HEC: FInal Practical for Semester 1

Lemonade Scones: Designed

Ingredients:

• 4 cups Edmonds Self Raising Flour
• 300ml cream (1 small bottle of cream)
• ¼ cup Chelsea White Sugar
• 300ml lemonade 
• ½ tsp salt
• Seasonal fruits 
• Caramelized peanuts

The recipe was one of the easiest if not the easiest by far. First, as any recipe requires, the Mise en Place, the ingredients were to be prepared efficiently. However, looking at some major factors it was not possible for me to create the amount in the given time. This resulted in halving the ingredients and continuing from there. The flour is placed in a large mixing bowl; as I started with dry ingredients, next I added the sugar and the salt.  The following were the wet ingredients both the cream and the lemonade, which then were mixed just until combined. 

The reason for only mixing until combined resides in the gluten formation. If the mixture was overmixed gluten would form which would result in tougher scones, not very ideal.

When the mixture was just combined it was taken and placed on a lightly floured table, it was then sprinkled with flour on top as well and flattened. Flattened to the height that was needed and reasonable. After, it was then cut into six pieces and baked in a preheated oven--220oC degrees- for around 20 mins, until pale golden.

Simultaneously which the scones began to cook, the designing products were being prepped. The fruits contained, golden and green kiwi fruit; cream, whipped added vanilla and sugar as well as caramelized nuts. Beforehand, the caramelized peanuts were prepped before the lesson, made by melting caster sugar on high heat, either by itself or a small amount of water. When the syrup is browned it is then left to cool for a small-time until just thicker and able to coat the peanuts without dripping. The fruits were cut in several ways to your preference. The cream, cooled and taken out [when the scones were cooled] added sugar and vanilla essence then whipped to "submission" until it forms stiff peaks. 

Just when the preparation of the fruits was finished, the scones were ready to be taken out, these were then cooled for decoration which too just around 5 mins. With that time, the cream was whipped.  There were then several applications into which each of the scones were designed. The scones were halves and then applied the designing products. 

With the taste of the main product, the scones, they were not as sweet as I would've thought. Which was perfect for adding more ingredients and complexity to the final product. The cream gave it the sweetness lacking from the scone, the fruits which were mixed and cut into different designs not only gave it the flavour and as well the texture it needed. With that, the final "cherry on top" the peanuts, salted and coated with caramel gave it a final factor, it was sweet but then, getting into the core, it gave a salty taste.

Hurumanu 6: Task 3: Mao Zedong

Following the 2nd task, the ultimate task, that being last. Similarly to the 2nd task, a poster is to be made, taht contains the figure's slogan. An image either accomplished online or even on paper, and again a slogan is to be placed to represent the figure. It can either be a famous word/s that they have said or their slogan political-wise. In this case, I continued on Mao Zedong; whereas in his slogan it was "Service to the people". I have enjoyed learning about the history that has either been substantial and has impacted the world in a great way or that have caused terrible chaos. The deeds that the heroes and villains did create this world. Which to my wonder, what if villains such as what I have been focusing, would have not existed, would it result in a better world or would it just prolong us from realising the mistake that they did?

Hurumanu 6: Facts Poster

Continuing with learning about "Heroes and Villians"; still with Mao Zedong, a poster is made about major events and his birth as well as his death. For this, I thought of an idea in which I can mix the information with the drawing. There are several characteristics of him that I have put in the poster. Not only that but major events, including him being the leader and chairman of china as well as the terrible "Great Leap" in which he became one if not the biggest mass murderer in history.  For the next tasks, I shall continue again focusing on Mao Zedong.

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HEC: Savouries

Savoury

Ingredients:

• A layer, sheet of puff pastry
• Egg/s
• 1 T of milk
• A pinch of salt and pepper
• Ham/bacon
• Cheese

This is quite a basic recipe that you can really add anything into. [Mise En Place]The method first is absolute, cutting out the pastry and placing then onto the tray. The pastry then needs to be called before use; simultaneously the other ingredients to be prepped for use. If ham is used it needs to be cut or tore into small pieces that would fit in the pastry. Vegetables such as peas, corn, tomatoes can also be used--cut-- as well as cheese that would then be grated, sliced and placed.  

The eggs, milk, salt and pepper would then need to be beaten, again this is quite a versatile recipe in which you could add more than simple seasonings. After you have prepped and the pastry had cooled, it would then need to be taken out and the other ingredients are placed. For our savoury, we used the ingredients above but had multiplied it by 2 as we used 2 trays which all had contained 12 cuts of pastry. 

