Logged By: Eniklas
On: September 22, 1999
Location: Kitchen: White Tower, Tar Valon
The first thing you notice when you first enter the room is the rather large sink sitting off to the left, with a water pump sticking over it to draw running water; piled high with pots and pans at all times. Along the back wall there are several counters used for preparing the meals used to support the Tower. There is a cupboard overtop of the counter, holding the dishes and other utensils needed. There are two rather large fireplaces in the right wall, used for cookfires and heating water. The floor is made of grey stonework, contrasting against the white walls of the large room.
The room has a toasty warm feeling, guarding against the cold of the winter, warmed by the fires left blazing in the two fireplaces. All seems quiet within the kitchen, though a servant or two can be seen milling about, perhaps taking watch over things in case an Aes Sedai gets the urge for a late evening meal.
There is a set of swinging doors that lead out of the room and back into the main dining area, which are in constant use by novices, staff and accepted during meal times..
Kitchen Garden Swinging Doors
Cast:
Eniklas - Dedicated Trainee
Vortian - Inductee Trainee
Eniklas' Description:
Standing at 5 feet and 9 inches, Nik has matured physically since his arrival nearly a year ago. Though not much taller, his shoulders have broadened a bit, and his upper body is just as muscular as is lower now, more impressive than most his age. He looks 15, more or less, but is face is more mature, longer and narrower, and slightly more pronounced. He still looks pretty young, even with the dark fuzz on his upper lip that he may need to shave sometime soon. He no longer hangs his head, golden eyes glittering in light, instead of staring at the ground. His close-cropped raven black hair still has an almost scruffy look though, it is clean, just not well combed. He takes very long strides for someone of his age. His face, eyes and voice hold no secrets, he is an open book, and emotions are clearly painted on them unless he holds the Void. (Note: When training, he is bare-chested unless I pose otherwise.)
Vortian's Description:
A tall, wiry boy of about fourteen. His apparent skinniness belies a whipcord strength. Dark, almond shaped eyes twinkle mischievously; these and his tanned face hint at his Tairen ancestry. His straight dark hair grows to brush his shoulders, curling just slightly at the ends. His hands are long and thin, almost delicate until one notices the calluses of hard work upon them. He's dressed in black pants and a blue shirt, as well as high black boots.
Eniklas walks into the kitchen with Vortian. The Mistress of the Kitchens assigns Nik to do a large turkey and Vortian to a cake.
Vortian bites his lip and stage whispers to Nik: "Do you know how to bake a cake, Nik?"
Eniklas shakes his head. "But she left instructions over there. Just like I have some." He steps to the turkey, and begins to stuff it with breadcrumbs. It is actually a bit old.
Vortian picks up the instructions, grumbling that baking cakes is women's work, not for a real man at all. "Pour two cups of flour into large mixing bowl." He reads aloud. He shrugs, gets a teacup from the cabinet, and dumps two teacups of unsifted flour into the bowl. The Mistress of the Kitchens does not notice as she's haranguing two novices for something.
Eniklas begins putting pepper in, by the handful. He puts in 4 handfuls.
Vortian reads again. "1 cup of sugar. That won't be sweet enough." Two teacups of sugar go in. "And one t-b-s," he reads each letter aloud, "of salt. Ew. Salt doesn't go in cakes? And what's a tbs?"
Eniklas shakes his head, "Umm.. I don't know. I think 's' is for spoon though. Try those big ones over there." He points to the huge measuring
spoons. He consults his chart. "Okay, now I need mashed potatoes."
Vortian shrugs and does as Nik tells him too, grabbing the biggest spoon he can find and heaping salt all over it.
Eniklas takes some potatoes. He peels them, not very well, and then cuts them into chunks. He then starts mashing them on a board. "These
aren't turning out right." The Mistress of the Kitchens is busy at the other end of the kitchen.
Vortian shrugs. "Two eggs." He takes two, stares at them for a moment, and drops them whole into the bowl. "And 1 cup of butter."
Eniklas shoves the potatoes in. He then looks at the not completely full thing. "I guess I'll have to put something else in." He looks around for carrots, and finds the softest he can. "We need soft carrots for stuffing and lettuce." He grabs some lettuce, and begins cutting. He uses a knife that was used for cutting greasy pork.
