[R] Cooking Skills Are A Must [Rene + Mikhail]

[[Mistress Morbid]]

Rene rocked idly on his stool in the Home Ec class. The class had been assigned partners and he was currently waiting on his. Today they would be making a quiche, something he had never made before. The dark haired boy was both excited and nervous, about both trying a new recipe and about who his partner was. Normally, they had been allowed to pick their own but the teacher had decided to try something new for once, with the added effect of saying it was good to meet new people. "Ugh.. I hope I don't make a fool of myself." Rene groaned as he held his head in his hands and counted the seconds. He also hoped that one of them knew what they were doing...

Niloufer

DOES THIS WORK?

 

[Niloufer]

Mikhail's fingers fidgeted nervously, tweaking the blue tie that was part of their school uniform. He had been loitering back awaiting to see which station he would be assigned to. Half of the class had been sectioned off and were being paired with other students, and the thought made the boys stomach do a nervous little flop. He had picked Home Ec as an elective almost solely on the fact that it was a "solitary" class. The stations were all set up for individual students, most assignments you did on your own.

They had never mentioned anything about partnered assignments. How on earth did you eve cook with someone? Did one person cook and stir while the other was just there for moral support? Like some time of culinary cheer leader? The whole situation made him antsy, and he found himself hanging to the back of the crowd, behind the other students who he hadn't really bothered to learn the names of ( Because, as he had thought, this was supposed to be a primarily independent class), drawing on his almost supernatural ability to blend into his surroundings even though he was a rather tall lad.

That was at least until the teacher assigned him to his new table with his partner. The boy who occupied it was currently clutching his head as if in the grips of a migraine. Oh maybe he would get lucky and his partner would have to go to the nurse, and he wouldn't have to succumb to his stutter in front of what was basically a complete stranger. Not that he wanted the boy to be in pain. His brain circled in this endless circuit of thought, back and forth as he made his way over to the table and sat down, perching and fighting the intense desire to fidget with his tie again.

" Um... hi... are you ok? " He peeked at his partner again, trying to discern if he looked ill or not.

[Mistress Morbid]

Works for me!

 

[[Mistress Morbid]]

At the sound of the voice, Rene's head popped up. "Oh... Uhm yeah." He laughed awkwardly. "Yeah... I'm just fine, ya know.. short of embarrassing myself. Uh... I guess you're my partner?" The dark haired boy offered the other teen a hand. "Rene. I'm sorry I'm kinda bad with names so if I mess yours up I apologize." He scooted over, making room for his partner at the table.

"Do you know how to make a quiche? Cause I don't... which is funny considering how much I bake at home.." Again Rene's head ended up in his hands.

Niloufer

 

[Niloufer]

Mikhail stares at his hand for a moment like it was an opening egg from the aliens movie, but only for a split second, before taking it. " M-Mikhail " He said, tripping over his own tongue, unable to stop the stutter now that he had his classmates direct attention. And of course, stuttering while someone was looking directly at him caused him to blush furiously with embarrassment, which was not entirely hidden by his dark skin.

Rene made room for Mikhail, and he sat a little more comfortably. It was definitely close quarters, their shoulders only a couple inches a part. " No... I don't really cook much. Is a Quiche like a big omelet? " He said, eying the mountain of eggs on table dubiously.

[Mistress Morbid]

 

[[Mistress Morbid]]

"It's nice to meet you Mikhail." Rene then turned, eyeing the mountain himself before he glanced at the recipe sheet that had been passed out earlier. "...I don't know, but looking at this it almost makes me think of a pie. That's a ridiculous amount of eggs though... It's almost intimidating." He shrugged lightly. "Guess we're both learning something new today." Perhaps he would try making these more often, depending on how this one turned out. "I normally do cakes.. or small candies. But this can't be too hard right? I mean between the two of us we should be able to do this no problem."

The Teacher's "aids" began passing around the various ingredients, and then when that was done, they were ushered off into their own little kitchenettes. "So, what do you wanna do first?" He offered. "Or if you want, we can both pick a separate thing to prepare and kind of meet in the middle?"

