REFLECTION 17.0

I decided to cook jollof rice independently; therefore this week I followed through with my decision. I followed the same procedure explained in the previous week and the jollof rice turned out fine. The rice was  was it good. Personally, if I had not cooked it and I could opt out of eating of it, I would eat  it. I understand that this quality was expected because I do not have a lot of experience cooking jollof rice. However, I will not give up and I will seek my mother's guidance to determine what I can improve because I am completely satisfied with  taste. Hopefully, I can improve this dish somehow.

REFLECTION 16.0

This week I didn't learnt any new dishes however I cooked some of the dishes that I had already learned. So i would call this week a review week and I think every once in awhile I will have a week dedicated to practicing what I already learned. Therefore over the past few days I cooked an omelette/ egg, roasted chicken, and fried turkey, the egg\omelette,and roasted chicken came out well. However the fried turkey was less to be desired. It had more taste that last time and I got through frying the whole batch no problem but it was still lacking a really good taste that my mom usually puts on it. Overall I think this week did well to reinforce my memory and give me more experience.

REFLECTION 15.0

This week I made the decision to stray from practicing my icing techniques in order to evaluate a more useful prospect. I have learned to cook and practiced cooking a variety of food s however I forgot an everyday essential, Mac and Cheese. Now cooking mac and cheese is a very basic and simple thing to do, therefore I did not run into any major problems with this endeavor. Although the taste was not perfect, it was decent nothing special but nothing bad. The recipe that I used was from All Recipes - http://allrecipes.com/recipe/11679/homemade-mac-and-cheese/

REFLECTION 14.0

This week I made my gallant return to baking vanilla yellowcake. Ass you may recall my first attempt ended in failure and disappointment, however redemption is in my sights. Therefore I gained an understanding of the error I made in my first attempt; this error was under-beating the batter which lead to a horrible cake overall. With that in mind I successfully created another vanilla yellowcake, one that was beaten the right amount and well cooked overall. The only thing that was less than desired was the icing; initially the icing held no real significance to me however my attempt to icing on the cake was nonexistent. Therefore, next time when I cook this again I aim to to put more effort into the icing part of my cake.

REFLECTION 13.0

This week for my 20% project, I returned to honing my grilling ability. Therefore, I cooked foods that I’d normally bake, boil, or fry on the grill. These foods included corn, chicken, hot dogs, and patties and the barbecue was to honor my cousin for graduating from William & Mary and his admission into the Medical School of the University of Virginia. Grilling these foods were really easy and I received a lot of positive feedback from the people at the barbecue commenting on how good the foods were. In addition, I really enjoyed the barbecue myself so this day was really successful.

REFLECTION 12.0

This week I felt s though it was necessary to reenforce the skills I developed through practicing the meals I had learned how to cook recently. Therefore, I decided to simply do a run through of the meals I learned recently by cooking them. The foods that I cooked were caesar salad, fried rice, sweet plantains and spinach stew. I did not add any variations to the recipes like I usually try to do because I wanted to take it easy and relax. Nevertheless, the meals came out very nicely and I am looking forward to next week because I will learn how to cook a really popular western African dish that I had for gotten bout. It is called fufu and is usually served with soup; the more specific details will be revealed next week.

REFLECTION 11.0

This week I learned how to prepare a salad. Prior to this week, I avoided salads because whenever I ate salads in the past I would nauseous and sick. However, I decided to try to use organic ingredients to see if it would make a difference. Therefore, I learned how to cook a chicken caesar salad using this recipe http://allrecipes.com/recipe/14172/caesar-salad-supreme/. Overall, it was a pretty easy meal to cook therefore I did not have any problems. Additionally, I think the addition of organic ingredients helped cure my nausea.

REFLECTION 10.0

This week for my 20% project I learned how to cook my favorite type of cake, Vanilla yellowcake. The difficulty of this endeavor was high and it had a low chance of success. Therefore, I had my mom guide me to success by teaching and supervising me as I cooked the cake. Although helpful my mom could not prevent my cake attempt from failing.  I did not beat the batter enough so the cake came out ruined, however I plan to try again soon.  Next time I will be more careful when beating the batter.

