Home Ec, Tuesday, Period 1

[vdistinctive]

"Right." Eliot clapped his hands. Too much had happened in too short an amount of time -- again -- and he was full of tightly controlled manic energy. "Today's project takes for freaking ever, so we're going to jump right in." He dropped a box onto the teacher's desk and pulled out a sack of flour, a canister of salt, a packet of yeast, a bowl, and a mug. "We're makin' bread."

He looked over the ingredients and rolled his eyes, then picked up the mug, spun it once around on his finger, and tore open the flour. "Nevermind that this process is so goddamn time consuming that almost no one in the modern era bothers doin' it themselves unless they got a machine or they get paid for it." He scooped out two and a half mugs full of flour and tossed them into the bowl. "At least the recipe we're workin' with is dead simple. It's also real specific that this ain't the kind of bread you punch and slam around when you're kneadin' it, but if that's what you're feelin' today -- I ain't gonna blame you a bit." He added the salt, yeast, and water and stuck his hands in. "You can use a spoon for the mixing if you like, but honestly, this stuff is gonna get all over your hands later anyway. Might as well dive right in the deep end right away." He looked up from the dough and around at the students. "The ingredients are on your tables, guys, get to it. Sooner you get it mixed, sooner you can goof off half the class while we let it rise. Then maybe I'll show y'all how to whip up a nice bruschetta to put on this stuff once it's all done."

Comments

Listen to the lecture

[vdistinctive]

Right up until the part where he glares at you and tells you to follow along.

Didn't they just have a lesson about reading all the directions first?

Re: Listen to the lecture

[vrajna_kralis]

Oh, bread! This was easy! Hyacinthe had made bread with his mother a thousand times, usually in the winter when laundry was slow and the price of bread was high. The only hard part he could foresee was translating the units in the recipe to ones he knew from back home.

Re: Listen to the lecture

[crimson_sister]

Not that Lucille was going to admit it, but this might actually be useful in the future. She and Thomas wouldn't be able to afford servants for some time when they returned.

Re: Listen to the lecture

[era_two_triangle]

Weren't you so happy you had an inorganic alien lifeform in your classroom, Eliot? Weren't you?

Peridot was putting her hand up in the air. Not because she knew that was generally how it was done in a classroom, but because she was stinkin' tiny, and people might not see her if she didn't.

"What is bread?"

So happy, right?

Re: Listen to the lecture

[vdistinctive]

Eliot totally wanted to answer her properly. He really did. But how the hell did you explain something as basic as bread?

"It's food," he said finally. "A really common, staple food, made of -- you know what, you'll get to see it first hand once these all get cooked. So, uh. Just know it's food, and I ain't gonna be offended if you end up usin' yours for something else when it's all done, alright? It'll be yours. You can -- give it to a friend or mop up an oil stain or wear it as a hat -- whatever you like."

He wondered what an inorganic alien lifeform would manage to produce, following the recipe, when she had no real concept of what it was she was making as she did it. Well, this might be a fun experiment for everone.

Re: Listen to the lecture

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot squinted in thought for a moment, and then she nodded, satisfied with the answer. It wouldn't be of any practical use to her, but perhaps she could make some use of this 'bread' in some other manner. Or find somebody who liked food.

"Then I have one more question," she decided, and then gestured to the workstations. "Do you have a ladder?"

Re: Listen to the lecture

[vdistinctive]

"Stand on your chair," Eliot suggested. "Or just climb all the way up and sit on the table."

Re: Listen to the lecture

[era_two_triangle]

Oh, Peridot's little hard-light butt was so going to be planted up on the table.

"There ought to be adequate room up there for myself and this... bread," she decided. Not having the faintest clue how much room making bread actually took. "That will do."

Someday, she'd learn to append a 'thank you,' to the end of that. Someday.