confettithecat-blog

[confettithecat-blog]

6.0 - 30/06/17

The first week of Term 3 ended with our last cooking session :-( For our last session, we had our cooking practical where everyone got to show off the skills we’ve picked up over the course of the past 8 lessons.

my dish!

In my last post, which was written over a month ago, I attached a picture of my decision making matrix which helped me choose mini peach upside down cakes as my dish for our final practical. However, with one month to think and even test it out, I realised that it might not be the best recipe and decided to make blueberry muffins instead. This recipe would be much easier to manage time-wise and also used a flour mixture - simple enough but still delicious!

during the practical test

Thinking back now, I remember being very careful about preparing the muffin batter, making sure to remember everything I had to do. After finishing the batter, I quickly put my muffins in the oven. At this point, I was very relaxed, thinking I was practically done and could just wait for my muffins to bake.

This was a big mistake on my part. When I had tried the recipe at home, my muffins took around 30 minutes to cook and they’d come out perfectly fine almost every try. I completely forgot how much shallower the muffin trays provided by the school were and I didn’t check on my muffins in the oven at all! I remember somewhere around 15 minutes in, Mrs Abbas said she could smell something burning. I had smelled it too, but I brushed it off as someone else’s cookies or something. The tinted glass on my oven didn’t help. By the time I realised the burning smell was coming from my oven, it was too late and my muffins were burnt :-(

Initially, I was quite upset and didn’t know what to do, I really didn’t expect that to happen. In the end I decided to choose the two best muffins and just serve them on a plate. I think my shock at my ruined muffins stopped me from thinking how I could solve the problem or at least try to present my muffins better. If I could go back, I’d probably cut off the top of my muffins and serve them upside down, and I’d definitely be less complacent and manage my oven better.

food blogging!

This blog has been really fun creating and maintaining! I think it was a very useful creative outlet and I’ll definitely look back and remember all my memories from Home Econs in the future. Writing blog posts regularly have helped me think about what I’ve been learning and also track my learning process.

nutritional tools!

Nowadays, when I’m choosing what to eat, I often recall the healthy eating plate introduced to us in the very first cooking lesson, or the healthy eating period. The skills I’ve acquired are easy to apply to my own diet choices and help me make more conscious diet-related decisions.

manipulative skills!

I thought the demonstrations before each lesson were very useful and instructions were simple to follow. The manipulative skills were challenging (I never thought I’d be able to make pasta or even bread from scratch!) but in a good way as they were manageable enough. It was very satisfying to eat food made by myself and Chloe after working hard together. This module has really shown that anyone can cook if they’re careful and cook for someone they love :-)

investigative tools!

The decision making matrix was very useful in ranking my shortlisted dishes when deciding what to cook for our final practical. Even though I ended up changing my recipe in the end, I still applied the investigative tools to the other recipes I considered before deciding on blueberry muffins in the end. They helped me compare the different aspects of each dish side by side and also consider that each dish has its own advantages and disadvantages.

It’s sad that this is my last blog post, but I know I’ll definitely take the memories I’ve made throughout this module with me. I’m really grateful for the past 9 weeks of really fun experiences that have taught me about cooking and so much more :-)

[confettithecat-blog]

5.0 - 12/05/17

This week, we made our first bread dough for pizza. We had normal pizza, pinwheel pizza and even calzone pizza (our calzone turned out looking like a confused curry puff but it still tasted great). We also made delicious brownies! They were so good they even have a fanbase of their own hoho ;-)

Of course, pictures below:

the basic bread recipe!

Besides pizza, many other dishes can be made using the basic bread recipe we learned today. An example of a sweet dish would be cinnamon rolls while a savoury dish could be simple garlic bread.

cooking practical!

Below is an image of my completed decision making matrix! Upon completion of this matrix, I’ve more or less chosen my recipe for our upcoming practical test - mini peach upside down cakes! All three of the recipes I shortlisted fit most of the criterion, but the main reason why I chose this recipe was because it had the most room for adjusting to make healthier. Things could still change a lot as I plan to bake and experiment a bit with different substitutes and recipe changes during the June holidays, so I don’t have a specific recipe at the moment.

[confettithecat-blog]

4.0 - 28/4/17

This FAD lesson, with a base of shortcrust pastry for each dish, we made chicken pie and fruit custard tartlets. The methods used for our shortcrust pastry were similar to those used in preparing our peach crumble last week.

