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 Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 5:50 pm
 The only good thing about this class, Siemon reflected as he stood behind one of the spotless baking stations, is that there is no embarrassment in being among a flock of girls. In most schools, the Home Economics classes tended to be dominated by girls, but in Tidal Heights, they still had it for the ones who were still interested in cooking and various other practical skills. Siemon Julius Crawford would much rather be studying or getting in an extra session of fencing, but he already had a study period, and it seemed as though if his hands were ever devoid of books, it was clasping his practice rapier. At least here he would be able to learn some basics for keeping his uniform and cloth equipment in pristine condition. Of course the only other problem he could foresee was the forced interaction with one of his fellow students when he would much rather work by himself, otherwise known as, teaming up.
"Lures and Crawford!" the teacher called out, moving on past Siemon's station, and the boy scanned the room for the rest of his classmates, looking to see which one would be breaking off and moving to join him. He watched as a blond-haired boy with neatly-trimmed hair stepped forward and moved to join him at the station; definitely not the least intelligent-looking of the lot. He offered the boy a stiff but polite nod and waited until the rest of the class had been paired off, his brown eyes following the teacher as he made his way back to the front. "Alright students, you have from now until the end of the class to work together and make.....cheesecake." Siemon stifled his own groan, hearing the sounds of the others who hadn't had the self control to hold theirs in. "You can make whatever kind you want; the only rule is that it must be a cheesecake. You will be graded for taste of course, and extra will be given for the complexity of the recipe, so you can make up your own minds now whether or not it would be beneficial to scrape through with a second-rate 10-minute concoction." The teacher glanced up at the clock. "You may all begin; now."
The first thing Siemon did was reach over and turn on the oven; he knew from experience that too many classroom bakers wasted time waiting for their ovens to preheat, and it was quicker to adjust the temperature than to have it heat up completely. That done, he turned to his partner and cleared his throat. "Well...do you have a particular flavor in mind?"
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Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 7:32 pm
 The secrets to the culinary world were hidden in many places. On television shows, in your own kitchen, between the pages of books...and in Home Ec. Percival had been looking forwards to this class since returning to the school for his final year. This was the year when he could experiment a little, he could test his personal theories and perhaps learn some wonderful flavor combination's. So needless to say, this was a class that Percival had no intentions of ever being late to or incomplete on his homework.
He watched the teacher as she began calling out partners for the class. Oh..he hoped he did not get a bad partner for this. His breath caught in his chest as she wandered to each desk area. When his name was finally called, he calmly picked up his book bag and parted from the crowd. Just because he was looking forwards to this class did not mean he was going to embarrass himself with a display of girlishness. The boy already sitting at their station looked to be a no-nonsense sort too. Those glasses gave Percival a sense of hope. He did not take the time to introduce himself to the other boy, as he wanted to be settled in to his seat before the teacher began to speak. Just in case it was a lecture first today, he didn't want to waste time rifling through his backpack for things.
Much to his delight, they were given a assignment right off the bat. Forty minutes to make a cheesecake? Well that was cutting it rather close! A proper cheesecake had to cook for at least an hour! He figured the rest of the boys groaning knew what a challenge this was already.
Percival flipped his notebook open and quickly scribbled 'CHEESECAKE' across the top of the page. he tapped his pen once on the page and began to chew on his bottom lip. "Flavors...Caramel Apple Cheesecake I think. maybe with a cinnamon gram crust... Gotta cut the recipe down though to cook in under thirty minutes otherwise it'll be under baked." As Percival spoke his pen flew over the page, jotting down the ingredients and measurements on the left side, then cutting it down by half on the right side of the page. He paused then and glanced at Siemon as if he realized he'd made a decision without even making certain the other boy liked the idea. "Is that fine with you?"
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Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 8:00 pm
Siemon was genuinely relieved to see the energy the other boy already seemed to exhibit as he began to jot down something in his notebook. Surely only someone confident in their abilities would be excited about putting forth a decent cheesecake in the allotted time. Already he could see a few other boys scrambling around at their stations; one pair seemed to have everything in their station's refrigerator out on the counter, as though seeking inspiration, and another pair were arguing in not-so-hushed tones about whether or not raspberries or blueberries would be the best fruit to use. He was quite pleased with his partner's suggestion; not everyone would think to use apples, and the challenge to make the dish visually appealing would surely not go unnoticed by the teacher.
