyone can make.

~Gaby

2nd Video: Chicken in Wine!

Hi, Everyone!

I know I haven't posted in a bit, but I a lot of technical difficulties. I have finally figured out how to get me videos off private, expect more videos coming your way!

For this video, I made Chicken in Wine. The title is a tad misleading, as for some reason this dish included apples. There were also some problems with filming, which can be shown in the fact I have no footage of me trying my meal, as there was some confusion with camera vs. video camera. I do, however, have pictures!

Ingredients 

Finished Product!

Trying the Chicken!

Now this dish was a lot more challenging than my first dish, mac and cheese. The technical skills are different, and chopping the onion and apple was quite tough. The end result tasted okay, except for the apples. It turns out they soak up all the wine and become quite bitter (as you can see from my face in the picture). My friend told me after that there is a big difference between cooking wine and drinking wine, and perhaps that is why the flavor was so strong,

  Now, language wise, this recipe sounded easy. It sounded so easy that after I made mac and cheese, this seemed like the next logical step. I can say that the vague "2 wine glasses amount of wine"  made it difficult to know how much wine I was suppose to put in. The book also did not tell me that there is a difference between cooking wine and drinking wine, and as a result, my apples were bitter. It would have been a lovely meal, had I known a way to tone down the flavor. But, as a beginner cook, I had no idea how. I think the book failed me on this recipe.

~Gaby

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