a Potluck

a p tluck

the process and systems of one plate brought to the students’ potluck february 13 spring 2014 grph 421 unl

Students bring their own dish *with some cultural or personal connection Each student was to spend around $10 in purchasing and preparing one item to bring to a class potluck. A focus was placed on all of the processes that go into making the item, especially the connection between food & water. The food items were meant to have some personal or cultural connection. Something you grew up with, a traditional food from your heritage. Maybe something your parents made.

Selection My mother grew up in the small town of Holland Nebraska. This was a small village created by Dutch immigrants around the time of the Homestead Act. My grandfather would still speak a little dutch. One tradition that this small town had during my mother’s life was around cake. Cake was abundant, a cultural norm expected at any social event. Sunday after church, holidays, friendly visits, or just a fun day, my grandma was always baking a cake! From this tradition that I heard of, I decided to make a coffee cake to share as part of my heritage and my upbringing.

When I decided on the item to bring I immediately turned to the cookbooks

Let’s cook up a stor The Culture of Food Seeing personal notes like this made me think of the different culture there was around food and sharing foods.

I remember cookbooks were very popular for fundraisers and gifts. I remember as a kid the first place to turn when making food were these neighborhood or local cookbooks where everyone shared a recipe. Now the internet allows us to look up any recipe we want. Maybe the tool that connects the world happens to isolate as well.

recipe

Coffee Cake

Topping

3/4 c. sugar

2 T. butter

2 T. shortening

4 T. sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 tsp. cinnamon

3/4 c. milk

1 tsp. flour

1 1/2 c. flour 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder 1/8 tsp. salt

Ingredients 3 cups

Milk

3 cups

Flour

.5 cups

Butter

1.5 cups

Sugar

Because all of the ingredients are standard things to have in an American household, I ended up not needing to go to the supermarket. This is a common food to see when we’re tight on money and all we have are these basic ingredients, bleached flour, granulated sugar, milk, butter, eggs. Almost all of the items were generic brands or brands that aren’t as well known, these products are inexpensive possibly aside from the milk.

Roberts milk was founded in Omaha, Is production still there today? How much water are they using?

Milk, flour, sugar and butter are the main ingredients. While making this, I didn’t have to directly come in contact with water. Instead I thought mostly of the dairy products and how much energy, food, water, it takes to maintain those animals. How precious is a cup of milk?

Estimated water usage for top ingredients Milk

375 Gallons of Water

Flour

141 Gallons of Water

Sugar

81 Gallons of Water

Total

597 Gallons of Water The U.S. Census stopped taking information on water usage in 1982

Baking Preheat Oven to 350째

1

Mix Wet Ingredients and Dry Ingredients in Separate bowls Sugar

Flour

Butter

Baking Powder

Egg

Salt

Milk

2

Slowly Combine

Batter

3

Pour into greased pan

Batter

4

Mix topping ingredients Butter Sugar Cinnamon

5

Flour

Evenly spread on top of batter, pull through with fork to mix Batter

Topping Topping

Batter

6

Topping

Topping Batter Topping Batter

Bake at 350째 for 30-40 minutes. Check the center.

finished

Schedule 8:00

wake up

9:00

start the oven find and begin mixing ingredients

9:50

pour into pan and put into oven

10:00

go to work to sign papers

10:45

return home check cake

10:50

take out of oven

11:00

drive to campus park downtown

11:30

meeting with professor

12:00

class

1:30

get out of class, walk to car

1:50

drive car to Woods building put cake into room

2:00

park car downtown

2:25

get to class, write about cake

2:30

class starts

2:45

Potluck begins

4:40

class ends begin cleanup

5:00

leave dish in class to get car

5:15

return to pick up dish

6:00

return home with leftovers

7:00

family eats rest for dinner

9:00

clean out pan

Making this item, I couldn’t help but think of how much an inconvenience it was to make food. Looking back though, isn’t that odd? Why is it that I no longer have time for food? Trying to make something for me meant losing hours at work, driving back and forth between places, it was hard to put this together, and I didn’t even have to pick up the groceries the day before.

Waste After the potluck we all began to seek out a trash can to throw away all of our plastic plates and forks. I found it ironic that we are talking about food waste and here we are in the act of it. Because we have an abundance of food it may not seem like a big deal, but to the rest of the world does it seem outrageous?

Also the way we transport, package, and prepare food creates waste. Is there another way to make something we do everyday less wasteful? More reusable plates and utensils maybe? What if having your own dishes with you were a cultural norm in the future?

SSchool chool W ork Work H obbies Hobbies FFamily amily FFriends riends FFood ood H ealth Health

Take-Away After the potluck I couldn’t help but think of the socialtal norms for food and how that could play a tremendous way in how observant we are of where our food comes from. I remember learning how in France, even at a young age, children are taught tablemanners and given traditional meals as part of their curriculum. Students in France usually have an hour for lunch at least.

Compare that to my high school which gave us less than 20 minutes to eat.

Food has always been treated as a secondary activity for me. Perhaps this type of mindset is the cause for disconnect in interest and important of food source and our humanly connection with food.

one slice = 33 gallons of water