He nodded curtly at the other boy and pulled out his own notebook. It didn't really matter much to him, as he would likely not be sampling their creation. Only the opinion of the teacher mattered for the grade, and he had been working for a long time on disciplining himself when it came to sampling any goods he was making or baking. "Caramel apple is just fine, and good idea; if we make the portion smaller, it will take less time to cook, and really only the teacher needs to taste it for us to get a good grade." He turned and began to rummage in the cupboards for a smaller sized pan, emerging with one about the size of a personal pizza. "This size should work, and it will help us narrow down the options for visual designs."
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Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 8:17 pm
Percival finished his edits to the recipe and tapped his pen twice on the page before checking the temperature on the oven. that Siemon had set. "I am Percival by the way." he added, finally introducing himself before setting off to collect the ingredients they would need. "Do you want to get to work on mixing the crust while I get the filling started? Forty minutes won't give out cake much time to cool before we can work on decorating it." Which really was a regret. he had wanted to put dollops of whip cream on it.
He paid no attention to the rest of the class. Whatever they did with their time and assignment he'd learn after he was done with his cake. he glanced up to eye the plate held up by Siemon. "It's a good size but..better use some butter to grease it up before putting the crust into it. I don't want to risk the crust sticking and crumbling just because the school may have less then professional quality cookwear. There is no telling how good the teflon is on any of this." It really was a pity he couldn't bring his own cooking gear from home here.
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Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 8:45 pm
Siemon nodded at the other boy and settled for a small bow in lieu of a handshake; he was busily washing his hands and wanted to make sure that he didn't get any surprise ingredients in the cheesecake. even in a school as prestigious as this, boys could still do the most unsightly things with their hands. "Siemon Julius Crawford; good to meet you Percival." He nodded as he dried his hands and began to pull out ingredients for the crust, wrinkling his nose as he read the back of a box of graham crackers. So much sugar..... and the cheesecake would only add more to it.....
He turned and frowned slightly at Percival; of course he would grease the pan! He was only presenting it for the size; no point in getting it dirty if the size was wrong. He sighed inwardly; it wouldn't do much good to chastise now. Doubtless his partner was just wanting to make sure that they had a cheesecake worthy of a good grade. He peered over his glasses at the still-arguing partners across the classroom; they probably wouldn't have too much trouble being the best of the session.
Deciding to merely nod, Siemon turned his attention to the pan, taking a stick of butter and using it on his hands like a lotion, then rubbing the inside of the pan vigorously. "Hopefully not bad enough to flake off in the oven, but I seriously doubt that this school would stand to have their cookware go that much to rust." With the amount my folks are paying and holding over my head, he added silently, they had better not.
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Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 9:00 pm
Percival's mind was already clicking through the steps he would need to ensure the cheesecake was done on time. It did not occur to him to ack his partner if he knew much about cooking. He knew he knew quiet a bit, and thus his confidence sort of prompted him to make certain this unknown did not make some sort of mistake that would cost them time. They would have plenty of time to learn about each others skills after this assignment was completed.
After Siemon finished washing his hands, Percival unbuttoned and removed his jacket. He couldn't cook in that stiff thing. Underneath he wore a no-nonsense plain white t-shirt...with a tiny lemon embroidered on the left shoulder area. He moved next to wash not only his hands, but all the way up to his elbows for good measure. He knew this was not surgery...nor was it anything more then a home ec class. But there was no reason at all that he couldn't do this right!
"You probably have a point, but I wouldn't put it past the teachers to slip some faulty dishes in just to purposefully make us fail at making perfect grades. Cooking can be a very easy class to some, and if it doesn't seem like you have to work for that grade some people tend to become slackers." Percival spoke rather cheerfully and objectively as he started measuring out the ingredients for the filling. He could not stop himself from dipping his pinky into some sourcream and tasting it to judge the strength before making a tiny change to the sugar ratio on his pad of paper. "I'm thinking of a apple slice poinsettia decoration with a dollop of whip cream, dusting of cinnamon and drizzle of caramel on top. What do you think?"