Here are some pictures! :

pie fillings!

Besides using chicken as filling for our pies, we could also use other protein rich foods such as mushroom or tuna. Sweeter options would include cherry filling or pumpkin filling.

ready-made or from scratch?

Below is a picture of the food label of a packet of frozen pastry dough used for making pastries similar to ours. (sorry if it’s not very clear!) The food label shows that out of the 160 calories our body gets from consuming 1/6 of a sheet of this dough, 90 of these calories are from fat! 5g of this fat is saturated, making up around 25% of the amount of fat our bodies require daily (based on a 2,000 calorie diet). Besides this, the pastry dough is also high in sodium, with one serving accounting for up to 6% of our daily intake of salt. These are all taking into consideration one serving is equivalent to only 1/6 of a sheet of dough. This means that by eating one pastry made using this dough, you’d be consuming at least 2 to 3 times of one suggested serving. 

After reading the food label, I’ve realised that frozen pastry dough includes many ingredients that aren’t beneficial to our bodies like saturated fat or excessive salt. Besides this, preservatives would definitely have been used in the making of the dough, since it has such a scarily long shelf-life.

If I could help it, I would definitely choose to prepare my own dough instead of using store-bought dough. From today’s FAD lesson, I’ve learnt that it’s actually very easy to make dough yourself. By measuring the correct proportions of ingredients and patiently preparing the dough, it’s definitely possible to do so. It’s also the healthier option, where you can adjust your recipe according to your own tastes.

In conclusion, I’m glad I’ve learnt many new skills that I can apply to my daily life to cook as well as bake more at home so that I can have more control over my diet and what my body is consuming :-)

[confettithecat-blog]

3.0 - 21/4/17

Today was definitely the most satisfying and fun food and design lesson we’ve had so far! We baked two dishes, a delicious chicken lasagne and sweet peach crumble. It was so good that Chloe and I finished eating everything in 10 minutes (oops)! It rained and flooded the balcony so we couldn’t use it for our photoshoot as per usual and chose a different place. Here’s a look at what we made (careful if you’re hungry):

making lasagne sheets!

Making the lasagne sheets from scratch let me realise a lot of things, especially that it isn’t as easy as it seems! 

Firstly, the consistency of our dough was quite surprising. I expected it to be soft and pliable, but I remember ours being very sticky and tough. It wouldn’t pull away from the table without tearing but I didn’t want to add more flour because I thought that’d make it even less soft than it already was. 

Secondly, I realised that kneading is incredibly important in preparing your dough. I think I didn’t spend as much time kneading our dough as I should’ve. It only got a 2 second cameo in the video we watched before starting to cook, so I couldn’t decide when to stop and apparently I stopped way too early. I had some doubts about whether or not it would turn out fine, and got really worried when it repeatedly shrunk back whenever we tried to roll it out. 

Thankfully, it wasn’t too late to salvage the situation! We realised the problem and stretched it out a second time after taking it out from the fridge. 

healthier options!

There’s always ways to improve a recipe! 

Our chicken lasagne could’ve been made healthier by removing the chicken meat from our bolognese sauce and substituting it for something else like mushrooms. 

Recently there’s been a meat-free day campaign happening in our school, so I thought it’d be meaningful to mention this healthy suggestion. According to the project advocating for a meat-free day, one of the adverse effects of eating meat is the fact that it more than doubles your chance of getting Type 2 diabetes. Removing the chicken from the bolognese sauce definitely makes for a healthier option. 

Using whole-wheat flour instead of plain flour in the pasta dough increases the amount of fibre in the dish (proportions can be easily found online!) and adding more vegetables and pulses (peas, beans and lentils) into the bolognese sauce will also make your lasagne much more nutritious.

Today’s lesson was super duper fun and I can’t wait for next week :-)

[confettithecat-blog]

2.0 - 13/4/17

This week, we made Nestum and chocolate chip cookies as well as adorable small marbled cupcakes. The recipes we tried out this week took a bit more skill and precision, but we followed instructions and they turned out fine in the end! We were really happy with the results and it was super fun to try baking after two weeks of cooking. Here's a picture (unfortunately we didn’t have time to take many this lesson) :

the healthy eating pyramid!

This week, we learned even more about balance in diet with reference to the healthy eating pyramid. To me, if you had to summarise the healthy eating pyramid into one word, it’d be moderation! It’s important to remember that our bodies need a variety of foods from all the food groups in order to obtain the appropriate amount of nutrients. 

which were healthier?

