fandomhigh | The Mid-Century Cookbook; Tuesday, First Period [05/07].

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The Mid-Century Cookbook; Tuesday, First Period [05/07].

As absolutely hilarious as Summer found it to set the Danger Shop to be just a normal classroom or the most mundane things, this time around, her class would be meeting almost exclusively in just the boring old normal cooking classroom. They weren't doing anything fancy here; one might argue that what they were doing was precisely the opposite of fancy.

And since she only had three students (something that sort of was a relief to her, since it was her first solo venture as a teacher at the school, and if she got overwhelmed with three students, she better just stick to shopkeeping), it didn't take long for her figure out when everyone was there and it was time to get started.

"Hey, everyone," she greeted them with a faint smile, leaning comfortably on one of the counters once they came in. "Welcome to the Mid-Century Cookbook. I'm your teacher, Summer. If the whole casual thing with your teachers is kind of weird for you, that's fine, Ms. Smith will do, but just know that that's kind of weird for me." Especially since she was probably only just a few years older than all of you, if that. "But I'll deal. This course, which could also loosely be called 'Weird White People Food,' is sort of half-cooking class, half-history lesson, since we'll be focusing on a very particularly odd period of Americana that put out some real head-scratchers for food. And I've been to a dimension where they put flies in ice cream and another one where there's a cereal made out of eyeholes," not to mention that whole cannibal period, "so, I'm kind of an expert on weird food.

"Since it's the first week, we're not going to be diving into any recipes quite yet. I want to know who you are, first, but since there's not that many of you, that won't take too long. And then I'm going to introduce you to some elements that'll be cropping up frequently in these recipes and some of the more simple examples of what you'd find in a mid-century cookbook. This is an era where America was riding a post-World War Two high, there were all sorts of developments in refrigeration and microwave technology and food preservation that just sort of sparked this whole idea that processed meats were the total shit and everyone had to have them. Plus, you've got the rise of televsion in this era, leading to more branding, marketing, and advertising that helped support the idea that if you weren't serving some form of disgusting jello mold at your cocktail party, then why were you even bothering to have a cocktail party?

"It was a weird period of time. I assume. I've never really been there, but I find it weirdly fascinating. And if anyone's wondering how I wound up like this, just go talk to Dr. Lecter for a little bit, then go talk to Captain Rogers, put that together, and there you go."

Why, yes, she was calling you out for the source of her weird obsession, gentlemen. She had receipts.

"Before we get to the real fun stuff, I'd like us to all go around and introduce ourselves. Let me know your name, where you're coming from, if you've got any cooking experience...that's kind of important, I guess, if we're going to jump right in and here you've never seen seen a KitchenAid before....and then your favorite food and your least favorite food, if you can think of one. And then onto some samples. And I will say this: unlike some other food-focused teachers in the school, I actually encourage you to be completely grossed out and disgusted about any of this stuff and to be very vocal about it if you feel so inclined. As a matter of fact, this class is going to be recorded for research and Instagram purposes, but if any of you have an issue with that, please, please let me know because I, like, totally want to one-hundred-and-ten percent want to respect your privacy.

"Okay! So let's get started!"

[[ ocd ~~incoming!~~ up! ]]

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With food!

Shuri

Okuyasu Nijimura

A little more of a ramble than a lecture, but, hey! Hopefully there's little doubt in your mind what you're in for with this class, but if you've got questions, definitely ask away.

Except maybe if that question is "Are you even qualified to teach?" because Summer will insist that, despite her age, she's probably not one of the ones you should be concerned with in that regard.

"I'll go first," Summer offered, "even if I sort of already did introduce myself. My name's Summer Smith, I'm from just outside of Seattle ~~maybe?~~...yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, obviously, right?, but I was a student here for a year--class of 2018, what whaaaat!--and this place has kiiiind of been my home ever since. It sticks on you, this place."

She figured, since these were all new students, too, that maybe she'd lay off on the whole dimension hoping space travel stuff, at least until they get a little more settled.

A little, because then she launched into: "And my favorite food has got to be hands down this one dish they make on a small planet out by the Horsehead Nebula. I can't actually say its name because, not only is it impossible to pronounce with a human tongue, but it's also blasphemous to their relegion to speak of it, but let me tell you, guys, it seriously just tastes like strawberry dream clouds with little crystallized bits of sugared magic. If I ever get out that way again, I'll totally bring you some.

"And my least favorite food is pizza that's even been in the vicinity of the idea of pineaple on it." She grimaced, actually seemed to look a little sick there for a moment. "Ugh."

But the moment passed swiftly, and her eyes danced over to the students.

"Okay, who's next?"

Edited 2019-05-07 11:01 (UTC)

Shuri raised her hand. "I'm Shuri," she said, "from Wakanda, which is in Africa. My favorite food is...hmm. I like a lot of food, but boerwors is really good. So is waakye. And jollof--the Ghanaian version, not the Nigerian but don't tell them I said that. I don't want to start an international incident."

She looked thoughtful. "I'm not a huge mayonnaise fan?"

You are in the wrong place, Shuri.

"Hoboy," said Summer, almost immediately. "Aren't you going to have a fun time in this class, Shuri; consider this my apology in advance, 1950s suburbanites freaking loved mayonnaise. Hey, who knows? Maybe this class'll turn you around on the idea."

Ha.

Ahahahahahahaha.

"Also," Summer added, smiling with genuine apology now, "I'm not familiar with any of those things you lifted. Care to elaborate a little?"

"Of course," Shuri said, smiling. "Boerswors is a sausage, waakye--" she pronounced it carefully, watch-chee, "is spicy beans and rice, and jollof is rice cooked in tomato sauce. It's very popular in West Africa where every country claims to have invented and perfected it."

