Cooking for Camp and Field; Friday, First Period [06/18].

[chef_chocobro]

It was looking like it might be a bit of a warm day that Friday, but the nice thing about this class being held in the morning was that it was still quite cool and pleasant when they'd all be gathering at their camping site in the preserve and Ignis appeared to be in a relatively pleasant mood that morning, which meant he was slightly more visibly so than usual.

"Good morning, everyone," he greeted them with a nod and that small fraction more of a smile than he may have otherwise. "I hope you've all brought a bit of a sweet tooth with you this morning, because I thought today we could focus on a few things that are a little more fun to bring to camp than the usual fare, especially since, sometimes, the reason one is attempting to make do out in the wilderness can be rather serious and heavy, and bit of frivolity at the end of the day can help boost morale and even contribute to comaraderie among the camp. After all, few things bring people together quite like food does.

"For those of you who might not be familiar with the concept of the s'more," he continued, "it is a classic campfire treat that is simple and easy enough for almost the most inexperienced of cooks."

And yes, he fully expected this class to prove him wrong on that statement. He pretty much had his phone prepped and ready with the fire department's number in his pocket.

"The classic s'more," he said, pulling an actual retractable toasting fork from his front pocket and extending it out as he reached into a bag of marshmallows standing by, "is simple: you roast a marshmallow or two," he plucked the marshmallows onto the prongs and then held it into the fire, "being careful not to burn them too much, ideally to a nice golden brown without any significant char..." He paused a moment until they reached that point, then lifted them out of the fire with a proud smile for that perfect roasting on them, "and then you simply put the marshmallow between two pieces of graham cracker with a little bit of chocolate," which of course he had on the ready so all he had to do was pick that up and slip the marshmallows into the little treat as he removed them from the fork, "and voila. You have a s'more.

"Now, of course, I know that for one of you," a nod to Tisarwat, "foods eaten with ones hands are best to be avoided, even in the face of the convenience of doing so when out in the wilds, and I would certainly not leave it at just a simple s'mores recipe," although maybe he should!, "so we'll also be adapting a recipe for s'mores bars that will be a little more utensil friendly, and to compliment our sweet smorgasbourg so far, a little red wine hot chocolate, perfect for those chillier nights at camp, although, considering the current weather, seems a little far removed from our experience thus far.

"So, with that, let us move on to our recipes..."

Blacksmithing Basics; Friday, Third Period [06/18].

[special_rabbit]

"Welcome back, everyone." Amaya greeted the class with her usual stout nod and the focusing pound of her fist into her palm. "We've still got a lot more work to do on our handles, so let's get right into it! Where we left off last week, hopefully you'll have marked where you need to cut your block to form, so we'll get right into that. You'll want to be careful, of course, and take your time with the cutting so you've got a nice shape ready to go for when we spruce it up a little. If you're having some trouble, just let me know, I could probably saw out a shape blindfolded, which I'm not actually going to do because that's just dangerous and ill-advised, but, point is...we'll get you there.

"And once you've got the general shape carved out, we'll be refining it with some rasping and smoothing, sanding and staining, keeping in mind the curves and angles that'll suit the hand that'll eventually be holding the dagger. By the end of the class, I suspect we'll have some rather nice looking handles to go with our nice looking knives, and then next week, the finishing touches!

"I'll go over some of the basic techniques for a refresher before we begin, and then we'll just get to it!"

Cupcake Skirmishes, Period 3, Friday 6/18

[stykera]

As always, cupcake class was held in the Home Ec room. Where else would you bake?

“Today,” Stark said from his usual spot at the front of the room, “I hope everyone likes chocolate.” If you didn’t like chocolate, Stark didn’t want to hear about it. “Because I have a lot of chocolate.” He stopped, considering the box in front of him. “At least I think I do? It was chocolate the last time I looked but you never know here. Good, yes, still chocolate.”

“I have dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, and ruby chocolate,” Stark continued, holding examples up each type in turn. “I didn’t know there was that fourth type, before. It’s new. It tastes different. There’s enough here if you want to try some first.” There was enough of every type of chocolate for eating. Stark wasn’t a monster.

“I have recipes for each type. You could try changing the frostings around.” Mix it up a little, kids! It might be fun. And delicious.


Ruby chocolate cupcakes
White chocolate cupcakes
Milk chocolate cupcakes
Dark chocolate cupcakes


“I can help, if you like.” Or you can just eat chocolate, honestly. It’s not like Stark would stop anyone from doing that.

Paintball!, Friday, June 18, 2021 [6th period]

[imafuturist]

Today the paintball class was back at the abandoned campsite, and they were just in time to see Steve put away the hoses he'd used to turned the ground extremely wet and muddy. So enjoy those mosquitoes, too, gang.

"We have a mud course today!" he said with way too much enthusiasm.

"Because we have to keep that skill curve up, right?" Tony said, waving away a cicada that just fell in his direction. Ugh, he really hated these years.

"You have all really improved," Steve said with that earnest sincerity he had, "so we have to keep upping our game, too."

Another cicada flopped to the ground and into that mud pit. "Consider the mud and the bugs natural obstacles here," Tony added.

"And we've brought back the paintball balloons," Steve said, "along with the modified Nerf guns."

So there was zero chance of walking away clean today.

Practical Philosophy, Friday

[endsthegame]

There was an Ender sitting on the lawn, along with his customary sandwiches and drinks. He wasn't looking at them, though.

He was on his back, looking up at the sky.

"People arrive here from all corners of the multiverse," he said, once everyone had settled in. "From the medieval and further part, to places so far in the future we can barely dream of them. For me, growing up, space was an unknown danger where evil aliens lurked; it was a place I lived and learned and suffered, with zero gravity as familiar to me as the regular kind."

That was about as much as any of them were ever likely to hear about Ender.

"Coming here, where our feet were rooted to the ground and space was merely an unknown - that was strange. I had to adjust my being to the place I was in, and its new rules."

He considered a passing cloud.

"It makes you wonder how much the simple geography of our early days shapes us," he said. "For some of you, this might be the first steps you take outside of the world you knew. For others, that sensation might be familiar. Banal, even. Has coming here changed you? Has going somewhere else before that changed you instead? How much of who you are now is intrinsically linked to the place you first consciously existed in?"