Cream Cheese Cookies

When viewing the video of myself doing my demonstration, I realized I could have used more explanation as to why Cream Cheese Cookies pertained to the class. In my demonstration, I had only said that the cookies were easy to make and it was a good homemade treat. However, I have to say the my demonstration was well organized. It is easy to organize a demonstration dealing with a recipe.

While presenting, I felt in the beginning that I was enthusiastic about the cookies, but towards the end, my voice became a little bland. However, throughout the demo, I did have good volume and kept lots of eye contact with my audience. I also used my hands and used the visual aids I had throughout.

I feel that my visual aids were very effective. I brought all of the ingredients and utensils needed. The audience seemed to like that I had the visual aids.

I would choose a recipe again for a demonstration. They are very easy to prepare fore. However, I would have like to have more of an intro and conclusion to my speech and would have liked to actually make my product. Overall, I just think that I needed to prepare more for my speech. I didn't put a lot of time into it, besides making the cookies, and I needed to figure out how to make the speech more interesting.

Peer Response 1

Athavi's Space summarizes Pollan's argument about "food" being made up of nutrients and his warning about even though processed foods are supposed to be better for one's health, they really come with many health risks. She also brings up obesity, which is shown on one of her links that the U.S. is the most obese country. Many other countries still cook many of their traditional foods, which are made from fresh, natural foods, not processed. Our country is relying more on foods that are easy to prepare and we are a country, in my opinion, is lazy. Thus, that is why we make easy food and are obese. She also brings up that we listen so much to society and nutritionist. Commercials on TV show buff, hot individuals who got that way because they basically ate nutrients rather than actual meals. People are becoming so obsessed with their image. Maybe people become obese because they are so stressed by society that food makes them feel better.

I agree with Athavi's article for the most part. I myself enjoy my mom's home cooking. Coming from German decent, she has learned many of the recipes from her mom, which are mostly German traditions. However, Athavi states in her article that margarine is healthier than butter and links to an article that shows that. I feel that this statement defeats the purpose of her argument about going back to the way our ancestors cooked. Margarine is a processed food, while butter, even though some butter has additives, is natural.

Post 2: Prepare a meal

Many college students, especially freshman, eat meals that are already prepared for them or can be microwaved. For me, I prefer to make my own meals because once I'm in my dorm, I really don't want to walk over to Gordon Commons to get food. I go home every weekend and, when my mom goes grocery shopping, she usually picks me up some microwave meals and snacks to munch on. The microwave meals are usually ones that are close to my mom's home-cooked meals. All I have to do is throw them in the microwave for a couple minutes and enjoy the food. Tonight I had a Cafe' Steamers meal. I ate it with a plastic fork, so all I had to do was throw everything away when I was done. I must say that it was very good. Meals need to have flavor. Even though Cafe' Steamers are low calorie, they are very delicious.

I have to agree with Pollan when he states in his book that America has accepted "a flood of damaging innovations...such as low-fat processed food." Food that was eaten in the 19th century was recipes that came from Europe with the immigrants. Families cooked meals that had their cultural background, which didn't include processed foods. Most of the food they age would be considered unhealthy by today's standards. However, those families sat down and ate their meals, enjoying each others' company and the food. The healthiest foods on the planet are all basic foods that can be bought at the grocery store. They are not processed and very tasty. Using them in recipes can create great meals and by themselves, some would be delicious snacks. I guess I could say that I do try to choose healthier foods myself, but they have to taste good because food should be enjoyed.