"Lettuce? I'm pretty sure no lettuce has ever been in the turkey before," Vortian says loftily. As if he knows. "Stir ingreedients well." His big "tsp" begins to fly as he stirs the cake. "Hey, these eggs broke." He frowns into the mess. "Are they supposed to do that? Oh wait, I missed an ingreedient. One cup of honey. We'll want more than that. They never make the cakes sweet enough." He dumps the entire bottle in. "That should do it."
Eniklas shrugs, "It said vegetables." He hmms. "Still not full. I should put gravy in." He mistakes some pork grease for gray, and starts to put it in.
Vortian whistles an old sea shanty as he mixes up the gooey mess. "Pour into pan." He actually manages not to find a way to mess this up. "And bake for 45 minutes on a low fire. Hey Nik? Do you think we can get this over with faster if I do it on a high fire for 20 minutes?"
Eniklas nods, "That's what I'm going to do."
Vortian adds a lot more wood and oil to the fire and sticks the cake in. "I guess I gotta ice it, too."
Eniklas puts his on the pot, and puts as much timber and oil as Vortian on.
Vortian finds the directions for icing. "Powdered sugar and butter. That's it?" Icing is probably the most easy thing in the world. This stuff actually comes out correctly, nicely fluffy and white. Which may have practical applications for covering the mess that the cake is likely to be.
The Mistress of the Kitchens calls over to them, "While it cooks, do that soup over there. It's already got the water it needs."
Vortian shrugs. "Soup? I can do soup." He digs around in the larder,
discovers some carrots and onions, and throws them in. Whole.
Eniklas walks over, and gets the broth. He puts in a large canister of
barley. Dry.
Vortian looks to Nik. "Think we should put any of that lettuce in the soup?"
Eniklas nods, "Sure. But we're a bit low on the good lettuce." The old
lettuce. He points Vortian to the old lettuce, and then pulls a bit of the old lettuce out of the cooking turkey. It is covered in pepper and hog grease.
Vortian wrinkles his nose. Then unwrinkles it and shrugs. "It'll add
texture." He tries to sound like professional chef. "Hey, I bet the cake's done." He goes over, grabs a potholder, pulls out the most burning, sticky, blackened, disgusting, ugly mess you've ever seen. There's a nicely charred eggshell sticking right out the top. He frowns, plucks that undesirable element out, throws it in the wastebarrel, and says, "That doesn't look right. Oh well. The icing will take care of that." With that he begins carefully applying the beautiful fluffy white icing.
Eniklas puts the soup on a very high fire, and then checks his turkey. A bit of the stuffing that had been pulled out onto the metal and caught fire. Nik snuffs it out and puts it back in, and then takes the turkey and begins basting it.
Vortian frowns. "You shouldn't be pouring water on the turkey, you'll make it all soggy." Meanwhile the cake becomes beautiful. Its a little bit funny shaped, true, but many cakes are. He licks the icing and says, "This cooking stuff isn't so hard, after all." After all the icing, at least, is done great.
The Turkey is now red, and looks pretty good, if a bit on the burnt side. "It looks great."
Vortian scratches his head. "Yeah, not too bad. Good job, Nik. What about that soup, anyway?"
Eniklas grabs the soup, and brings it back. It looks inconspicuous
================================= White Tower ================================
Message: 8/30 Posted Author
Chaos in the Kitchens! Wed Sep 22 Eniklas
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Aes Sedai and Gaidin, novices, Accepted and trainees alike were in for a /really/ big if they ate a certain cake, turkey, or soup.
The turkey was stuffed with old breadcrumbs, 4 handfuls of pepper, mashed raw potatoes, soft carrots, old lettuce, and lots of pork grease. A bit of it was burned to chars, but put back in. The turkey was roasted for a very short time at very high temperatures, and thus was horribly burned on the outside and uncooked on the inside. It was basted nicely, and ended up
looking only a bit on the burned side.
The Soup was made from water, whole carrots, whole onions, a canister of dry barley, old lettuce, and pork grease. It /looks/ inconspicuous.
The cake was made from 2 cups of unsifted flour, 2 teacups of sugar, a large measuring spoon of salt, 2 /whole/ eggs, 1 cup of butter, and 1 bottle of honey. It was cooked for a very short time at very high temperatures. It was horribly burned, but iced beautifully, and now only looks a bit oddly shaped. When complaints were given to the Mistress of Kitchens, it was revealed that trainees Eniklas and Vortian made the soup.
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