Hello all!
We are extremely grateful for your participation in our project and hope this will prove to be a fun and enlightening experience for everyone!
There might be this question lurking in the back of your mind: What do we consider cooking?
There might be this question lurking in the back of your mind: What do we consider cooking?
We consider cooking to be any form of meal preparation: making a sandwich, heating up a frozen dinner, baking lasagna. We’re interested in all types of meals that come out of the kitchen. Our only restrictions are take-out and, of course, eating out.
The general protocol of the project is as follows:
Participants will keep track of their cooking routines for four meals a week, noting the times and forms of energy they use to cook their meals. We ask that you record your energy usage for each of these four meals and fill out this information on our survey (the link is listed on the right-hand column of the blog page). Please do not be intimidated – this is not a complicated form.
We also ask that participants reflect on their cooking process on the blog - responding to questions and discussion points we post, as well as other participants’ reflections. We would love for this to be an interactive, communicative process!
We’d also like everyone to understand that we, the designers of this project, will be participants as well. This will be a learning experience for everyone!
Feel free to start exploring the different pages on this blog. You can share pictures by emailing your pictures to pollockj-413c@post.me.com. They will be posted on this site: http://gallery.me.com/pollockj/100063. (The link is available on the right-hand column.)
Please take a few minutes to introduce yourself and get to know everyone!
Name:
Reason for participating:
Favorite Food to Cook:
When did you first start cooking for yourself?
How many people do you usually cook with?
What would you like to get out of this study?
Hi! My name is Carmen Li, a third year Environmental Studies major at The New School, and one of the researchers for this study. I decided to be part of this study because I am interested in both sustainable systems as well as food and its effects on our health. It will be interesting to see how differently people from different cultures will adjust to using less energy to cook. From a Chinese family’s point of view, raw food is always thought to be filled with bad germs--everything needs to be super well done! My favorite food to prepare was instant noodles--especially the kind where all you have to do is put the noodles in a bowl with fast cooking veggies, and pour hot water over it. I first started cooking for myself since I was 10 and tall enough to see what I’m doing on the stove with a stool. I usually cook with at least one other person to give me feedback--plus, it’s always fun to share creative cooking methods. From this study, I will love to learn new ways of cooking, get to know ya’ll better through this process, and help myself improve and use less energy as I cook.
ReplyDeleteHugh Reed
ReplyDeleteI am a third year Environmental Studies major at The New School, getting my Bachelors of Science degree through Eugene Lang. Currently, I am living in Brooklyn and cooking about four to five nights a week. I have put little thought into my energy use while cooking and am looking forward to spending time thinking about ways to reduce it. I enjoy riding my bike, playing basketball, and drawing. I have been preparing food for myself since I was a young teenager, however I did not get into cooking with fresh ingredients until I was about 22. I usually cook for my girlfriend and myself but love it when a friend and I get in sync with each other in the kitchen. My favorite food to cook is tacos, and I realize that they consume a lot of energy. My hope is that this study will make me a resourceful chef, and I will learn new techniques and recipes so my cooking practices become an impressive skill I can show off to my friends. I am looking forward to getting to know all of you through this blog and think it will be a great resource that we can all have been a part of.
Hi, my name’s Samantha Bahlmann. I’m a senior at The New School, majoring in Environmental Studies. Despite being raised in a family employed by the restaurant industry, I somehow managed not to learn how to cook. Or rather, I can follow a recipe, but would be scared to cook without one. I’m excited and nervous to be presented with this opportunity to strengthen my cooking skills.
ReplyDeleteI’m very interested in food systems (production, distribution), especially in the role that urban agriculture plays. As one of the main benefits of urban agriculture is to eat and cook local foods, I think this project is a great chance for me to experience this firsthand. I’m looking forward to getting to know everyone and to learning more about sustainable/low energy cooking.
