Cooking 101, Tuesday, Period 1

[glacial_queen]

Karla was absolutely devastated that the first day of classes was devoted to introductions and that she wouldn't be cooking. She'd been planning to get to the school early and whip something up for the class to nibble on while they did introductions, but Cook had kept her late with questions about an upcoming banquet and then Warren had needed her help choosing a suit and then Nyles had pestered her about a trip he wanted to take with her friends and by the time her family was done with her, she was barely making it to class on time to begin with.

Weird that.

Cook, at least, had handed her a basket of nutcakes to hand out, so at least no one had to starve during her class.

"Hello, students," she said as the class filed in. "Welcome to Cooking 101. This being our first week, we're doing introductions as per Fandom custom. Those of you who are new to the island, yes, you will do this every day this week and for every semester you're here. I'm Karla, graduate of FH Class of 2013, and we were doing introductions then, too."

She grinned at them. "So, today, I'm going to ask you the basics: names, grades, favorite foods, anything specific you're looking to learn in class. I've been cooking for years now - got started in the dorms in fact - so I'm pretty sure that we'll be able to handle anything you're looking to learn."

That was very optimistic of you Karla. As was the idea that you could cook in the first place.

"And, in the last half-hour of class, you're gonna make your favorite fast, go-to meal. Whatever you make when you need to eat, but you don't have much time. Eggs, cereal, a sandwich, whatever! But at the end of the class, I want you to have prepared something you can show to the class." She held up her basket. "Feel free to have a nutcake while you make your introductions!"

See, naysayers! One class down and no disasters! She was so good at this!

Comments

Sign In

[glacial_queen]

With food

Re: Sign In

[white_oleander]

Astrid Magnussen

Re: Sign In

[that_oldsaying]

Alluka Zoldyck the bunny totally counts as food shhh

Listen to the Lecture

[glacial_queen]

Not that there's much of one. Alternately, be weirded out that your teacher graduated only five years ago.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[white_oleander]

Astrid wasn't weirded out so much by the fact that the teacher only graduated five years ago, she was weirded out by the fact that the teacher apparently believed she graduated 21 years in the future. Because she was absurdly stubborn and refused to believe it was anything but 1992, despite having two days in a row where teachers were trying to pretend otherwise.

Still, this class didn't seem too bad. Useful, at least. Probably.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[glacial_queen]

Oh Astrid. This was probably the least of the weird things Karla was going to say. The least.

Introductions

[glacial_queen]

Grab a nutcake and share about yourself.

Re: Introductions

[white_oleander]

"I'm Astrid," she offered when it came to be her turn, shifting with all the discomfort that introductions usually brought to her, "I'm a freshman. And I don't really have a favorite food, but I guess I like street foods a lot, you know, like churros or elote, tamales, crepes, kebabs...anything you can just grab and take with you. And I guess I'd just like to learn more things. I do a little bit of cooking," she was pretty sure she'd starve if she didn't, "but I'd like to learn more."

Re: Introductions

[glacial_queen]

"Street food is delicious," Karla agreed, nodding. "The best part of festivals. It's the only reason my husband convinces me to go and make all the stupid speeches."

Speeches were only acceptable when they were immediately followed by spicy sausages and meat on sticks.

"So, when you say 'a little bit of cooking', what does that entail?" she continued. "Just certain meals, or...?"

Re: Introductions

[that_oldsaying]

Ohhh, the nutcakes were tasty, Alluka decided as she nibbled on one while waiting for her turn to introduce herself.

"I'm Alluka, and I'm a senior," she said happily. She looked nothing like a senior. "I love, love, love chocolate! But I like cakes and pastries and all sorts of other sweets too. And I like lots of teas."

Did tea count as a food? She was counting tea as a food.

"Can we learn how to make these nutcakes?" she added. "And, um, a dessert from your home!"

Re: Introductions

[glacial_queen]

Kathy was both saddened and completely unsurprised at the lack of vegetables here.

"Chocolate is delicious," Karla said, nodding emphatically. "And important. We're definitely going to have a day where we focus on making desserts. With chocolate."

Karla was going to try to temper chocolates and it was going to be an unmitigated disaster.

"Sadly, I won't be able to teach you how to make these nutcakes," she added. "They're my Cook's recipe and she refuses to share." While mumbling something about 'not being party to abominations.' Go figure. "But I'll see about some other Kaeleeran dessert instead!"

Maybe Gabrielle would tell her what the Dea al Mon ate, hmm.

Re: Introductions

[reicicled]

Look, Karla! There was a familiar face amongst your students.

Sort of.

He looked a good number of years younger than the one you'd gone to school with, but there was very much a Bobby Drake sitting in your class.

"Bobby Drake," he introduced himself. "I'm a junior, and um. I like everything? At least, I haven't met a food I didn't like, yet. But tacos are like, right up there I guess. There's nothing really specific I wanna learn how to make, I just wanna be more, uh. Self-sufficient, I guess? Is the word?"

