Delicious in Dungeon, Tuesday, Period 6

[sailor_meshi]

Today, the class would find themselves on the second level of the dungeon, which involved a lot of swaying rope bridges strung between impossibly tall trees and overgrown spires and towers from what appeared to be a fairy tale castle. Most of the walls looked a little worse for wear, as if they had once been covered by something - say, gold for a purely hypothetical example - and then had that covering torn away. Again. Hypothetically. And for all that the level was indoors, there was sunshine that streamed down around them and bright natural light.

Because magic was how.

"One of the types of monsters that this level's got that the rest don't are man-eatin' plants," Senshi said casually, his axe slung easily over his back. "That's because there's enough sunlight and occasionally rain that really lets 'em thrive up here. This is also where we gotta start bein' careful about sustainability. The Walkin' Mushrooms an' Huge scorpions aren't really in any danger of gettin' killed off, cause they've got plenty of places to hide when they're not chasin' adventurers, but the plants are right there in the open and once adventurers know what to look for, they'll start killin' and burnin' the lot of 'em. Hmph." Senshi very clearly did not approve. "So if you're ever actually in a dungeon with them, you're gonna wanna spread your harvestin' among a buncha plants if possible, rather than just denudin' a single one. Once you know how the plants feed, you also wanna avoid takin' their major source of obtainin' nutrients, unless you're plannin' on takin' the whole thing - which again, best if you can do when there are a bunch together, not just one. And, the most important rule of all, take only what you will eat."

( Watch out boy she'll chew you up/She's a maneater )

After the last round of examining still versions of these different kinds of man-eating plants, Senshi went on to explain their fruits, how to tell when they were ripe, and what bits of the plants were edible and which to watch out for - no one wanted to eat the flowering body of a Meeroak, for example, or the seeds of the Shadowtail. (Though, he'll mention that the Meeroak's pitchers often have a fine build-up of gelatin, if you're feeling brave and also strong of stomach. That gelatin makes a very good binder, setting far better than slime gelatin does.)

"All right, enough ramblin'," he said when he was done. "Go on out there and bring me back somethin' edible from one of each type of plant. Also, be careful! The second level's got plenty of other, more dangerous monsters about and you don't wanna attract their attention."

This Sh*t is Bananas; Tuesday, Third Period [05/28].

[somethingwithturquoise]

"This week," said Summer, at the front of the classroom as usual, "I want to focus in on a topic that, in my research for the class, came up an awful lot that I think will not only allow us to sort of gawk at an interesting phenomenon in the usage of bananas in old recipes, but could spark a discussion about our current modern perspectives about the fruit. Because you see, when looking through recipes, variations of banana meatloaf came up....like....a lot. And I have print-outs of several of those different recipes for you all today so we can look them over and see the differences in them and if there's anything substantial there. I even found someone inspired to make a vegan banana meatloaf, which seems like such a choice I almost have to respect it.

"But, see, the theory behind all these banana meatloafs is a simple and logical one: banana is really good as a substitute for eggs, which, due to allergies, cost, or food preferences, one might want to avoid. And it makes a lot of sense for baking things like cookies and cakes where it adds natural sweetness and the like. But the question we're asking ourselves today is how much does it make sense in a savory dish?

"So I'd like for us today to ask ourselves that question and find out. Shift through the banana meatloaf recipes to find one you think will work or won't work, and make it so we can see how right we are. Maybe it works better in actuality than it does in concept? Maybe it's just as weird as it sound. We only have one way to find out!

"And I also found this really cool recipe, actually, for a banana ketchup that I'd also like us to try....and, like, tomatoes are technically a fruit, so while I think it could be interesting, my real question is....is it really a ketchup? Does it even really work as a condiment, no matter what you call it? Let's find out."

Make Your Own Pizza!, Monday, Period 2

[carbsliftthespirit]

Raiden thumped a cheese-making kit identical to the ones the students would find at their workstations down in front of him and declared, "Let's make cheese.