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Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 9:34 pm
With each passing moment Siemon was realizing more and more that he had a partner who actually knew what he was doing when it came to cooking, and he felt inwardly more and more relieved. He wasn't very knowledgeable with cooking, and having someone on his team who did would help him eke through the cooking part of the Home Economics class. It wasn't that he was inept by any means, he was just more used to cooking things that weren't usually part of a class project. Oh he could make the suggestion, with all of the authority he would need behind it, but then people would see it and wonder, and if they found out he was behind it, then it would all be out in the open and he would have cheerfully stuck his head in an oven before allowing anyone to believe that he was nothing more than what they saw.
Setting the dramatics aside in his head, Siemon turned to observe his partner removing his uniform, though he himself did little more than ensure that his sleeves were rolled up past the elbows. "The same can be said for any class, but it usually takes one large mishap to soon set them straight." As though to prove his point, an outcry arose from one of the stations; one of the teams had placed their crust into the oven for too long, and now a plume of smoke was leaking out of the slightly ajar oven door. Ignoring the lot, he reached down and carefully placed his own pie crust in the oven, taking care to jot down the time so that he could keep an eye on their own pie crust and ensure it did not become an inedible, charred mess.
He straightened up and peered casually at the notes his partner was making. He was definitely glad he would not be tasting his concoction. As Percival would talk of whipped cream and caramel drizzle, he could hear his mind crying out; What do I think? I think that's a sugar-infused nightmare! What came out of his mouth was, "It sounds great; simple yet elegant decorating is in our favor when we're using bigger things like apple slices." He suddenly looked up as the teacher rapped smartly on his desk to get the attention of the class. "I'm glad to see you all are putting your best effort into this." His gaze skipped clear over the two with the smoking oven, one student even looking as though he had a light layer of ash clinging to his face. "As well as my own grade, an additional graded assignment for you all will be to sample your work and write a short paper on how you feel you can improve the recipe you and your partner have created. You don't have to do it together; in fact, I would prefer your own individual work. Right then; back to work."
Siemon felt a lump rising in his throat, and his eyes widened slightly behind his glasses. Sample the cheesecake?? With the caramel glaze and the sugar-butter-saturated graham cracker crust?? That could ruin everything! He felt his body ache just thinking about it. Even a small slice could be havoc!
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Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 9:56 pm
There...he had everything out and set on the table. Still, he took a spare moment to double check all his measurements before he even began the mixing. "Eh. If I had a large mishap I would get a forty five minute long call from my parents going over my responsibilities to make it through this year with good marks or something." He paused and sniffed the air as shouts came from another station. He could already smell the burnt crust and wrinkled his nose. "Too hot...too little butter..." He mumbled, clearly being able to tell just from the scent of the smoke what was wrong with the crust. Of course, there could be other problems but..a burnt crust was a burnt crust. He turned to eye the time left on their own crust. He didn't want to be embarrassed like that!
Having Siemon agree on the decorations brought a very bright smile to his face. "You know how to make caramel right? I think if we make it by hand it'll get us extra points." he asked. It made no sense for them to stand around doing nothing for thirty minutes while the cheesecake baked. One could wash and slice the apples while the other worked on a caramel sauce surely? He looked to the teacher then as she would rap on the desk and make her announcement. Percivals face flickered through a series of interested, eager, disappointed, and slightly offended looks. He grumbled under his breath after a moment. "How do you improve on perfection? Honestly. What a hack of a teacher." Shaking his head he flipped his hand towards the stove. "How much time does the crust have left?"
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Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 10:28 pm
Rolling his eyes, Siemon nodded as he sketched a poinsettia in his notebook with a ribbon of caramel weaving around it like a graceful track left by an ice skater. "This IS the best school in the area; our parents want to make sure their money is well spent. It's good to know some of us can make it worthwhile to them." He glanced once more at the station across the classroom, where the two boys were hastily putting together another crust and throwing the charred remains of the first away.
