[Thread] Baking Lessons

[ned_piemaker]

Characters: Ned (OU); Persephone (AU).
Where: Paj-Epta
When: Evening
Summary: Ned teaches Persephone how to bake pies.
Warnings: None yet.

Comments

[poppingseeds]

It was only Persephone, all bright and full of smiles. The past few days had been rough -- a still healing cut on her cheek testament to that -- but she was excited to be learning how to cook and she had come prepared, hair braided and tied back (those stoves could be tricky) and carrying with her a basket filled with various fruits.

Cooking was definitely not her area of expertise, far from it, but it seemed an important skill for mortals to have, what with the whole eating thing. Persephone wasn't really sure why she hadn't caught on to it sooner, considering, but it was better late than never.

[ned_piemaker]

"Oh, you brought fruit!"

The Piemaker stepped out of the way politely, beckoning her inside and noticing the cut on her cheek, but not asking about it. He had a little more tact than all of that. At least she didn't appear to have brought any rocks with her.

"So, uh, kitchen's just in here," he said as he walked, hands back in his pockets. It suddenly flitted into his mind how everyone here seemed to be younger than him - and how creepy this might seem if people heard about it, inviting a teenage girl into his barracks to teach her how to cook. The Piemaker often concerned himself with this type of thing - wondering what others would think of his actions.

Still, he had promised.

"Are you still speaking in tongues?"

[poppingseeds]

Persephone could be quite nice when she wasn't chucking rocks at people or threatening to dismember them with vines, the last part she didn't even really remember that she could do. Still! She could be alright.

The girl followed him into the kitchen and set the basket of fruit down on one of the counters, not noticing at all the difference in their ages. It was something that didn't bother her an iota. Technically, she was older than the piemaker, even if she didn't physically show it. Perk of being a goddess.

The question was cause enough to roll her eyes and she muttered a 'yes' in Greek, gesturing with annoyance.

[ned_piemaker]

The Piemaker nodded, ducking out of the way as she came into the kitchen. He reached out two large mixing bowls and set one down in front of himself and one on a free bit of counter by Persephone, retracting his arm quickly and smiling tentatively.

"Alright, well, if you have a question, write it out in the flour." He pushed a bunch of dry ingredients towards her, and realized he didn't have any measuring cups. It hadn't seemed a problem to him - he had been baking so long he knew from a glance what was a cup, or three-fourths of a cup, etc. He fumbled through the cupboards, taking down different sizes of containers to measure in.

"So... ready?"

[poppingseeds]

Write in the flower... Interesting thought. Writing physically wasn't something Persephone had tried yet, so now was as good a time as any. She'd be getting to do all sorts of experiments today!

Persephone took the mixing bowl and moved it closer to herself, noting the almost nervous way Ned moved away from her. He was a weird one and she raised her eyebrows, but didn't say a word. It wouldn't do any good, so instead she nodded, indicating that she was ready.

[ned_piemaker]

"So, this one is the flour, here's the salt and sugar, and I've got butter and milk in the refrigerator." As he listed them, Ned pointed to the containers in question. Each was labeled in his own neat, slightly effeminate handwriting. "What you're going to do first is take two cups of flour ... that one is about a cup, right, there." He pointed once again, "And pour them in the big bowl, and then add a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar, OK?"

[poppingseeds]

Persephone canted her head as she listened, watching as he pointed to each of the ingredients and soaking up the information. When he was done, she did as instructed.

The flour was the easy part -- that came with a cup. The pinch of salt and sugar, well... Persephone was a bit enthusiastic with the two of those and ended up with quite a bit more than a pinch of each. She looked down at her bowl with feigned nonchalance. She had meant to do that. Really.

[ned_piemaker]

The Piemaker could not help smiling at this. He could deal with worse. He had once had a customer bring in her rather enthusiastic nine year old to learn to bake pies. It had been a long afternoon, but Ned had triumphed in the end. He was an exceedingly patient person, after all

[poppingseeds]

Persephone looked down at her bowl with a bit of disappointment. Oh well. She could practice more before Robin woke up, whenever that would be. The girl hoped soon and she sighed wistfully.

