IP&T 301: Personal Learning Report & Log

This semester, I chose to learn the skill of cooking for a large group by participating in a dinner group. In order to be part of the dinner group, I have had to cook a complete meal for 12 people once every three weeks. As I had never had to cook for this large of a group on my own before I joined this dinner group, I thought this would be a great new skill to focus on developing.

At first, it was very intimidating to have to cook such large amounts of food for my dinner group. In order to make sure I was successful with the meals I cooked, I always called my mom to get help planning appropriate meals and to get specific instructions for how to plan the meals, buy ingredients, put together the dishes, and cook/bake them. Because of her years of experience with cooking, my mom always seemed to have special directions for me to change something slightly in recipes to make them even better. My mom’s advice always helped me to make my dinners especially good, and she was usually able to give me pointers on how to get the meals done fairly quickly.

I always tried to be creative with my meals, and I made sure the dinners were balanced and nutritious. In order to do this, I consulted my mom and thought about incorporating each of the food groups into my meals. As the semester progressed, I found that I was getting better at estimating how much food I would need to make in order to have plenty for everyone, but not have too much left over. Also, it became easier for me to think of side dishes I could make that would go well with the main dish I had planned. I began to really enjoy cooking because I was able to make some delicious meals, and I started to have fun planning what I could make next.


Personal Learning Log

January 12: 3 hrs. – Grocery shopping, preparing and cooking food
January 31: 45 min. – Planning meal, grocery shopping
February 2: 2 ½ hrs. – Preparing and cooking food
February 20: 1 hr. – Planning meal, grocery shopping
February 23: 2 hrs. – Preparing and cooking food
March 14: 45 min. – Planning meal, grocery shopping
March 16: 2 ½ hrs. – Preparing and cooking food
March 28: 45 min. – Planning meal, grocery shopping
March 30: 2 hrs. – Preparing and cooking food

Total: 15 hrs, 15 min.