REFLECTION 9.0

I have decided to dedicate this week to reviewing some of the meals that I learned how to cook over the past few weeks. In addition to practicing those meals I  plan to make revisions to the recipes in order to improve the health aspect of those meals. Therefore for fried rice my main revison was to replace the type of rice used to cook it, so instead of using regular white rice I am using brown rice. The next revision I made was to turkey; I started selecting the pieces of turkey with less saturated fat on it. These are the only two deviations I had from my usual recipe and it was quite successful. Theses changes improved the health of the foods that I eat and still maintained the phenominal taste I expect from these meals.

REFLECTION 8.0

Last week, I made the decision to dedicate this week to learning how to cook fried rice,  a famous Western African dish, therefore this week I have validated that promise by learning how to cook the dish. I learned how to cook this dish because I think it will prove to be a valuable addition to the range of meals I can cook. This meal has really good nutritional value because of the vegetables sprinkled throughout the rice and is usually served with chicken. The downside to this dish is how long it takes to prepare it; it took me an hour and thirty minutes of consistent attention to prepare this dish. Overall, the meal tasted quite good, however it did seem a little bit sloppy and not well mixed together. Other than that mixing error, this outing of cooking was really successful. Next week I think I am going to learn how to cook light soup, another popular Western African dish. The recipe I used for the fried rice came from here:https://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=6656

REFLECTION 7.0

Given that this was the final week of spring break, I wanted to sit back and relax. Therefore, I decided to simply do a run through of the meals I learned recently by cooking them. The foods that I cooked were beans stew, sweet plantains and spinach stew, white rice, and jollof rice. I did not add any variations to the recipes like I usually try to do because I wanted to take t easy and relax. Nevertheless, the meals came out very nicely and I am looking forward to next week because I will learn how to cook a really popular western African dish that I had for gotten bout. It is called fried rice and is usually served with chicken; the more specific details will be revealed next week.

REFLECTION 6.0

In my attempt to make my diet healthier, I have been cooking foods with really positive effects on my health. Therefore this week I have decided to learn how to cook bean stew. I proceeded to cook this meal by myself using the recipe I found online (Here: http://www.livestrong.com/article/437768-how-to-cook-ghanaian-bean-stew/). I followed the directions verbatim  and was able to create a really tasty bean stew. Given that I followed the directions verbatim the stew did not have a very good and original taste. Therefore it tasted very practical and did not have elaborate floors in it. Next time i will add some spices in attempt to create a twist to taste,

REFLECTION 5.0

This week I practiced cooking the dishes I already learned and did not learn any new dishes. Therefore I cooked while rice, spinach stew, corn beef stew, jollof rice, and plantains. It has been a while since I had a week where I practiced cooking all the foods already known to me. So I took this week to relax and cook these foods from memory. Additionally, in preparation for next week I started researching food with an adequate amount of potassium because II want to improve the health quality of the foods I can cook. This is what I found: http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20721159,00.html

REFLECTION 4.0

This week I decided to learn how to cook Corned Beef stew. I ascertained the recipe for the stew through a blog online. In order to ensure that the recipe is valid, I consulted my mother and she gave her approval to the recipe with some minor additions. Additionally, I have tried to take some of the unhealthy ingredients in my cooking out. This week I have been focusing on eliminating butter from dishes and in order to do so I have purchased coconut oil and avocados.Anyway proceeded to make the western African stew and I also made rice to eat with it. The stew and the rice came out really well and tasted fantastic. I found the meal very enjoyable and given that it was my first time coking the stew the quality was surprising. Usually it takes me a few tries before the food tastes how I want it to taste. However this time everything came together and went well I think this shows my progress as a cook and the development of my cooking skills and technique. Below is the link to the recipe I used.
https://kymberlyyvonne.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/ghanaian-corned-beef-stew-recipe/

REFLECTION 3.0

This week I planned to practice using new seasonings in foods that I have already learned how to cook. I began my preparation in class by researching different ways to season already known meal. I discovered a source that boasted 60 different ways I could season chicken. I was immediately intrigued with the Brown Sugar Chicken recipe that was offered. Personally I have no experience in eating or cooking such a dish prior to this week. Therefore, I was not sure how it should taste and how it would come together. I proceeded to gather the ingredients and follow the instructions as commanded by the recipe. I also enlisted some of my mom's support  and advice while cooking, but for the most part it was a solo effort. The chicken came out quite well boasting the qualities that the recipe said the final product would. Most importantly I was introduced to new spices such as brown sugar, paprika, and oregano; I hope apply this new knowledge of the characteristics of the spices aforementioned in future dishes.