Comparing the cupcakes we made with the full 75g of butter to the less-fat cupcakes made by Mrs Abbas, the ones with less butter were definitely more healthy. This is because there are many adverse effects of consuming butter, a saturated fat, in excess.

cupcake preferences!

Personally, I preferred Mrs Abbas’ cupcakes to our own! Both cupcakes tasted fantastic, but I felt like our cupcakes were slightly more dense. I guess those who enjoy a moister consistency in their cupcakes would have preferred ours, but I didn’t like that they made me feel thirsty after eating :-( Comparing the two on the outside, the less-fat cupcakes were crumblier and drier than ours. 

how to make them healthier!

Linking this back to the cupcakes we prepared, while making sweet treats at home, we should try to alter the recipes for a healthier result. 

Besides reducing the amount of fat in our cupcakes, we can also substitute the fat for something more healthy like avocado. Using avocado in place of butter not only yields a healthier result (they’re rich in omega-3s and vitamin E), but they taste equally as good (maybe even better)! 

Reducing the amount of sugar and including nuts or fruits in your cupcakes are also ways you can make a healthier choice.

All in all, I felt like this lesson was very meaningful and I could learn a lot from it :-) I hope to apply everything I’ve reflected on in my own diet and lifestyle from now on!

[confettithecat-blog]

1.0 - 7/4/17

Today we made chicken rice with grilled chicken drummets and stirred fried vegetables. We finished the meal with konnyaku jelly which unfortunately could not pose for a picture after coming out of the fridge :-( It was fascinating to see the cooked chicken and rice look so different from how they did before we put them in the oven and rice cooker respectively. Thankfully, all our food was edible and even tasted good! Here are some pictures:

balanced plate!

We also learned about what a balanced plate should look like. 50% of the plate should be fruits and vegetables, 25% should be protein-rich foods and 25% should be whole-grain and fiber-rich carbohydrates. Below are two pictures that I will assess in terms of balance in accordance to the ‘balanced plate’ proportions, one of the chicken rice meal prepared by me and Chloe and one of a bowl of gyu-don my dad made a while ago. (It’s not very visible in the picture, but there was actually a mound of rice underneath the beef and broccoli!) I think both meals had way too much rice and too little vegetables. A lot of the time, people overlook vegetables in a meal and include much less than necessary in their diet. The same goes for the two dishes below. I think that this causes imbalance in meals which in turn leads to insufficient or excessive consumption of foods from the different food groups. Knowing this, I think I should be responsible for my own health and choose what goes on my plate more wisely from now on, consciously recalling the suggested proportions of the different food elements on my plate whenever applicable.

[confettithecat-blog]

0.2 - 24/3/17

wOoHOo it’s our first food and design lesson! I was looking forward to this so much! Cooking is so fun :-) 

Today we familiarised ourselves with the kitchen and met our super friendly teacher in charge, Mrs Abbas. The kitchen has a very homey feel, and having ownership over our own benches as a pair makes it feel nicely domestic. My partner is Chloe and she cooks very well! I hope I don’t burden her and can help her do well. We prepared a simple fried Magee noodle dish made healthier with the omission of sodium filled seasoning and addition of beautiful and colourful vegetables. 10 times better than normal soggy Magee Mee! It’s really easy to prepare as well, I think I’ll definitely make this dish for my sisters if they’re hungry in the afternoon after school or for myself if my parents aren’t home to make dinner. We had warm Milo as well, the perfect drink to pair with the noodles. As this was only an introductory lesson, we didn’t get to do much today. It did make us anticipate the next lesson though! We had the most fun taking pictures, below are some of our favourites (Chloe’s camera-shy).

[confettithecat-blog]

0.1 - intro + contents

Hello! As stated under the ‘user menu’ tab, my name is Josephine Chan and I am from RGS, class 210′17. As part of our aesthetics module, I’ve created this blog to document my food journey with my partner Chloe who shares a bench with me. Though they aren’t included in our coursework task, I decided to include this intro and the memoir of our first lesson to make my blog more complete :-) I hope you have fun following up with our adventures in the kitchen!

CONTENTS

ungraded 0.1 - intro + blog contents

ungraded 0.2 - 24/3/17

1.0 - 7/4/17

2.0 - 13/4/17

3.0 - 21/4/17

4.0 - 28/4/17