Among your menu planning goals:
- sufficient quantity/calories
- nutritious
- withstand limited refrigeration
- tastes good
- easy to prepare
- offers variety
- presentation
In this blog, please address the following questions:
Planning
- How well did your recipes address your goals? Identify those goals accomplished, and those that could be better addressed next time.
- How well did your shopping list reflect what you actually purchased?
Preparation
- Comment on the quality of your meals.
- How could you prepare the meals differently in the future that might better achieve your goals? Consider everything from purchasing ingredients and repackaging to packing and cooking.
- Did all members of your group have equal responsibility in the preparation? Why or why not?
Presentation
- Were your meals well presented?
- What extra steps did you take to provide an appealing presentation?
- How did you incorporate your theme into your presentation?
- How did this experience live up to your expectations?
- What were the high points of the trip? What were the low points?
- How do you feel about your nautical navigation skills as a result of this experience?
- Compare sailing the Pedagogy to sailing the Flying Junior dinghies.
- What is your impression of the windjammer tourism industry here in Maine?
- How do you think you performed individually on the expedition? How do you think you performed as a group?
I think that overall our recipes addressed most of our goals very well. We had plenty of food, it was all fairly easy to prepare, tasted good, had plenty of calories and for the most part was presented nicely. What we could have done a little differently would be add more color. For example more vegetables in a salad or even add a little color in a desert which none of us had for our dinners. I was disappointed that I didn’t think of that before the trip. I believe that our shopping list reflected what we purchased very well. The only difference would be that we upgraded some of our ingredients to be better quality (local food, organic, name brand).
ReplyDeleteFirst I want to comment on our breakfasts. Cinnamon French toast with ham and pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes with orange juice were our two breakfasts. They were both served with coffee, tea, or hot chocolate with butter and real maple syrup. They were both delicious, nutritious, and served well. Our lunches were presented nicely and had options in case that you didn’t like being served (same as breakfast having oatmeal). Our dinners reflected all of our goals but, if we would have had rough seas the chowder could have been really hard to pull off. Everything that we had for refrigerated items fit well in the cooler and stayed at 40 degrees the entire trip. Some of our meals had a theme but some didn’t seem to. I guess it is because they are just local meals that we enjoy. Next time we need to make sure that we always have a back up meal on standby in case someone does not like what is being served. We should have dessert to really have the wow factor too. Everyone had equal responsibility in the preparation maybe not on the boat but in the classroom and in the supermarket it really showed. On the boat there just wasn’t enough room in the galley to have two people work on the meal.
Lisa Leighton
Part II.
ReplyDeleteI believe that all of our meals were presented well visually but could have been presented better verbally. We need to have more confidence when talking to people in a group. And we need to communicate in a clear way to people. I tried to always keep things neat, organized, and have options. I tried to give some history on my dish before it was served just to shed a little light on why I was serving it. I talked about what sailors used to eat, how they ate it, and what was available to them. Clam chowder was just easy for me to reflect all those things back to plus making it a good local themed dish as well.
This trip surpassed my expectations. I have no interest in sailing and I thought that I would be sea sick the whole time. But after being on the boat I realized that just being out on the water in a sailboat of Eastport was a great experience due to the history and tradition of the area that I am from. It made me realize that I really like being out on the water and am looking forward to learning more about our fishing history. The high points of the trip for me was every time we were healing up. It was a really cool experience. I thought that I would be nervous or scared but I really felt safe the whole time and I liked pushing the envelope. The low points was probably trying to maneuver around 8 people on a really small boat. I can see how people’s tempers could flare after 4 days of rough weather on a small boat. My nautical navigation skills are a lot better now and using the skills that we learned in class took on a whole new importance while we were out on water. I liked sailing on the Pedagogy way more than sailing the Flying Junior dinghies. I like how it is set up differently, working as a team is better, and not having to bend over the whole time is always good (the dinghies are too small!). The windjammer industry here in Maine could be huge! If people only knew what they were missing they would be more likely to go out on a trip. I think that my performance on the trip was fair. I could have done better with my nautical navigation, communication, and sailboat terms. I did try to do everything to the best of my ability and I think that with time I could really improve all around. Sailing is something that I now understand and have an appreciation for. As a group I feel that we preformed great. We really seem to work well with one another. We did everything that we had to together and did it well. We seem to function well under pressure which is good to know.