Summer snorted a faint laugh at that, and her fingers were already flying as she jotted those down in her phone for reference later. "Naturally," she said. "But that all sounds pretty good; I might have to look into them a little. Maybe I can even find something fitting for the class that will completely take those things and bastardize them for you in new and horrible ways."

Yeah. Summer was not even bothering to pretend she was a good person.

Shuri looked properly horrified at the idea.

"I'll make my brother try them."

Because she could also get into the spirit of this thing quickly.

"Always a good plan," Summer agreed with an all-too-knowing sisterly grin. "Big brother or little brother?"

"Big brother," Shuri said. "A far too serious big brother."

"Hello!" Okuyasu started with a happy smile. "I'm Okuyasu Nijimura, I'm from Morioh in S City, in the M Prefecture of Japan."

"My favorite food is probably just about anything Italian. Probably the best I've ever had is spaghetti alla puttanesca from Trussardi's, which is the best restaurant in all of Morioh, and probably the best in the world."

"As for least favorite, I don't really like anything spicy. It doesn't agree with me too good, so I try not to eat it."

Ooooh, Summer could totally pull out something with spaghetti or pasta that was sure to make Okuyasu weep.

...Summer, please stop plotting to make your new sparkly students weep.

But she grinned at his enthusiasm, terribly pleased by it.

"I definitely don't think too spicy is something you're going to have to worry about in this class too much, Okuyasu," she offered.

Because these things were created by the type of people who thought mayo was thrilling and exciting and, if you got the right person, the limits of spiciness.

Once everyone was finished with their intro, Summer turned their attention to the counter where she had several clouches set up over the things they'd be trying for more dramatic effect. "Okay, so, here's some element that you'll be working with a lot in the class and/or just some simple things to help you get an idea of what you're in for. Of course, you don't have to try something if you really don't want to, or if there's an allergy thing...I should relaly know about any allergy things, you guys...but what's the fun in that?"

So Summer continued to present them with their king of all processed meats, Spam, followed up with the two variation on gelatin that were likely to be introduced: something savory and something sweet. And to wash it all down? A little Fizzy 7-Up Milk.

That's right.

Fizzy Fucking 7-Up Milk.

She figured that was a good place to stop, there. It's kind of hard to top Fizzy 7-Up Milk.

Besides, she wouldn't want to get too crazy, it was just the first week.

Edited 2019-05-07 10:39 (UTC)

Shuri was taking pictures of alllll of the food and sending them to Okoye with a stream of exclamation points and question marks.

She poked at the...jello with meat...in it and made a face. "Captain Rogers likes this? On purpose?"

"I assume so," Summer said. "I admit, I haven't had a chance to pass off some of the more grotesque ones his way to see what he thought," she had Kanan for that now, which was cheating, because Kanan at nearly everything that wasn't alcohol, coffee and apparently chocolate now, "but it was his eagerness to see what I had in store when I mentioned the words 'jello salad' that kicked this whole thing off."

All. Your. Fault, Steeeeeve.

"And I know what you're thinking, but I promise you, he's actually not the only one here who actually seems to enjoy this stuff." She gave Shuri another smile. "So, yeah, welcome to Fandom. We're all super weird here."

"I'm starting to learn that," Shuri said with a smile.

"It never takes long," Summer shook her head ruefully. Amused, but rueful. "And those who claim otherwise are just in denial."

She's here if you need her, class-related or otherwise!

"I heard there might be leftovers around here?" Steve said hopefully from the doorway.

Well! That answered that question, and Summer had to laugh.

"Damn," she said. "Good news travels fast. I might have to actually disappoint Kanan, I promised him leftoevers, too."

Possibly not having enough leftovers to get rid of was not a problem she anticipated having.

"Come on in, though, Steeeeve." Still weird. Never going to not be weird. "There's not as much this week since we were just sort of doing a 'this is the sort of thing you can expect out of this class' thing, but there'll be plenty in subsequent weeks when they'll actually be making it themselves, if you're interested."

Edited 2019-05-07 14:14 (UTC)

"Very interested," Steve said, smiling. "What's on offer today? Jello anything?"

"Two jello options, of course," Summer assured him, moving a little to gesture what was left of the samples, "though I'm warnig you, I'm actually going to try to branch away from the jello a little for this class. But I've got ham in aspic and a good old classic ambrosia salad, you know, the real heavy hitters."

"I love ambrosia salad!"

Of course you did, Steve.

Of course.

"Don't worry," Summer grinned. "There's plenty. And, if not, you know I can always whip up some more if you really need it."

Pause.

"Steeeeve."

Seriously. Surreal. All of it. But also kind of great.

Steve's cheeks went pink. "That's me. And I think this'll be fine. I don't think Tony wants leftovers."

My cup runneth over with ideas already, because there's a lot of messed up shit out there, but if anyone has any particular recipes or horror stories to share, I will eat them up like banana candles.

Golly, ambrosia salad is a throwback to my childhood for some reason and I legit loved that as a kid.

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The Mid-Century Cookbook; Tuesday, First Period [05/07].

Sign In - MCC [05/07].

Re: Sign In - MCC [05/07].

Re: Sign In - MCC [05/07].

Listen to the Lecture - MCC [05/07].

Introductions - MCC [05/07].

Re: Introductions - MCC [05/07].

Re: Introductions - MCC [05/07].

Re: Introductions - MCC [05/07].

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Weird Food - MCC [05/07].

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Talk to Summer - MCC [05/07].

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OOC - MCC [05/07].

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