Camp Shenanigans, Wednesday, June 5, 2019

[sith_happened]

"Good morning!" Anakin blared through the microphone. "An essential skill of a camper is the ability to feed yourself over a campfire--BEAKER, GET AWAY FROM THE CAMPFIRES."

There was slightly charred sounding apologetic meeping as Beaker moved away from one of the two campfires that had been carefully set up in the park. There were rickety looking folding tables arranged nearby the fires with cutting boards, knives, bowls, and other moddable kitchen items nearby. There was, however, no power. Everything would have to be chopped and grated and opened from a can by hand.

"Today, you will be paired up and asked to feature one of two different sets of menu items," Anakin continued. "And then you will present them to our esteemed panel of judges: Summer, Hannibal, Peebee, and Vette." He pointed to the judges. "Your meal must be cooked over the campfire. We have an array of other ingredients--" he pointed to a pantry and set of mini fridges that Beaker was now standing near, so expect that to spontaneously fall over any minute now, "--for you to use to supplement your original ingredients, but you must use the three ingredients we give you." He took a deep breath. "Please don't give the judges food poisoning, and remember that presentation matters. Listen for your names!"

Comments

Come on Down, Contestants of Group A!

[sith_happened]

"The following pairs will be featuring the following three ingredients," Anakin announced, "peanuts, gelatin, and tuna!"

Delicious!

"1. Billy & Ben
2. Aeryn & Mae
3. Seivarden & Miguel
4. Iris (Ino) & Hardison
5. Jono & Sidon
6. Peter & Mitsutada
7. Sabine & Keyleth!"

Meet up and start cooking!

Re: Come on Down, Contestants of Group A!

[furnaceface]

Jono just sort of tilted his head at the ingredients in question.

//... Honestly, we could've done far worse than this selection,// he noted. //The other team wound up with marshmallows.//

And the amount of British cooking that involved gelatin anyway? Pff. The judges should just count themselves lucky that they were cooking with tuna and not eels.

Re: Come on Down, Contestants of Group A!

[in_sidon_we_trust]

"And one of them," said Sidon, sounding positively delighted about it, "is tuna! I at the very least know what that is and enjoy it! I'm afraid this is likely more your expertise than my own." He flashed Jono a toothy, apologetic grin. "Zora are not exactly known for creative...or even terribly interesting...cuisine."

Re: Come on Down, Contestants of Group A!

[furnaceface]

//And I haven't had much of an appetite in some time,// Jono mused, considering the judges for a moment. //But I suppose the worst we can do is send somebody home in a case of anaphylactic distress. And I doubt they'd have given us peanuts to work with if that was terribly likely.//

He tilted his head at Sidon thoughtfully.

//Jellied tuna with a peanut crumble over the top, then?//

Hey, it wasn't eels, but Jono embraced what was familiar. Besides, Hannibal needed to eat this, and Jono fully intended to demonstrate just what a disaster he was to his husband.

//It'll be interesting getting the gelatin to set over a campfire.//

Mmmm yummy.

Re: Come on Down, Contestants of Group A!

[in_sidon_we_trust]

"Is it much like chuchu jelly, I wonder?" Sidon asked, tilting his head a little as he stroked his chin. "Not that I have much experience with that, either, but I suppose we won't know until we try, will we? And I think that's a wonderful idea,"--and, yes, he would have said that to pretty much anything Jono might have suggested, but that didn't make it any less true--"I think I might even be tempted to try that myself! However...if I might make but one suggestion..."

Here, his grin got particularly wide as he gestured toward the judges table, which then turned into a completely beaming wave in an attempt to catch Vette's attention before continued. "Considering who is currently sitting on our esteemed panel of judges---HELLO, VETTE!!---I would recommend that we add to our jellied tuna with crumbled peanuts a lovely, complimentary, and very spicy sauce."

He paused, grinned again, and pumped his fist enthusiastically.

"A lot of it!"

Sorry, other judges! There was only one of you he was even remotely interested in impressing today!

Re: Come on Down, Contestants of Group A!

[sir_zapsalot]

Billy was kind of staring at the folding table, wondering if it was going to collapse under its own insignificant weight any second.

"On the bright side, I don't think this is much weirder than what we get at home sometimes when Victor and Rosa leave us in charge of dinner."

Eugene got some wild ideas sometimes when he managed to peel himself away from his video games for ten seconds.

Re: Come on Down, Contestants of Group A!

[momslilassassin]

"That is hugely reassuring," Ben said, laughing. "Okay. Peanuts and tuna should probably not be anywhere near each other, but I've been friends with Karla for a decade, so things can get worse."