The cheese was placed as well as the ham, for all of the pastry, while the one then poured the mixture of egg into the pastry which is placed into the tray just shallower than a cupcake tray.  Taking into the account in which the pastry, as well as the eggs, would rise, the amount of mixture is needed to be measured and estimated for it to not overflow.  Then it would need to be baked--until golden brown-- at a temperature of 200oC degrees, which was preheated.

The end result was a product that was flaky and had several wonderful, golden layers. The egg mixture itself risen quite profoundly as well, caramelizing in the process. This brought up a precious visual that invites and fills the eye with pleasure. The texture, was as seen flaky,  the flavour enhanced by the basis of flavour--salt-- had an exceptional flavour. Taking into account the cheese as well as the ham that was put in, it blended nicely. However, an advancement in the taste would have been using bacon or much fattier meat than ha which would've produced better moisture keeping the product from being too dry. Aside from that this much open recipe gave me more ideas into making other products.

Hurumanu 6: Heroes and Villians

In Hurumanu 6, we began to look at political figures that have greatly affected the world. For this, we had to classify our chosen figure into either a hero or villain. A list was provided for us to choose our figure, in the activity I chose a villain, a man who is well known as one is not the most vicious mass murders in history. Mao Zedong the previous Chairman of China; the founding father of the People's Republic of China (PRC). From choosing our figures we then looked at making a time-line that provided a history of their significance as well what they had done to impact the world. 

BST: Opportunity Cost

This week in our Business Studies, we started to learn about opportunity costs. To simply put, an opportunity cost is losing other choices when picking an absolute choice. This can be seen when we purchase an object; a scenario would be us having a vast amount of choices in a large store. In the store, we have 3 that we like the most. However, we have only the budget to be able to buy only a singular item from the three that we have picked. This becomes a dilemma, which we then need to cancel and look at what we like the most out of the three. When we have picked our ultimate choice, which will be, in this case, one of the objects that we have liked the most; we can then further classify teh order in which we like those items. Knowing which one of the three that we liked the second; we can then call that item our opportunity cost. It is the cost in which we lost with the reasoning of picking the one that we like the most, almost like a sacrifice. Picking one over the other at the cost of that being able to buy the other.

HEC: Pikelets

Pikelets

Ingredients:

1c Plain flour

1t Baking soda

1/4 t of salt (1/8 t)

1 Egg

1/4 c of sugar

3/4 c Milk

The method of making the pikelets was much like that of making a pancake. However, unlike pancake batter, the batter that is used in making a pikelet. First much like all other recipes and produce, the Mise En Place was completed before the other steps. There was a slight change in the recipe as seen above; the salt was deemed as too much and so was adjusted into 1/8 t.  Thereafter it was the start of making the batter.

The egg and the sugar were beaten, continued to be beaten until the mixture was pale and thick.  The colour was to be almost white. Simultaneously the other dry ingredients were mixed and sifted together; as well as then the milk measured. After the said step, next was pouring both the wet ingredients onto the dry ingredients and mixed just until they have fully combined. Over mixing the batter would make it so that gluten is produced, resulting in tough pikelets.

Finally, the ultimate step, cooking the pikelets; a pan preheated into medium heat was given butter. The butter was then spread using parchment paper; the batter was then dropped using a spoon. Previous to making the 'consistent' size pikelets. Testing was first done, the testing was to know and observe if the heat of the pan was enough. After the 'test' pikelet, we began to know the right temperature and have then started to make the consistent, lightly larger pikelets. The stove was used to our advantage; changing the temperature from time to time to stay at the prime level of heat.

After the cooking have been completed, then began the sensory evaluation. The taste of the pikelet itself was not far from a pancake, it was slightly sweet yet a balance of saltiness.  The texture in which would vary from the cooking time was consistent, it was soft, almost melt in the mouth. The colour was enticing and was quite beautiful. I would love to make them again in the future.

HEC: Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies

Ingedients

• 100g of butter
• 1 1/2 cup of flour
• 1/2 of baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup of white sugar
• 1/2 cup of soft brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup of chocolate chips

This week on our practical lesson in HEC we had made chocolate chip cookies. The method for the making of the cookies was quite basic. First, the Mise en Place was needed to be done and done it was before any more process. After the Mise en Place, the first of the process was beginning; it was melting the butter [in the microwave] and then creaming it with both of the sugars.
However, it did take a few moments to melt the butter; in that time it was decided, quite quickly to do the next process. We began to mix all the dry ingredients together as well as beating the eggs with the vanilla extract. When the melting of the butter was accomplished, it was creamed with the butter (which was observed in the final product, the mixture was not creamed as much as it needed). Simultaneously the egg mixture was then mixed into the dry ingredients; subsequently, the butter mixture was added as well.

