Cooking Is Culture Osprey Block

What is Cooking is Culture? And why I chose it:

Cooking is Culture was a 3 Week opportunity where we got to learn about cooking, skills, recipes, backgrounds, as well as the culture that comes with it. We even got to go to Santa Fe for 2 nights and learn all about the food and culture there (more about that down below) This osprey block was very open to so many things and allowed us to explore both our interests and try new things.

I chose this Osprey Block because I have enjoyed cooking for a long time and have taken a cooking course in school before and enjoyed it. It seemed like a good fit for me, and I also wanted to learn more in-depth skills that I can use. It seemed like a good fit for my interests and also to branch out and get new skills and explore new things with new people.

Reflection:

Throughout cooking is culture osprey block I feel that I did grow and learned a lot of new skills. Some of these skills are the claw grip for cutting, how to hold a knife, cutting techniques and more. I also think that I learned a lot of new recipes and styles of cooking. Some of those being empanadas, pasta sauces, banana/zucchini bread, salad, lemonade, tamales, cookies and more. I would like to get better at making more complex recipes and trying new things, I notice that I resort to recipes I've made before and then stop learning new things. I would like to be a home chef because I think that those are skills that I need because being an armature chef I wouldn't be able to cook much, but I think that I don't need professional chef skills because I don't really want to cook as my job.

Work Throughout Osprey Block/daily activities

Cooking Chopped Competiton

We did a cooking competition inspired by the cooking show Chopped. My partner and I attempted to make a strawberry cheesecake with the mystery ingredients: strawberries, gram crackers and dark chocolate. Although our dish did not turn out how we hopped we got 2nd place (out of 3) in our category (desert). I learned that you need to work faster than you think while also focusing on the quality of your work. This was a lot harder than I expected and I took away a lot from this experience.

Banana & Zucchini Bread

For this recipe we worked in groups to make a banana zucchini bread. I learned that it is way easier than you would think to make, even though ours did fail I felt that it still tasted good and that it would be a recipe I would make again. We added banana, zucchini, cinnamon, chocolate chips and all of the other ingredients. But ours deflated and did not look as good as it tasted.

Pasta

For this we were allowed to choose what kind of pasta we made. I chose to make a creamy cheese sauce which had onions, cream, cheese and more as well as a pesto which had spinach, basil, lemon/lime and more. I didn't really like them, and these recipes were not my favorite. But I did learn how to make these, and I think that I could go home and make a pesto pretty easily.

Empanadas

We learned how to make empanadas including the dough and the filling. I had never made them before so all the things that we did were learning experiences for me. We made the dough, and filling and then added the fillings which was chicken, beef, or vegetables to the dough and then folded it in a way that the filling can't come out.

Manna Soup Kitchen Volunteer Work

We went to Manna Soup Kitchen which is an organization that helps the homeless. We worked in the kitchen where we bagged chocolate, peppers, restocked foods such as breads etc. And also worked in the garden where we helped get the raised beds ready for winter by adding compost, steaking the tubes down, and adding leaves to the top. I learned a lot about how they run this organization and how much work goes on behind the scenes every day from the workers and volunteers.

Meaningful Recipe Project:

In this project we chose a recipe that had meaning to us, made a presentation to share (the slideshow) and a write up (the doc) and the recipe (the doc) I didn't really face any challenges during this project. I grew when I worked on this project by being able to write about something that I have never written about. It helped me understand the concept of explaining the recipe in my own words and understand the recipe more.

Meaningful Recipie-Mia Bonanno

Meaningful Recipe-Mia Bonanno

Santa Fe Trip

One of the main things that we did was go on a trip to Santa Fe New Mexico. During this trip we learned a lot about the culture of the food there. We went on a food tour where we tried tacos, nachos, and churros. We also got the opportunity to make tamales and visit a local farmers market which had all sorts of jewelry, foods and art. I think that this trip was super fun and had a great mix of learning opportunities and chances to have fun and explore the town. On our way back we stopped in Albuquerque and visited a Lavender Farm and learned all about the history and the operation of that as well!

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