fandomhighdorms | 5th floor common room, late Thursday morning

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5th floor common room, late Thursday morning

Annette was cooking. Okay, Annette was trying to cook. This is something she has never been good at no matter how many times she gave it a go. She had pancakes cooking though they were very questionable considering their too lumpy form. She had bacon frying, and she was currently cracking eggs in a bowl. She didn't notice any eggshells that fell in either. If she was going to survive college one day, she had to learn to cook. Right?

Her cat, Angel, was curled around her feet, purring and playing with Annette's shoe laces. "Angel that stop, going me up trip and then what will breakfast happen to? Burn will no one it then enjoy."

Annette blinked, cocked her head, and continued with the cracking of eggs. "Either know it I don't."

[The common room it is open! ETA: Annette's *mess* has been taken care of by Liir, anyone coming in after him is going to just see nice, neat, leftover pancakes that he made. HEE!]

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Annette let Angel finish the tuna and she asked, "Do you randomly carry with you a bag of tuna?"

She hopped up off the floor then and came to stand by him, looking rather sheepish. "I shouldn't be letting you clean up my mess though. Want me to take over?"

"You can help," he said. "It goes faster when two people do it."

He scrubbed and soaped a dish before passing it to her for rinsing.

"And yes, I do. I like animals, for one, and for another a Firecat is assisting me with something and I like to bring him treats and meals and such if I can. One because I tend to it for those I consider my friends and another because it's a small way I can tell him thank you."

He gestured to his bag, but didn't pat it since he didn't want to get it wet.

"I keep a little something for most people in here. If I wasn't about to make you pancakes, I'd have offered one of the brownies."

Getting the water temperature adjusted just right, Annette helped by rinsing and setting the dishes in the drainer to dry. "That's very nice of you, Liir, and while Angel can't thank you specifically, you've won her over easily." She chuckled. "Ino watched her for me when I went to Mexico and Angel got into her hair elastics. I had to buy her some more, but Ino thought she was cute so all was well. Angel can be a little stinker when she wants to be."

Tilting her head to peer up at him at a better angle, she smiled wide. "You would have? That's so kind of you, Liir. Are they special brownies?" Because Annette has had lots of special brownies. Made her miss Leo to think about them.

He didn't know what that meant.

"I experimented a little with them, yes," he admitted. "They're spiced, and there's some notes of vanilla and coffee as well. They're especially good warm, or so I thought."

He pulled away from the sink, dried his hands, and pulled the pan over with one of the bowls.

"I'll need flour, some baking powder, a dash of salt, at least one egg for the pancakes unless you'd like more, the milk, and some butter, if you don't mind. I don't know how you have things put away up here so you might be best with finding the dry ingredients while I grab the ones that should be in the 'fridge."

Annette wouldn't elaborate, especially since it seemed he didn't know what her 'special' meant. Actually, she never wanted to have those kind of brownies again.

"Oh, those sound good," she said instead, smiling.

She took a towel and dried her hands. "I can get you all of that," she said and went to the pantry grabbing the ingredients he asked for. Uh, she didn't know you put baking powder and an egg in pancakes. Or milk. No wonder her pankcakes sucked.

Setting everything on the counter, Annette said, "The measuring utensils are clean... you need those, right?"

"Not really," he said at first. Then he thought it over. "Well, it I'm going to show you, it'd probably be best. If you could?"

He set the bowl on the counter, grabbed the laddle and the spatula and put them next to the oven, made sure the oven surface was clean and started buttering the pan. He left the heat turned off for the moment, though.

Oddly enough, he kept his shoulderstrap bag on. He was very rarely without it, though, so perhaps it wasn't too strange.

Grabbing measuring cups, she set all of them out, from largest to smallest. She also set out a set of teaspoon measurements. "I... should write this down as you show me so I don't forget. I kind of suck at following recipes but this should be easy, right?"

Annette did notice that he kept his bag on but she didn't question it. She just figured it was a thing.

More the fluffy bunny in the front pocket, sleeping, was the thing.

He nodded.

"Probably for the best."

He cut a sizable chunk of the butter off and put it in the pan. Then he turned the heat up.

