(no subject)

[sunbaked_baker]

The two piles of cookbooks take up nearly half of the coffee table.

Ten-year-old Rae Seddon has claimed that space and one corner of the couch nearest the fireplace as her research area, while she looks up recipes she wants to try. Recipes using pineapple, recipes from other worlds (that Extrogastronomy badge will be hers). She has a few noted down with their source book and page number, with a little line of stars drawn in beside them to indicate how hard the recipe sounds...

She is hard at work, or as hard at work as a ten year old can be in a bar that always has interesting things going on (in other words, easily distractable).

Comments

[fry_sandhu]

"Let's go see our chick." Fry says, appearing next to her.

[sunbaked_baker]

"Our chick?" Rae looks up from writing down the long name of Pumpkin, Rye, and Chocolate Babka with Salted Maple Sugar Streusel, alarm on her face. "They're already here?"

This is just what she was afraid of.

[fry_sandhu]

"Yes, they came two weeks ago." Fry says. "Didn't you see the sign?"

He shrugs. "Don't worry, me and Dad have been doing our feeding."

[sunbaked_baker]

Her mouth twists. Now she feels bad, not having done her share. "No, I didn't see the sign. I've not been here."

"Is the chick okay?"

[fry_sandhu]

"He is called Fractions and he is growing between the fiftieth and seventy fifth centile." Fry says, getting out one of his notebooks to show her his graph.

[sunbaked_baker]

"He's doing pretty well, then," Rae smiles slightly, peering at the graph. It's all very impressively thorough.

"Fractions the chick," she grins a little. "Where'd the name come from?"

[fry_sandhu]

"Dad said I should name him something I like." Fry says.

"But I'm not allowed to handle chicks on my own so will you come with me please? Dad's not here because Gil has the bronk."

Fry isn't sure what kind of disease 'the bronk' is, only that it involves bogies and he doesn't want to catch it.

[sunbaked_baker]

"I don't know that I like fractions, but I like them better than decimals," Rae says, grinning as she marks her place in the recipe book and sets it aside so she can get up. "And fractions are useful in cooking. If you've got a big recipe and you need to scale it down, you gotta know how to divide fractions so everything comes out right."

Now that she knows the chick is okay, she's eager to meet it, herself. "Let's go see Fractions, then. Hope Gil gets better soon."

[fry_sandhu]

"Me too."

Fry goes with her to the back door.

"Dad says I can't take Fractions home at the end but Bonnie promised these chickens aren't going to be eaten." Despite liking chicken, he had been worried about this.

[intoaman]

There's a raven on the back of the couch now, trying to read over her shoulder. Human eyes are more use for this but he tries.

[sunbaked_baker]

The girl side-eyes the raven, fighting the smile wanting to tug at the corners of her mouth.

Instead of letting it, she turns her head just a little and blows a quick puff of air from her mouth, just enough to lightly ruffle some headfeathers.

"Hey you," she grins, impishly.

[intoaman]

He caws with surprise and hops away a few steps. Cheeky! He was reading.

He hops back and gives her a little bump with his wing, jumping down to investigate her notes.

[sunbaked_baker]

The wing-bump makes her chuckle as she holds the notes where he can see. "I'm trying to decide which recipe I should try first. The pumpkin, rye, chocolate babka bread sounds really good, but it's pretty complicated. The pineapple-coconut bars look scrumptious, but so do the cute little pineapple tarts!"

The question isn't, of course, which she will make, but which she will make first.

[intoaman]

Pineapple tarts. Diaval tugs at the page with his beak. That one first!

[sunbaked_baker]

"You're thinking the tarts, I see," she grins. "I think you're right. They look too good to pass up. I'll be sure to share them with you. Dr. Lecter said he'd get the pineapples for me, since I can't get them in my world, and don't have any money for them."

There is also the slight concern about using the oven without adult supervision.

"I'm still looking for a couple more recipes that I can try - I want to get my extrogastronomy badge for the scouts. You get that one for making foods from other worlds."

[intoaman]

Technically Diaval's an adult. Kind of anyway.

He nods and bounces down to look at the books, pushing them open with a clever beak. Oh! This one looks good! He taps the page for Pineapple and mint frappe. He caws to get her attention.

[sunbaked_baker]

"Oooooh," she says, looking over the picture and recipe below it. "That looks good. And it seems simple to make, too. Just three ingredients."

It definitely gets added to the list.

[cook_the_rude]

"Hello, Rae! What are you planning to make?"

That's Dr. Hannibal Lecter, peering at her stacks of cookbooks.

[sunbaked_baker]

"There's entirely too many recipes to choose from, Dr. Lecter," Rae says, smiling up at him. It is a rather wonderful problem to have.

"But I've got a list started of recipes I want to try. Some I think are from other worlds, and some that use pineapple. Diaval helped, too - he found a pineapple-mint smoothie recipe that sounds really good, and brought me a recipe for summer griddle cakes from his world."

[cook_the_rude]

"Do you make smoothies in your world as well?" Dr. Lecter asks.

[sunbaked_baker]

"Sometimes," Rae says with a grin, meaning not nearly often enough. "But it's still a new recipe to me. Maybe not otherworldly, but worth trying."

And using pineapple, too.

"Do you know what sloe berries are?" She has never heard of them!

[cook_the_rude]

"Yes, blackthorn berries are called sloes," Dr. Lecter says.

[sunbaked_baker]

"Blackthorn," she murmurs, noting this down. "The summer cakes recipe calls for ground sloe berries, dandelion juice, and dew collected at dawn from strawberry leaves. Figure I can't make 'em until there are strawberry leaves to collect the dew from..."

[cook_the_rude]

"You could see if there's any in the greenhouses," Dr. Lecter muses, "but perhaps they're really meant to be made only in summer."

[sunbaked_baker]

"They are summer cakes, after all," she nods. She had figured the same thing. "There has to be dew on the strawberry leaves and the dandelions have to be blooming."

"I want at least three recipes from other worlds so I can get the second level of the extro-gastronomy badge. I've got the summer griddle cakes recipe, and a recipe for..." she has to check her notes for the full name, "a Pumpkin, Rye, and Chocolate Babka with Salted Maple Sugar Streusel? Which sounds awesome, but a bit complicated. There's a lot of steps."