Bobby's memories from his week or so as a penguin were hazy at best, or he'd at least be able to place where he'd seen this particular teacher before. As it was, he just found her to be kind of weirdly familiar.

Re: Introductions

[glacial_queen]

"Bobby Drake," Karla said, staring at him. "Hell's fire and Mother Night, I have a tiny Bobby Drake right here. Warren is never going to believe this."

Okay, Warren would be able to believe this quite easily. Because Fandom. But still...

"You're so tiny."

Re: Introductions

[thegreatmanfredo]

"I'm Manfred," Manfred said, "and I'm a sophomore. I'm not really picky about food...I guess I like cheeseburgers a lot? I can't really cook because we didn't have much of a kitchen setup in our house--not one big enough for two people, anyway, so my grandma took care of most of that, but I guess I should learn to be more self-sufficient, so." He shrugged. "Here I am."

He held up his half-eaten nutcake and said, "These are really good, by the way."

Re: Introductions

[mylandmyrules]

"M'names Nell Ingram and I'm not rightly sure what grade I'm supposed to tell you since I just sorta showed up here Saturday." Nell wasn't sure of a lot of things here. "I guess maybe one of the best things I ever ate was Leah's apple ugly. Pretty much everyone agreed it was the best around."

She thought for a moment. "I've been cooking long as I can remember. All the young-uns do to help out the mothers and grandmothers. And I did all the cooking for my husband John and his other wife Leah for the past three years. But I'm sure there's lots of new recipes I could learn, so I'd like to do that."

Re: Introductions

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Ringo Noyamano!" Ringo chirped. Her bow of greeting wasn't even close to formal. It was a lazy, languid sort of motion. She'd come a long way from her first year.

"This is my fourth year here. Which, I guess, is like my last one?" She shook her head, finding that hard to believe. "Anyway, I don't know how it happened, but I've taken, like a ton of cooking classes since I got here, and I figured, why break a good streak, you know?"

She chewed on her lip. "As for favorite food. Hmmm. I don't know, I like a ton. But I guess, like, hotpot with your friends and family is always pretty awesome?"

Cook and Present!

[glacial_queen]

Or, well, prepare. Just make something quick and easy. You can do it! Karla believes in you!

And then show your creations to the rest of the class. How'd you do?

Re: Cook and Present!

[that_oldsaying]

Hmmm. All the things that Karla had mentioned were breakfasty foods, so even though Alluka was pretty sure breakfast hadn't been specified, she was going to stick with the theme.

Which meant she was going to cut up bananas, strawberries, and add a handful of blueberries and raspberries to the mix and then drizzle the whole thing with melted dark chocolate and sprinkle it with icing sugar.

Look, all that fruit had to be offset with some sugar.

"I like fruit bowls," she said, showing hers off. "Because they don't leave you feeling sleepy. And the chocolate and the sugar give you energy!"

That was her story and she was sticking to it!

Re: Cook and Present!

[white_oleander]

Well, Astrid's go-to to-go meal was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with potato chips crumbled into it, but that didn't exactly require much cooking. Even though Karla had said anything, she still didn't feel like that would count.

So she went with something a little different, something that reminded her of late mornings where she'd been up since sun-up and she knew he mother wouldn't bother stirring until well after noon.

A few eggs to scramble up with some shredded cheese, some sliced peppers and onions because they were there and sometimes you wanted to feel fancy. Then she grabbed a torilla and wrapped it all up.

"Can't go wrong with a breakfast burrito," she offered, shrugging, as she presented the end result to the class. The eggs were slightly underdone, the cheese not quite completely melted, but that was how she usually ate them.

Re: Cook and Present!

[thegreatmanfredo]

"Okay, so I made a peanut butter, banana, and honey sandwich," Manfred said. "Because it's quick and it doesn't mess up a lot of dishes." And because all the components didn't take up room in the RV's minifridge, so they always had them around, but he hadn't really figured out that was why his grandma always had honey on hand instead of jelly yet. "And the banana makes it healthy. I guess it doesn't technically count as cooking, though..."

Re: Cook and Present!

[mylandmyrules]

It took Nell sometime to figure out how to use the stove. She was accustomed to cooking on a wood stove and had never seen one like these before. Still, she managed to cook up eggs, bacon, and a hearty oatmeal with cinnamon, raisins, and a sprinkling of toasted almonds.

"It's not much, but I didn't have time to make anything fancy."

Re: Cook and Present!

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Um, you said to keep it simple, so I just made some toast and a breakfast salad." Which was lettuce, tomato, and cucumber.

She smiled a bit awkwardly. "At least it's simple. I mean, anyone can do something like this without any problems."

Right, Karla?

Right!

Talk to Karla

[glacial_queen]

She is so excited about what she can teach you over the next few months.

Re: Talk to Karla

[sharp_man]

Hannibal was mostly here to say hello to a dear friend.

And partly to see if she'd managed a disaster yet.

"Karla," he said, with a nod and a smile.

OOC

[glacial_queen]

I DIDN'T FORGET IT'S A MIRACLE.