Lisa Leighton
I think we did a good job addressing most of our goals when it came to the food, but there were certain things that we will certainly learn from. The food tasted amazing and for the most part was easy to prepare. I thought we had a pretty good variety of choices for people in case they wanted to eat something else. There was definitely enough calories, but I feel that we could have consumed plenty of calories while limiting the carb intake. I feel that we could have took a little more time considering nutrition because literally every meal we had consisted of a high carb intake and I know carbs are good, but not when its from bread, pasta or starchy foods. I mean, sure, those carbs are okay in moderation, but it gets a little ridiculous when every meal consists of bad carbs. I did, however, like the fact that we had some form of fruit and vegetables in basically every meal, but I think there could have definitely been more of them. I thought some people did a good job presenting, but for the most part, people either winged it, or didn't present at all. I know I need to work on that because I was one of the people who didn't really present my meal. I think we bought everything that was on our shopping list, but when we realized we had a lot more money, we upgraded our items to healthier choices which is always nice. I think the quality of the meals were excellent, but next time I think we should eat more nutritious foods. I think everyone in the group had equal responsibility. When we were preparing our meals, there were times when we couldn't really help each other due to the fact that the kitchen was tiny. I think Damon and I took equal responsibility when we were making the pancakes because one of us would be making the mix and the other person would flip the pancakes and then we would switch off. Damon and I didn't present our meal that well because everyone else was sailing, so we just made sure everyone got as much pancakes as they could eat and enough coffee. I was really surprised when I realized I was actually enjoying myself on the pedagogy because I'm not really interested in sailing, but that was a very awesome experience. The high points for me would definitely have to be the fact that I plotted a successful dead reckoning course that got us to our destination for the day. The biggest thing about plotting the course was the fact that I had to plot it almost perfect or we would run into a rock that was only three feet underwater. This made me feel godly. I have to say that my other favorite part of the trip was going through the Sal; that was an awesome experience. Parts of the trip I didn't like was the fact that you couldn't just walk away if someone was getting on your nerves. No matter what, you were forced to be around people for the whole trip which is something I am not too fond of. I feel very confident with my nautical navigation skills after this trip. This trip definitely helped build confidence in myself. I think this trip also helped with my judgement. I really liked sailing on the pedagogy, but I absolutely dread sailing on those tiny sailboats. The only thing I like about the small sailboats is the fact that If I capsize I can easily get back in. I was surprised about all the history we have in Maine with sailboats. I think its cool that tourists come to Maine to go sailing because then they will respect sailing a lot more and they will also learn a lot about Maine. I think I performed really well on the sailing trip. I feel that I did very well at navigating and I believe that I surprised myself. I was pretty nervous about being on helm, but after awhile I finally let it go and was going to go through places that I didn't feel comfortable with at all on a sailboat. I think we have a very tight group and we all perform well together. I don't think we argued hardly at all during that trip which is impressive when you have 8 people on that boat. I think were all like a family now and it would take a lot to start conflict between any of us. -Dallas
ReplyDeleteI believe that the food we had in this trip met all the goals we had everything tasted really good there was usually enough for seconds there was a good diversity of food I thought everything looked and smelled really good. Well I think that the recipes we had for this trip met our goals if we could cook it before the trip we did we kept the amount of food we needed to a minimum and there was a very small amount of food that went to waste. Our shopping list was kept to a minimum we bought all the food on our list we came in under our spending limit witch was 8 dollars per person per day we then up graded some of the items like real maple syrup and butter. I believe we all had kind of an equal part in making a meal weather it was breakfast, lunch or dinner it was hard having two people in the galley to cook so that’s why I said “We all kind of had an equal part” if one person couldn’t cook they might do dishes or help prepare the food. I thought that the food presentation was pretty good for where we were and what we had. Lunch was easy to make look good all I had to do is cut the tuna wrap in half wrap it in a paper towel but on the other hand the tuna wrap was very hard to talk about theme wise because it’s not really a meal that’s just in this area the tuna could be from anywhere the wraps are made out of state and the lettuce was picked probably out in California. My experience on the Pedagogy was awesome I thought that I’d be sick the whole trip I wasn’t I was having fun the entire trip especially when we were hauled up and looking down in the galley and there’s people down there trying to keep the coffee on the stove I got a good laugh at that I feel a lot more confident in my nautical navigation it took me a little bit to get used to dead reckoning and set and drift but once I got it I could do it and be confident about it. The high point of the trip to me was seeing the whales I’ve never seen them that close before or getting to be at the helm while we went through the old sow. The low point of the trip would probably be doing set and drift exercises I could not get my head around it for at least 5 minutes and that bugged me for about a half an hour after I was done. Like I said before my nautical navigation skills improved greatly during our trip it did take a while to get used to setting down taking a lat and long reading plotting yourself on the chart and then make a dead reckoning plot it took a bit to say I could do it confidently. I really liked sailing the pedagogy it was a lot more forgiving than the Flying Junior dinghies if you make a mistake in those little boats they let you know right then and there the pedagogy was a lot more forgiving and I liked that. What rob told us about the windjammer industry didn’t surprise me. My grandmother used to make my father drive her down there and in turn I’d have to go because he had to go so I knew about the industry for quite a while now but it was cool to hear it from a captain. I think I did ok on the boat I tried to do everything I could and anything to keep my mind on something so I wouldn’t get sick. As a group I think we did a great job together we worked and planed like we’ve been together for longer than we have been we all got along really well for being that close together for three days.
