fandomhigh | Cooking 101, Tuesday, Period 1

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cooking 101

Cooking 101, Tuesday, Period 1

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!

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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?

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!

"This looks very tasty," Karla assured her. "Something I could even get my munchkins to sit down and eat for a change. And the fruit makes it healthy!"

Somewhere, Kathy was crying.

"You know what also might be good on that? Whipped cream."

At least there was fruit, Kathy! That was an improvement from what she'd have eaten her first year here!

Alluka beamed at the teacher's praise. "I, I did think of that, but you said it had to be something eaten fairly quick, and whipped cream makes it something more that should be savoured and enjoyed!"

"Not in my house," Kathy said with a mischievous smile. "Whipped cream makes it something that should be eaten quickly before the children find out Mommy isn't sharing."

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.

"Wow, that's really well-done!" Karla said, looking at the finished product. "You don't even have any burnt bits in there."

That was something she hadn't quite mastered herself.

"How'd you learn to cook this?"

"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..."

Karla waved that away. "You prepared something," she said. "You took ingredients and put them together into a meal and that's what counts. And it's even a pretty healthy one; sweet as it is, honey has a lot of healing properties and that's not getting into the banana and the peanut butter. Honey is the base of a lot of tonics and poultices I make; the bit of sweetness makes swallowing easier and it had antibacterial properties to keep wounds clean." She gave Manfred a smile. "I think you did just fine. Did you eat this a lot as a kid?"

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."

"If this is your idea of basic, I might need you to help me teach the class," Karla said. Too bad she was teasing; Nell had probably never exploded a kitchen before. "You said you've been cooking since you were small?"

"Yes, ma'am," Nell said. "Soon as we can walk pretty much we start doing chores and since cooking's women's work, I've been doing that a right long time."

Oh Nell. Oh sweet summer child, you knew not what you did.

"Women's work?" Karla asked, head tilting to the side. "What is it about cooking, darling, that makes it women's work specifically?"

"It's not me, who feels that way, but in God's Cloud of Glory church you ain't ever gonna find a man cooking or washing dishes or doing housework," Nell said. "And I ain't - haven't - ever seen one doing anything like that."

She was quiet. "Which is why I'm so worried about being away from John. With Leah dead and me disappeared - well, he's never so much as made himself a sandwich, never mind that there's no one there to make the bread to have it on."

"If a male came up to me and told me he was starving to death because there were no women around to cook for him, I'd laugh and ask how big he wants the word 'Pathetic' to be engraved on his headstone," Karla said bluntly.

...Karla, that wasn't very politic of you.

Nell's eyes widened and then her hand went up to cover her mouth and she giggled like crazy. "Oh my gosh."

Karla winked at her. "I expect you'll be saying that fairly frequently in my class, darling," she said. "I'm from a matriarchy. Women's work? Is ruling."

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"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!

THAT WAS A VERY OPTIMISTIC OUTLOOK YOU HAD THERE, RINGO.

"So, what makes this a specifically breakfast salad?"

"Um." Ringo chewed on her lip in thought.

"It's the one you eat at breakfast?"

Which was to say: nothing. Nothing made it specifically a breakfast salad. It was just a salad. That you ate during breakfast.

"Ah," Karla said with a small chuckle. "Do you often have salads for breakfast then?" she asked. "That sounds amazingly healthy. I'm impressed."

"Hmm, not so much while I've been on the island, but back home we do a lot." Ringo grinned. "And it does help me maintain my figure."

Okay, given the amount of junk Ringo ate, the salads probably didn't matter. Her magical manga metabolism was probably the real hero.

It had been for Karla, too! Though she'd been a little less developed than Ringo in certain areas. Ahem.

"Where's back home?" Karla asked.

"Tokyo. But, like, one in a different world?"

Ringo shrugged. It was a pretty common story on Fandom, she figured.

"What about you?"

"I rule Glacia, a Territory in a Realm called Kaeleer," Karla said with a small smile. "It's the second more northern Territory, with plenty of mountains and bitter winters. It's why I'm so eager to get my hands on those ko--kah--kosta--your warm tables."

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