REFLECTION 2.0

This week I learned how to cook spinach stew with plantains. However, I used a new approach to make use of the time alloted to me during class. I researched the dish in my class time and I was fortunate enough to stumble onto an article in New York Times referencing the dish I just learned how to cook. The article also gives insight on how to cook the dish and how it is being served in a Ghanain themed restaurant in New York. This restaurant really peeks my interest therefore, i am hoping I will go visit the restaurant sometime and evaluate their foods. I might potentially draw comparisons between the dish when I cook it versus when professionals cook it. Anyway, I proceeded to cooking the spinach stew with three plantains. I began by creating the stew therefore I warmed vegetable oil in the oven, added onions and seasoning, and after stirring the mixture until the onions became golden brown I added tomato paste. Upon finishing the stew, I boiled the plantains in salt water. Overall, the meal came out very well and I was able to cook and learn thins meal without my mother's assistance. The only problems with the meal were that the plantains weren't tender enough and spinach lacked strong flavor. However, I plan to overcome these problems by boiling the plantains longer and increasing the amount of spices I add to the spinach.
http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017255-ghanaian-spinach-stew-with-sweet-plantains

REFLECTION 1.0

In order to kick off this semester's proposal, I have decided to review and practicing cooking the foods that I have already learned. Overall, I cooked pancakes, jollof rice, turkey, grilled chicken, and white rice. I was able to cook these foods with a new degree of ease. In addition to that, my mom was able to get her hands on a new container of spice from Ghana. We refer to it as red pepper, and we added it to the jollof rice in an attempt to enhance the taste. After this addition, the joloof rice became more spice and it seemed to enhance the taste of the gravy used to create the jollof rice, which elevated the dish to new heights. As for the grilled the chicken, I tried adjusting the spices I normally use to season the meat by lessening the amount of basic chicken spice I use and increasing the amount of basil and thyme used in the chicken. Afterwards I simply proceeded to bake the chicken at 400 degrees fahrenheit. This variation in spices led to an unbalance in the chicken that I look to improve next time by adding more cumin and pepper. However, next week I will practice cooking spinach stew and white rice. Therefore, I will return to the chicken at a later date.

PROPOSAL 2.0

Last semester, I embarked on an adventure through the world of cooking. In this adventure I encountered many stumbling blocks that I needed to jump over. I leaped over theses blockades with ease and it has leaded me to two divergent paths. On one path I continue my cooking exploits and on the other I go on a completely different journey. I have decided to select the cooking path because I have not yet achieved my overall goal of being able to cook four different meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That goal was meant to represent my quality cooking abilities because I felt that once a person mastered four different meals for each meal of the day that that person would be fully capable of learning new meals with ease due to their enhanced skills . Given that I can only cook two different meals for each meal of the day, I felt that I have not achieved the mastery I am aiming for yet. Albeit when I made this goal, I thought that we would not have the option to change our 20% project midway through the year. Therefore, I will continue to pursue my dream of being a fully capable chef that can cook different foods and recipes without worry or difficulty.

FINAL SEMESTER REFLECTION

My  20% time goal was to be able to cook 4 meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I have not been able to achieve this goal, however I feel as though it is on the right course for success. The foods that I have learned up until now can serve as a good basis to expand upon and create a lot of different variations of. For instance white rice has endless potential because of all the different stews I can learn to create to eat with it. Therefore, if I choose to continue cooking as my 20% time project I can still reach my goal without any issue. Hopefully, I will make this decision by the conclusion of next week.

REFLECTION QUINCE

This week I finally started walking again and was ready to get back to action. Therefore I proceeded to learn how to cook to steak with my mother. Firstly me and mother cleaned the steak, then we continued to add spices, onions, etc into the steak. Afterwards we cooked the steak and when the steak was almost done we added barbecue sauce while putting the stove on simmer to let the sauce sink in to the steak. Then, me and my mother cooked mashed potatoes and to go with the steak. All the foods turned out great and was really fantastic to eat. All that is needed at this point is some more experience preferably cooking it by myself in order to ensure I will not be reliant on my mother.