"Making cheese is easier than you probably think, at least in its most basic form. To get different kinds of cheese you need different environments, and just the right kind of bacteria, and...honestly, a lot more time than most of us have. But you can knock out a mozzarella pretty quickly, and great news! That's just what we need for our pizzas! The only thing is, you're going to want to buy whole, pasteurized milk but not ultrapasteurized milk, because ultrapasteurization denatures some of the proteins we need to activate for our cheese." What? Raiden could use big words, if they were food words. "You can also, of course, use raw milk if you can get it, and some say it makes a better cheese--personally I say all cheese is good cheese--but I don't want any of you to die or have a very bad time of food poisoning, so I'm going to say use raw milk at your own risk. Let's get started."

After everyone had opened up their cheese-making kits and verified that they had everything they needed, Raiden proceeded to walk them through how to make mozzarella cheese step by step. When they were done, and hopefully had their beautiful mozzarella children in front of them, he said, "We're not quite ready to assemble our pizzas yet, so I thought we could eat our fresh cheese on a nice caprese salad. Obviously it'll be better in a few weeks when the fresh garden tomatoes are in, but it'll be good now, too! Here's how you assemble one..." And then, once he'd walked them through that, he said with a laugh, "And you probably don't need me to tell you how to eat one!" But if anyone did he'd be happy to help them figure it out. "Enjoy!"

Self Defense for Shinies, Tuesday, May 28, 2024

[sith_happened]

Never you mind where Anakin got the giant sumo wrestling costumes, he just had them and they were paid for and the school board hadn't yelled about it.

"Today we will practice hand-to-hand combat in a safe way!" Anakin announced. "You will not look as ridiculous as you will feel."

Don't lie to them like that, Anakin.

They'd look more ridiculous. And not just from a certain point of view.

"Just remember, safety first," Ashoka said.

"Pair up and don't use powers if you can avoid it--it's best to know how to defend yourself without the bells and whistles so you aren't dependent on them," Anakin added

In case anyone was wondering, Ahsoka could confirm that 'do as I say, not as I do' had long been a teaching method of Anakin's.

It was important to be consistent, even in your terrible habits! "Begin," Anakin said, pointing at random to two students.

Practical Philosophy, Tuesday

[endsthegame]

"And now we arrive at the point in this series of classes where I start dragging old philosophers into it," Ender said, wryly, as he sat down on the law with his sandwich.

"But I think this might be an interesting one with this group," he added. "Specifically, I'd like to talk about justice. When is it okay to judge something terrible or evil? The philosophers of yore developed extensive theories on what made something good and right. Take the old Greeks, such as Socrates and Aristotle, who believed in what's called 'virtue ethics' - the idea that the character of the person defines the morality of his actions. Socrates argued, for instance, that if a person knew what was right, then he would do right. It was only not knowing what 'good' was that might cause someone to do evil."

( Then there were the stoics... )

"As I said, we all make our judgments. Of ourselves, of the people around us, of their pasts - especially around here. On what do you base your judgments? I think most of us realize that there is no such thing as pure good and evil - but how we judge other people tends to depend a lot on what we were taught and where we come from."

Another faint smile.

"I personally believe that character is important," he said. "Once you try to understand what makes people do what they do, it becomes that much harder to see them as evil. After all, most of us do what we think is right, even if our ideas of what right is are different." He gave a little shrug. "But of course I feel that way. I'm a Speaker for the Dead. It is, in many ways, our raison d'etre to value human understanding of the self above all else."

Earth Tourism, Tuesday 5th period

[unusual_sith]

"Welcome back, everybody," Lana said, nodding to them. "Today we're going to another continent on Earth. There is a country called France, and its main city is Paris. There's too much to ever see an entire city in our limited time, of course, so we'll be visiting one of its notable tourist sites, the Eiffel Tower. It was built about one hundred thirty-five years ago by a man named Gustave Eiffel, hence the name. It's apparently a very good way to see the city, so long as you're not afraid of heights. If you are, feel free to stay on the first two floors; there are food and shops on each floor."

She'd be going to the top, of course.

"The primary language there is French. My research indicates that a good percentage of the locals can speak our language, but that many of them refuse to, so I'd advise you not to wander too far."

She handed out their tickets and led them through the portal.