He wasn't the only one that missed someone.

The butter was confusing her a bit, though, and she raised both her eyebrows, staring at the stick inquisitively. Why did they need it to be that small and how were they to do it? She mimed the pea motion and shoved the butter at Ned with a nod. If he went first and showed her how to do it, there shouldn't be a problem.

[ned_piemaker]

Ned had unconsciously begun to treat Persephone as a child - not in a patronizing way, but because it was so obvious she had not cooked anything before. He showed her how to tear off chunks of butter, but seemed to change his mind after one or two. It did take a bit of strength, and he didn't want her to feel like she was a slow learner.

"Actually, just let me cut it up for you really quickly." He took a knife from the drawer and made short work of the butter, dicing it like a pro and then stepping back to let Persephone have access to the heap of little chunks, "So go ahead and dump those in."

[poppingseeds]

Hey, if she could get him to do most of the work for her, Persephone wasn't going to complain. Regardless, she watched every movement carefully, grey eyes trained on his hands.

Once all the butter was dealt with, she threw it into the bowl with a happy hum and looked over at Ned with a 'what's next?' expression. This pie thing was turning out to be pretty easy so far.

[ned_piemaker]

"Now we've got to mix some liquid in. You can vary it from pie to pie ... I usually use milk, egg yolk and just a little honey for my pies..." As he is speaking Ned pulls these things from the refrigerator, setting them on the counter by Persephone - a carafe of creamy milk, two eggs, and a jar of honey. "You're going to need about as much as will fill that square glass container, you see the one? Uh, do you know how to separate out egg yolks?"

[poppingseeds]

Separate egg yolks? You could do that? Usually, Persephone just smashed them around a bit in a pan and hoped to avoid the shell bits (which resulted in a eating a good deal of them in the final product of her endeavour). Oh, this was going to be exciting!

Persephone shook her head and eagerly took up the two eggs, handing one over to Ned.

[ned_piemaker]

((OOC: So I know the egg wouldn't come to life if it was unfertilized, but he hardly knows if these eggs are unfertilized and he's paranoid, so bear with me - also I know I wasn't specific but assume that the eggs he put on the counter were in a carton, and he only touched the carton... I need to be more careful with this boy, oy vey))Ned had been zoning out and remembering teaching Chuck how to make pie crust in this very same way. He consequently did not notice until the last second that Persephone was trying to hand him the egg, was in fact, a millimeter away from touching the egg to his hand. His heart suddenly rocketing adrenaline into his bloodstream Ned jerked both hands away, holding them close to his chest, trying to stifle his startled gasp as best as he could

[poppingseeds]

((Don't worry about it! If you need me to change anything ever, let me know and I can easy.))

Okay. Ned? Ned was weird. Incredibly so.

Persephone backed off a little when he came back, but still handed him the egg when he offered one wrapped up hand. Why he had done that, the girl had no idea and though she wanted to ask, she couldn't verbalize it in any way that made sense.

Still, seeing if the piemaker was okay seemed like a good idea. Persephone spilled some of the flour onto the counter and spread it out with the hand that wasn't cradling the egg. She began to write out the question when... Crap.

It was writing out in Greek. She looked down at the letters with wry bemusement, sorely tempted to throw the egg at the flour.

[ned_piemaker]

Ned took the egg gingerly with his coated hand, watching as Persephone tried to write out a question and failed. Well, maybe the speaking in tongues wasn't so bad as it could be, if it delayed his having to answer the question he knew she was trying to ask. Then again, maybe ... a white lie would be best. Avoid the situation altogether, in case she did remember and thought he was unwilling to answer.

"I'm allergic," he burst out, remembering the excuse Chuck had given Olive in his own world as to why she could not touch Ned. His eye was twitching uncontrollably, "I'm very... verrryy allergic to eggs. Can't touch them."

He wanted to gloss over the moment, and cleared his throat. "So... what you do is break the egg gently on a bowl." He demonstrated, tapping it on an empty bowl, "And then open it with your hands so it is half and half...and then, you just want the yellow, so you shift it back and forth between the two so that the white drips out, see..."