Ergonomics

Tonight I had to make dinner again as it was my turn to cook. I had decided to make bacon and egg pie which my mother makes a lot at home. I wanted to make this because it reminds me of home cooking, and I have been trying to introduce my flatmates to some new easy foods. Mums bacon and egg pie is the only one that I will eat, because no-one makes it quite like she does. I had never made bacon and egg pie myself before now so I had to ring mum a few times during the week to clarify what I needed for it and make sure I got the right pastry. When it came to rolling the pastry out, I realised that we don’t actually have a rolling pin at the flat! But a round glass jar of tomato sauce did the trick nicely. I rolled it out to fit the baking dish, checking it how I used to watch mum do. When I was making the pie I really felt a great connection to mum, like I was following in her steps, doing something that she had taught me first hand. I felt kind of proud to be making it for my friends/flatmates, especially because one of them had never had bacon and egg pie before!

The kitchen in my flat is quite small and isn’t particularly well set out. There isn’t much bench space, especially where there are dishes around. It would be helpful if the kitchen was a bit larger, however Inkeles and Schencke (1994) state that people should realise that kitchens don’t need to be large to be economic. I agree with this, but my flat kitchen would be better if it were set out differently and a little larger. The benches aren’t very deep so this made it harder to roll out the pastry big enough. I overcame this by clearing everything from the bench and turning the pastry round all the time so it would fit. This isn’t how I would normally do it but I had to make do with the little bench space I had. The way I put the pie together is just how mum does it. It’s not from a recipe book, it’s just the way mum taught me and it’s the way I like it. When I was younger I remember mum having to make the pie with different ingredients at each end because one of us kids didn’t like one thing or another. I had to do the same with this pie because one of my flatmates doesn’t like tomatoes so I only put them in half of the pie. I felt really proud of myself when the pie came out of the oven looking amazing, so golden brown. It was really tasty and my flatmates loved it! Cheers mum J

References

Inkeles, G. & Schencke, I. (1994). Ergonomic living: How to create a user-friendly home and office space. Fireside. New York.