Hi. I'm a College Counselor at a local high school (full disclosure-I was Carmen's College Counselor!). I learned to cook from my mother (who, if she were alive today would be 113 years old!) She was a German immigrant who came to America as a young woman, before WWII. My mother was a traditional European, and as a kid in the 50's when TV dinners were the rage for everyone else, we were eating brown rice, whole wheat pie crusts and homemade whole grain bread - and she was encouraging me to help her prepare our meals. Honestly, my mother was not a great cook, but she was a relatively healthy cook (we did eat meat, chicken or fish as the center of every dinner-that was considered healthy back then). What she gave me was confidence in the kitchen and and a love of cooking. I'm told I'm a good cook, and for sure, I love to eat! Recently, my youngest child moved out, and now, although he often eats at my house, I'm mostly cooking for myself, so I'm very aware of, for example, turning on the oven to bake something just for myself. If I do, it will be to roast a chicken which will be used for several meals. I can't imagine what low energy cooking will mean - I have heard of solar ovens and such, but I doubt that would be a practical alternative- at least for this "experiment" so, I'm curious to learn!
ReplyDeleteJosh Pollock- I am in my last semester as a environmental studies major at the New School. For me, eating is the central part of living a sustainable and non-violent lifestyle. I have been a vegan for over ten years and have recently begun transitioning to a mostly raw diet. Opposed to being vegan, this next phase may be very difficult, but I look forward to enjoying the challenge and improving my health while hopefully lowering my energy consumption. Still my favorite food is Indian food and that will just have to stay that way.
ReplyDeleteMaggie Horn-I'm a wife and mother of 3 girls.
ReplyDeleteTwo of my girls are away at college, so I'm learning to cook smaller portions, still difficult!
I'd like to know how much energy I'm using, I've been accused of being kinda wasteful!
I love to cook all types of foods, especially Italian!
I've been cooking solo since college days, I love to cook with my family!
I'd like to learn what some of the best ways are to cook more efficiently
First off, sorry for the late introduction. My name is George Saad, a third year Media Studies student at The New School. I am participating in this study to try to get myself away from take-out and more towards preparing food at home. I spend waaay too much money on take-out, and usually don't end up getting very healthy food. I usually do this because I am too busy, tired, or lazy to cook. When I do prepare food, my favorite meal to make is sandwiches. I either make them cold or grilled (using a Foreman). Sometimes I will cook more elegant meals, like baked mac and cheese or even lasagna, but when I do, like Betsy, I am much too afraid to go without the guidelines of a cookbook (which I always use verbatim. My Mom can somehow taste food as she cooks and eyeball the right amount of spices, etc. I'm terrified to try that because of my relative inexperience). I've cooked for myself on and off since my junior year in college (so it's been about five years). When I cook it's usually for 2-4 people. What I would like to get out of this study is a better understanding of how to make food for bigger groups of people. For example, I work at the Student Activities Office at The New School, and we are having a pot luck for the staff on Nov. 16th. Last time we had one, I picked up cookies from a bakery, this time I would like to make more of a personal contribution.
ReplyDeleteI live in SF and work in a school. I started cooking when I was very young and have memories of cooking for fun with my sisters, pulling taffy, making apple cider and apple butter and jams. We collected wild berries for jam every summer, fished, crabbed and traded crabs for lobsters and snails at the fish market. I grew up in a household where we all sat together and had full meals for breakfast and dinner. We also ate full lunches together on the weekends, holidays, and summer.
ReplyDeleteI cooked the same way as an adult until about 10 years ago. I am the mother of 3 (one of them is Hugh).
As I mostly cook only for myself now, I am not as interested in cooking as I used to be. I look for fast and easy which means lots of quick sautees. Often I will make a hamburger or turkey burger in a skillet, chop up some veggies and put them in a bowl, cover the bowl with a plate and stick it in the microwave for a couple of minutes. I'll add a microwaved potato and/or a bagged salad. So I am hoping to get inspired by this blog.