Siemon nodded and pulled out a small pot, with a short glance into the oven to ensure that their own crust was still in the edible stage. Just a few more minutes, it seemed. If only he had thought to try something else with that sugary crust! Suddenly, his hand came down to rest against his pants pocket; he always kept packets of artificial sweetener on his person for those times when he just had to have sweet with whatever he was having, like coffee for instance. His eyes moved to the bowl where soon Percival would be mixing ingredients together to form the cheesecake, and if memory served, nearly a whole cup of sugar would go into that mix! His eyes darted to the spice canister of cinnamon, awaiting the time when it would be sprinkled on the top. Using enough would cover up any artificial taste the 'sugar' would produce, but you only needed a little bit of the artificial stuff, whereas the real thing would lay there in a crystalline white mountain, and not even the idiots across the way would be fooled in thinking that something was substituted. If he could just take his partner's eyes off the bowl long enough to switch the sugars, and then start mixing before the switch was discovered.....
He looked down at the pot, scowling as he realized that for all of his scheming and planning, he couldn't possibly pull the same stunt with the caramel. The sweetener would never be able to give it that luscious brown color. Ah well, he could always scrape it off; not everyone liked caramel, after all.
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Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 10:54 pm
Best school indeed. Thus far he'd heard from each of his elder brothers that this was a golden opportunity for him. He was the lucky one to go to private school. Unless of course the twins that were younger then him managed to get sent here too...thought he doubted his parents could pay tuition for two kids at the same time for this school. Since they would not show favoritism of one twin over the other, they'd go to public school.
Now that everything was in order, Percival began to mix the wet ingredients together. Carefully whipping them up with a hand held egg beater rather then using the electric mixer. he progressed on, unaware of Siemon's current situation and problem. He began to hum under his breath in time to the whirring of the beaters. His eyes did flick back up though, as Siemon had not answered his question.
"Caramel? You know how to make it? Or do you want to switch? I have everything measured out and proportioned. I can easily walk you through that while making the caramel? Should we take a extra few minutes and melt some dark chocolate to spread over the top of the cheesecake after adding the apple poinsettias?"
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Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 10:57 pm
The thought suddenly struck Siemon as he was pulling away from the oven, his slender hand protected by a washcloth as he held the pan that boasted a perfectly browned crust. He watched keenly as Percy proceeded to mix the wet ingredients, the dry remaining on the table for now, including the measuring cup heaped with sugar. He peered at the amount and made a quick mental note in his head; if he knew one thing it was this type of compensation.
Clearing his throat, he placed the crust down on the far left side of the station and shrugged a little. "To be perfectly honest, I do know how to make caramel, but I would welcome any assistance you might offer; I don't have the steadiest hand with keeping things at a constant boil." Which was true; he didn't exactly feel at ease handling the caramel and felt that a more practiced hand in cooking would ensure it would be more the way it was supposed to be and not end up a sticky, brown lump. Besides, it provided something more welcome than a successful topping for their project; it provided a distraction.
"I'll mix the rest of the ingredients together and you can make the caramel." He slid over to where the ingredients lay waiting, and busied himself with mixing until he was certain that Percy was fully involved with the caramel. Turning his back as much as he could toward the other, Siemon deftly upended the sugar in a nearby bowl and stuck it into one of the lower drawers. Pulling out a handful of packets, he counted several out before emptying them into the bowl, finally stuffing the empty wrappers back into his pockets and operating the handheld beater with a fervor. It might come out a bit on the sweet side, but the cinnamon should even it out.
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Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 12:34 am
Percival set the wet mixture down and lifted his gaze to Siemon. It was nice to have a partner that wasn't going to slack off, but was willing to step back when they were not sure of themselves in a given task. Percival shifted his feet to slide around Siemon, his blond haired head giving a slight nod. "That is fine Siemon. Caramel can be a little tricky anyways, and if it burns..well nothing tastes as bad as burnt caramel think. Just that tiny drizzle would totally ruin our cake."