Niloufer

 

[Niloufer]

Mikhail bit his lip, an unconscious thinking gesture as he considered the ingredients that were plunked down on their table. There didn't seem to be to many of them. " I-i don't know. " He was fairly certain he could crack a few eggs, not sure about anything else." How comfortable are you chopping things? And what do we have to do with the spinach..? " He asked, carefully picking up the bag of baby spinach like it was about to blow.

He sort of leaned over to the recipe that Rene had in hand. He hadn't exactly failed an assignment in this class yet, but he hadn't really excelled either. He had nearly burn the Alfredo the other day and that bad basically just been mixing cheese and milk in a pan.

[Mistress Morbid]

 

[[Mistress Morbid]]

"I can do the chopping no problem." Rene said as he took the onion provided. "Uhm.. I think we have to give it a rinse and chop it up, so I can handle that. ...Did you want to do the cheese? ...And then maybe who ever finishes first can start tackling those eggs." Once again he blinked at the eggs provided. Why did they need so many? Reaching up for one of the over head cabinets, Rene began digging around until he finally found the cheese grater. "Uh, I suppose I should ask you first, do you like onions? Cause I have no problem leaving them out if you don't."

He passed off the grater, and a bowl he had pulled down before digging around in a drawer for a knife. "Oh! Right, we should probably preheat the oven so that's ready by the time we finish the prep work!"

Niloufer

 

[Niloufer]

Mikhail nodded and started peeling the block of cheese of its wrapper. It was probably best he didn't do chopping. He had excellent fine motor skills, but they were more for things like fixing the wiring of a computer then cutting up onions. He would probably lose himself a fingertip if he did. " I'm fine either way. So I guess the question is whether or not we want to risk onion breath. " He gave a shy little smile as Rene passed him the grater and bowl. He noticed the other boy considering their mini mountain of eggs " It is going to be a challenge to whisk all of those. Do we have a bowl big enough? "

He turned his attention to the taste at hand... wondering for a moment how he was supposed to keep a square box grater stable in the very round colorful plastic bowl. Kind of just sticking one in the other - Box grater angled crookedly so it was pointed down into the bowl- he started grating cheese with a single minded focus that would strike fear into the hearts of all the other cheeses of Azure Valley Academy. Or at least that is what he told himself, focusing very hard on not grating off his finger tips, little brilliant orange flecks of solidified dairy randomly flicking out in every direction.

[Mistress Morbid]

 

[[Mistress Morbid]]

Rene just glanced back at the onion before slowly pushing it off to the side. "I like my breathe onion free." He laughed before disappearing into the cabinets again. "Hmm, maybe... If we whisk slowly I don't think we'd make a mess, but if not we can always separate them and mix in two smaller bowls. Aha! Here we go." Rene grinned as he pulled a large bowl from the shelf. "Found it." With that he set it on the counter and promptly put the eggs in it. "And that will keep them from pulling anything or falling off the counter."

Rene set the oven to the predetermined temperature before getting to work on washing and chopping the spinach. An almost awkward silence had settled between them, but Rene was going to chalk it up to the two of them focusing at the task, literally, at hand. "So... At the risk of sounding cheesy... Um, what do you normally do? Er, ya know... since you said you're not into cooking much."

Niloufer

 

[Niloufer]

Mikhail kept stealing glances at his partner, the other boy moved around with a confidence that showed he was used to and comfortable working in a kitchen setting. Which made sense considering he said he liked to bake. Anytime Rene glanced his way his focus quickly returned to working the chese the grater until there was none left at all, and he had a giant heaping bowl of shredded cheese. The recipe had only called for half of the block. Well... they were just going to have extra cheesy goodness.

Rene's question started out of his contemplation of the abundance of cheese, and he thought of his answer before he blurting out something embarrassing like LARRPing or D & D. Those were things you needed to test the waters with a person before you brought it up. At least in Mikhail's mind, who was always a little afraid his peers were judging him. So Instead he settled for his true passion, and something that he couldn't see any possible way of being judged for.