Beforehand, the tray in which the dough/cookies would be cooked in was line with parchment/baking paper. The dough was then separated into 12 pieces as directed by our teacher. They were rolled in balls of approximately even sizes--we quickly found out after it had been cooked that, it was not rolled compact enough-- and placed them on the tray. After they had been placed, they were then slightly flattened using a fork to aid the dough into spreading. They had been then inserted into a preheated oven of 180 oC for around 10 minutes and then adjusted into fanbake, for approx 7-8 minutes.

A mentioned in the earlier text, the butter mixture may have not been as creamed as it should be, resulting in several visible sugar crystals. Again in an earlier text, they were rolled not as compact as they should have been, the end product was visually like oatmeal cookies per se.  The taste of the cookies however, it wasn't changed at all. Yet, it should be noted that I do not quite like very sweet products, and so, the sweetness of the cookies did interfere with how I liked the product. The texture was quite to my liking; the rough edges that were like craters on the moon did product I would say more crunch to the cookies. Personally, I like softer cookies on the inside at least, at though the cookies may have been 'too crunchy' it still provided softness while still warm.
Though there was inconsistency with how we approached the method, with it we learned a valuable lesson with baking cookies. That would be our next step into knowing, and being able to bake cookies and other products better.

Hurumanu 6: People Power - Types of Governments

Term 2--this term--we began to look at the 'Types of Governments'; this subject which is called 'People Power' we look at several political, world-changing topics, people, etc. For one of our rotation, we started looking at the 'Types of Governments' that exist throughout the world. 7 types were chosen and were presented by the teacher to be the main focus of our presentations. It included: Democracy, Monarchy, Dictatorship, Communism, Totalitarianism, Oligarchy and Anarchy. Each are classifications of the governments of every country in the world.
There were several activities to do, previously, before making this blog. Examples of tasks are looking at each type of governments and finding their definitions, looking at the countries and their leaders that match each of the government types, etc, concluding in as mentioned, a blog.

Learning political knowledge gives us insight and further information for us to be more cautious of the world. Having been learning more about this knowledge will give us power, in terms of knowledge. I enjoy looking and learning more about political knowledge, it gives me the interest to find out the "good and bad" of politics, the evil and corruption that we often not see. However, looking at some who have changed the world for the better, I regain hope for the future.



Slide 9: Task was about looking and finding examples for each of the types of government, specifically, 5 for each type of governments and we then are to use a map and mark each one. It is to be completed using FACKTS [Frame, Arrow, Colour, Key, Title and Scale]; an acronym that states what a map needs.

There were several tasks that we not included specifically in the presentation, however, they have been completed inside this doc.
Link

Hurumanu 7 : P.E - Table tennis and Juggling

For three of the weeks that we have spent this term on P.E; we have currently been doing coordination practice as well as table tennis. There were tasks for each of the activities, for juggling/coordination practice. We first started to use scarves and use one of our hands to juggle the two scarves until we have reached a score of 10. The next task for the same activity, using the same equipment we then added an additional scarf; three scarves now using both hands. Likewise, we had to achieve a score which is the 10 as well. Further tasks were included in the juggling, moving forward the next task was looking at doing the exact juggle, yet, using balls. Again first with one hand then the next with another.


Further tasks were presented, as mentioned not so long ago; we also had a choice of doing the activity which is table tennis. Previous to playing the game, we were given and explained with the rules. Before long we began to play, with only being introduced to the game, we did not yet start at a goal. However, in the following sessions, we were then presented with looking at playing by ourselves; the task being able to spar with a wall up to again, a score of 10. After being achieved the goal, moving on, was looking at sparring with now a partner. But this time the score was raised to 20. More sessions followed, teachers then challenged us to see up to how much we can spar non stop with a partner. (We reached 46).

Both of the activities that we have been given the choice into were not of my norm. I have not tried to do much of them before, however, these following weeks have given and taught me skills. Steadily I improved. They pose--the juggling especially-- a challenge that needed much resilience. Constantly I got better, which proved that practice makes you better.
Concluding this experience [that is still ongoing]; I felt that doing these practices and looking at new experiences has taught me more than just only the game. It has also taught me about being more resilient, practising and trying new experiences. This has been an insightful experience, and I am looking forward to further pursuing more about this topic/s.

Hurumanu 5: Science

This week, in Hurumanu 5, science. We continued to learn further about energy, in this we learn the many different types of energy. What kinds of energy can we see? Some notable examples that we use and see every day, is light energy, which enables us to see, energy--specifically light from the sun. Kinetic energy the energy released when we do any movement, walking, sprinting, running, throwing are all releasing kinetic energy. Energy is all around us, it only takes a small observation to see and realize the many types of energy that are present.

Link- PDF