Re: Come on Down, Contestants of Group A!

[sir_zapsalot]

"I'm not asking," Billy decided. "Maybe we can use the gelatin to keep them separated?"

Re: Come on Down, Contestants of Group A!

[momslilassassin]

"Like a lime green protective wall?" Ben asked.

Re: Come on Down, Contestants of Group A!

[intraspective]

"Like, I ain't sure this is gonna be edible no matter what we do, with those three ingredients," Iris said doubtfully. "My cookin' ain't much for that sort of thing."

It was pretty sad, really, that she'd have rathered have the other set of ingredients.

Re: Come on Down, Contestants of Group A!

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Uhh, two problems," Hardison said, jogging up to Ino. "One, I wasn't payin' attention to anythin' that happened before the Dean called my name, an' two, I'm allergic to peanuts."

This was going to go beautifully.

Re: Come on Down, Contestants of Group A!

[intraspective]

Well, beautifully was one word for it.

"… Well, one of those things is easier fixed than the other," Iris said, amused. "Skywalker's got us cookin' today over a campfire, only we got to use peanuts, gelatin, and tuna in our dishes, while the other team got to use hotdogs, tomatoes, and marshmallows in theirs. These ingredients are non-negotiable though we can add whatever else we want."

She considered him.

"Since I ain't in the mood to have to heal an allergic reaction I'm bettin' you ain't in the mood to have, I vote we just leave the peanuts out and add one or two on top of whatever we end up with. As a garnish."

Re: Come on Down, Contestants of Group A!

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"So our other ingredients are gelatin an' tuna?" Hardison asked. "Is it suddenly 1975 in here an' nobody told me?"

He would have avoided this place like the plague if he'd known. Set up his ambush somewhere completely different.

"Well...we ain't gotta use a lot of gelatin, right? Maybe just enough to kinda...shape...the tuna some?"

This was not getting much better.

Re: Come on Down, Contestants of Group A!

[can_be_more]

"He's a madman," Aeryn said, picking up the tuna and frowning at it.

Re: Come on Down, Contestants of Group A!

[thishouseishaunted]

Mae had found a stick and was happily poking it into the fire to watch it spark and smoke.

"We could make a salad?" she suggested. "Does jello burn?"

She didn't know anything about cooking, but hey, at least they got to play with open flames!

Re: Come on Down, Contestants of Group A!

[can_be_more]

"It would probably melt. Did you want to put burnt gelatin in a salad?" Aeryn frowned.

Re: Come on Down, Contestants of Group A!

[thishouseishaunted]

"Not when you say it like that," Mae said. She pulled her stick out of the fire and watched it glow and smoke. "Is it canned tuna, or those fancy sushi ones? Not that I have any idea what we'd do with it either way."

Re: Come on Down, Contestants of Group A!

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"I should probably mention that I don't cook much," Sabine said, but she was trying to figure out how to make these things work. Or at least, how to make it look appetizing even if it wasn't.

Re: Come on Down, Contestants of Group A!

[goldfishontherocks]

Keyleth . . . was eyeing the gelatin with extreme dubiousness.

"I think I've heard about creatures like this," she said, because someone had spent a little too much time studying about the various flora and fauna of Exandria.

Re: Come on Down, Contestants of Group A!

[battlewithstyle]

Mitsutada was still reacting to the featured ingredients.

"...No."

Re: Come on Down, Contestants of Group A!

[2_old_for_this]

"...Those aren't usually used together, are they?"

Peter had no idea what any of them tasted like. This would be fun.

Re: Come on Down, Contestants of Group A!

[battlewithstyle]

"Only by monsters," Mitsutada said, his cheerful demeanor somewhat shaken at current time.

"Gelatin is for desserts," he added, though he'd rather be using agar for that. "We could try something akin to a... peanut butter jelly? Though preparing that with a campfire is asking for disaster."

Re: Come on Down, Contestants of Group A!

[what_the_shock]

"I like to think I'm a decent cook," Miguel said. "But I'm not sure even I can do much with that. Do they have to be together?"

Re: Come on Down, Contestants of Group A!

[1000yearstoolate]

"They didn't say, did they?" Seivarden replied. "I can't say I have much experience with cooking either way, but I can't see anyone succeeding with mixing them."

She was terrible at cooking, but at least she knew how to tell good food from bad.

Re: Come on Down, Contestants of Group A!

[what_the_shock]

"Okay, right." Miguel nodded. "So...tuna tacos - we can make a peanut sauce on them and add some lime, and that should be good. And..."

He eyed the gelatin. "Okay, I have no idea what to do with that. Add fruit and condensed milk and hope for the best?"