Percival peeked at the crust as he got out a pot and placed it on the stove. Siemon had baked a very beautiful crust, and he sniffed appreciatively at the warm gram scent wafting off it. It just made his mouth water! He couldn't wait to taste their cake! Smiling happily, Percival began to work on the caramel. With his attention not straying from the pot while he whisked the sugar within, he was ignorant of the swap that occurred by Siemon. "Let me know when you need to get into the oven." He called to his partner. His green eyes flicked over at some of the other students tables and he made a small tsking sound. Some of the students seemed to be making such simple cheesecakes..but their pie plates were too big. he could just imagine how watery the cake was going to be due to being unbaked. He was rather proud of the mixture he and Siemon had for their cake.
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 8:21 pm
There! The deed was done, and there was no going back now. Even if Percival found the sugar in the bowl hidden inside the cupboard, to add it would only sickeningly over-sweeten the cheesecake. Siemon made sure to add a generous sprinkling of cinnamon into the mixture, figuring a little inside the cheesecake itself might work to dispel the slight artificial flavoring. He turned and saw Percival hard at work with the caramel; apparently he hadn't seen a thing. So much the better.
He turned and nodded to his partner as he folded the last of the ingredients together, carefully mixing everything so that there was minimal shifting of ingredients; didn't want to whip it all into a floofy mess before it even had a chance to bake. "I'm about done mixing the ingredients; we just need to pour it into the pan and get it in the oven as soon as possible." He wasn't feeling particularly pressed for time; he knew that with their being smaller, they would need less time to bake than the overly large ones the rest of the class was making. He just fretted a bit that Percival might find the sugar in the midst of the cleanup. He told himself that he would linger after class was over and pour the sugar back into the bag; no sense in the next group finding it and poring over it needlessly.
When he felt that his mixture was of a decent pouring consistency, Siemon turned to Percival. "It's ready to be poured in now; how is the caramel coming?"
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 9:11 pm
Under Percivals watchful gaze the sugar took on a warm brown color. The texture seemed to be moving from thin to a thicker syrup. With a flick of his hand, he turned the burner off. "I think it is done. It smells good and wow...I just want to take a spoonful right now. Just look at that!" With more then a small touch of pride Percival picked the pot up and scooped a heaping glob of fresh caramel up into a spoon. he held it out, almost teasingly towards Siemon to taste. However, he plunked it back into the pot and stepped to one side.
"The mixture looks good to me. You want to pour it into the pie crust and get it into the oven while I put this in a warm bowl?" He didn't want the caramel to get cold and too thick..but he couldn't keep it on the stove as then it would continue to cook. So instead he began to scrape the caramel into a small glass bowl, so he could set it into a larger bowl of hot water. "So...I guess we could get the apples all set? We'll need a bowl of cold water so they don't oxidize and get all brown. I really do not know what we're going to write about though. Our cake is going to be so perfect there will be nothing we could improve on it!"
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 11:44 pm
"15 minutes left everyone!" Siemon was already scraping the rest of the filling into the crust when he heard the teacher's announcement. He was sure that it would take longer than that for a regular-sized cheesecake, but for a smaller one......it could be just long enough. He was using the spatula to smooth out the pile of filling when Percival approached him with the spoonful of sugary caramel. His first impulse was to shy away, but he managed to steel his resolve, and after all, there was no time like the present to establish his reason. "I don't really like caramel......but it definitely looks good."
He picked up the pan and hurried to place it into the oven, turning the oven light on so that they could watch the cake's progress. Walking over to the refrigerator, he selected an apple and took it over to the sink to rinse off before putting it into the bowl. "I don't think she expects us to write anything until we've tasted it. The proof is in the taste, right?" He cast another critical eye around the room, watching the progress of the other teams. Despite the rocky start that a few of them had had, it seemed that most of them had finally turned themselves around and were proceeding fairly close to the pace he and Percival held. At least they weren't the only ones who had had the foresight to use the small pan, though he did see a few others that apparently the thought didn't cross their minds. Well, he shrugged mentally, we can't ALL graduate with honors.
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