ReplyDeleteBrent Russell
Part 1
ReplyDeletePlanning
My meals appeared to have sufficient quantity. Using my self as a gauge I was satisfied after the the meal and not hungry until the next meal time. The breakfast sandwiches did not have a fruit or vegetable. I had intended to make OJ to go with it but did not because we where going to be packing up to leave on the trip. Both the wraps and the carbonara did have vegetables and they both seemed to be fairly balanced. The carbonara needed some refrigeration as did the cheese for the wraps but it was within the limited refrigeration. The breakfast sandwiches where cook at the OAC and thus needed no refrigeration on the boat. Everyone who ate the meals I made appeared to like them and I thought they tasted good. The carbonara would have been a challenge had we not pre cooked the bacon and chicken but because we had pre cooked them along as well as pre breaking and seasoning the egg it made the meal very easy. The other two meals where both easy. My cooking is what it is and I did try focus on presentation some but how the food tastes has always been more important to me. I did end up purchasing pretty much exactly what I planed to buy. I switched the cheese from Cheddar to Monetary Jack for my wraps.
Preparation
I think the quality of my Breakfast and dinner where very good. Everyone Seemed to enjoy the breakfast sandwiches on Saturday morning And the dinner Saturday night. The quality of the ingredients for the lunch wraps where good but the quality of the finished product could have been better.
Doing all the pre preparing for my dinner made making it greatly easier and I do not think there was anything that I could have done to make it easier on the boat. My Lunch did not go as smoothly as I could have liked because the ingredients did not stay in the wrap as well as I would have hoped. In the future I would have done a different meal.
For my breakfast and dinner I prepared them both solo. For the breakfast sandwiches it was because I volunteered to get the the OAC early to make them for everyone because we had an extra breakfast and I thought it would be a nice start to the trip. For Dinner all that needed to be done was cook pasta and saute some onions and peas, then mixing it all together. I did not see the need for 2 people for this meal and the kitchen was small so I did it by myself. When making lunch with Brent I think it was pretty evenly split.
Part 2
ReplyDeletePresentation
I’m not really sure if my meals where well presented. I made up the breakfast Sandwiches and had them ready when people arrived. Every one seamed to like the Breakfast Sandwiches and they looked good to me. When it came to the Dinner of Chicken Carbonara the presentation was more in explanation of its back story for me and telling people what was in it. But it was still just a pasta dish in a pot and I let the flavor do most of the work. With the lunch wraps I tried to do something with the presentation but I could have worked better. The only meal I did anything for presentation was the lunch wraps where I cut them and Brent Wrapped them with paper towels. When serving the Breakfast sandwiches I said they where an American creation I did this a little tongue-n-check to have some sort of theme and presentation. As for the dinner I told the story of how I had first had it and have passed it on. The theme if I had to pick one was my favorite good food passed on to good people. The lunch theme was Maine sardines. We had already talk about how sardines had been a large Maine industry in the past and I went with that.
Sailing
Other than not having as much wind as I would have like and not getting to sail down the coast it was pretty much what I was expecting. I was expecting to be on a sailboat in close quarters for a few days. I think the high point was when we got to really sail and cruise along at good speed under sail. The low point would have to be the amount of time we had to use the diesel engine. I am feeling pretty good about my about my Navigation skills. I enjoyed seeing the real world application of the navigation even as stressful as it could be. Sailing the Pedagogy was a lot different then the Fjs but it still used the same fundamental skills. With the FJ ever thing you do effects the boat from the way to sit to how hard you pull the tiller. The Pedagogy has much less response and even though I found myself trying to balance out the boat while at the helm it had no effect. The windjammer industry sounds interesting and I might want to take a look into it more but I'm going to think about things a bit more. I preformed as well as I could hope and the group work well together even though navigation lead to some stressful times.
Conclusion
Over all I feel it was a successful trip that I thoroughly enjoyed.
-Alex