" I like Technology... Building computers and such " A small pleased smile flicked across his face " I Built my computer from scraps and junk parts, and its still better then anything you can buy in the store. " He started portioning out some of the cheese that the recipe called for " If it has wires and gizmo's on it, I have to mess around with it. " He paused for a moment " What about you? You said you liked baking? Is that what you want to do when you graduate? Like those guys on Ace of C-cakes? " His stutter became even more pronounced as he got embarrassed, wondering if it was weird that a guy who doesn't really like to cook or bake was familiar with a food network show about cakes.  

[[Mistress Morbid]]

"Oh yeah? That's kinda cool!" Rene said as he threw the spinach in a skillet. "I guess that's something we have in common though?? I mean.. I can't build a computer or anything, but I usually fix whatever's around the house. But I like reading too." He laughed lightly as he shook his head. "I don't really know what I want to do when I graduate. "I don't know if I could do this baking thing full time. I mean I like it, but I don't want to... I don't know get bored of it? Sometimes I just need to stop and take a break you know?"

"I like watching those shows though." Once the spinach was done in the skillet he moved it into a separate bowl before moving on to the eggs. "Do you mind if we run it through a blender? Just so the spinach is a little more fine?"

Niloufer

 

[Niloufer]

" No, I get it. You don't want to B-burn out on something you l-l-love " He felt the same way about his model kits. He loved doing them but sometimes you just have to break up what you love into smaller sessions so you don't end up wanting to rip out your own hair. " That's probably why those guys make such c-crazy cakes anyway. Have to make it more extreme to k-keep it interesting. "

" Uuuh, sure! " It wasn't on the recipe care they were working from, but they were kind of already going a little off the rocks anyway as it was with double cheese and no onions. Personally Mikhail wouldn't have even thought of it, he rarely used a blender for anything other making the occasional milkshake, so sticking spinach and cheese and eggs in stuff wasn't something that would have crossed his mind.

He turned his dark eyes to the eggs " Should I start cracking those? " He said dubiously.

[Mistress Morbid]

 

[[Mistress Morbid]]

"I do a lot of baking for family things though ya know? It's easy and quick enough that it's just second hand nature for me at this point." Rene grinned slightly as he washed the knife he had been using. "Apparently I make better pies and such then one of my older relatives. And no one can figure it out." And to be honest? Neither could Rene.

Popping the lid off, and setting it to the side, Rene slid the spinach in before moving to collect the cheese from Mikhail. "If you want. We can split it half and half?" He eyed the eggs again. Did they really even need that many eggs? ...Maybe it was a psyche job from the teacher. ...Or the teacher just figured half the class was incompetent when it came to eggs. And judging the sheer number of "Crap!" and "Ack!" he'd heard so far, he'd be right.

"That's really cool you built your computer thought. I don't know if I could ever do something like that. Is there a lot you need to know about building a computer?" Rene asked as he finished sticking the cheese in the blender.

Niloufer

 

[Niloufer]

" It must just be a natural talent for you then. I once time tried to make cupcakes. You know, those instant ones in the box were you basically just add water and oil and put it in the cups? T-they ended up like little bricks. So being able to bake... its just beyond me ' He ventured another smile. His partner seemed genuinely friendly, and he felt himself relaxing more and more.

" Ok! Do we just want to p-put the eggs in the blender to? So we don't have to whisk a b-billion eggs? " He started cracking the eggs very carefully, as if he were handling explosive chemicals in the science lab instead of shelling eggs in home ec. He furrowed his brows as he cracked one egg in a smaller bowl, and inspected it for pieces of shell. He could probably count the number of times he had shelled eggs in his whole life. He was of the whole hearted opinion that all eggs should come shelled and in a easy pour catron.

[Mistress Morbid]

 

[[Mistress Morbid]]

"I've done that before when I was just starting out, with mini cupcakes." Rene commented. It had taken a few tries, but he had finally learned to shave five minutes off the recommended time. "Keep trying though, I'm sure you'll get the hang of it."

"That's actually brilliant." Rene said, looking from the eggs to Mikhail. "We can bring the trash can over and just dump the shells in it when we're done. One sec!" As Mikhail got to cracking the eggs, Rene grabbed what had been set aside to clean and dumped it in the kitchenette's sink before dragging the waste basket over. "...Egg shells the bane of your exsistance huh? Don't worry. Mine too."

Niloufer