"Two cups of flour. Sifted, preferably but no one will keel over from the 'cakes if they're not. Put in the dash of salt and two teaspoons of baking powder in with the flour and make sure that's well mixed."

He started to put together the egg and the milk.

"Cup and a half of milk," he said as he worked in another bowl, "mixed with the egg in a separate bowl. We'll put them together and blend in the butter" which was melting slowly on the low heat "as soon as we're both done."

Annette grabbed a notepad and pen that was just really incredibly handy at the moment and started to write down what he was telling her. "About how many pancakes does this make? In case I want to try and feed someone," which made her grin like a dork because Annette has never fed anyone before unless it was to hand them a bag of chips or a pop tart.

"This always took care of Nanny and Elphaba and I," he admitted. "I had to make another two batches for the monkeys, but that's neither here nor there."

Then he poured the wet into the dry. As he mixed, he flicked the burner off and grabbed the pan to pour the melted butter in as well.

"You mix this just until it's smooth. No more, no less."

Then he put the pan down and got to business doing just that.

"I'd usually put berries in, if we had them. When Nanny got older, though, I started with syrups since it made them softer and easier for her to eat. I can show you how to do one or the other as you like."

Right. Flying monkeys. Annette shook her head. No one should have to cook pancakes for flying monkeys unless they were cute and sweet and not weird at all.

Annette jotted that down... Mix until smooth. No more, no less.

"You know how to make syrup? People actually know how to do that? I mean, aside from manufacturers of course."

He looked sideways at her.

"Yes. It's really not that difficult. It just requires a careful eye and a bit of work to clean up after. I also know how to candy fruits, make preserves, whip cream, churn butter, make cheese... all manner of things. Simple, basic things; it just takes a bit of patience."

He flicked on the burner again and picked up the ladle.

"Heating up the butter greased the pan," he said with a smile, "so now we just wait until the pan is warm before we dip in this and start putting out the pancakes."

He turned to her again.

"I'm not going too fast, am I? I'm not much of a teacher."

"You are totally amazing me, Liir," Annette said, awestruck. "Did you have to learn to cook where you are from?" She grew up with maids and cooks and never had to worry about any of that stuff, so a boy knowing how to do all of this was just amazing, particularly a boy in high school.

She penned that down in a hurry... Heat up the butter greased pan.

"No no, I'm good. What is the heat on? High? Because you want to make sure they get good and done, right? And you are a great teacher, I think."

He shook his head.

"Medium," he told her. "It takes a little longer, but they end up golden brown instead of blackened."

He turned and put his hand over the pan. When he judged it fitting, he ladled on the pancakes, one in each quarter of the pan, neat little circles.

"I had to do most of the cooking in the keep," he explained, his eye on the pancakes as they cooked. "At first, it was Sarima's sisters who did all the work. But when the Wizard's soldiers took the royal family and it was just Elphaba and Nanny and I, well...

"Nanny could barely stand by that time, certainly not long enough to do much of anything like that. And Elphaba didn't care to, her water allergies aside. So it fell to me. Some I remembered from watching the sisters. Other things I asked Nanny about and she told me, like the cream and such. Some things I figured out on my own, or heard from the Arjiki traders who would bring us supplies. The Witch didn't deal with them if they'd deal with me and once I was ten or so, they didn't ask for her anymore. And you flip them when you see the bubbles appear on the top."

He did just that, holding one on the spatula for a moment so she could see the bubbles before he finished.

Medium. Annette wrote that down.

Then she turned her head sideways, listening to him as he spoke. Liir had a nice voice, pleasant, and it was easy to listen to him as he explained the cooking details behind his upbringing. So to speak. It was hard to imagine, some of what he said and though she didn't interrupt when he spoke, she asked him as she looked down at the bubbles, nodding so he knew she understood, "Was it a hard life, your growing up?"

He shrugged.

"I'm alive. And I'm here. Others aren't so lucky," was all he'd say to that. He hadn't been put to the Paraffin Necklace or thrown into Southstairs.

He hadn't been melted.

No, others weren't so lucky.

"All lives are hard," he finally said after a minute. "It's how you know you're living them. And it's a little less time to cook the other side. You just check and see that it's a nice golden brown before you plate them."

He checked, dipping the spatula under the corner to look, before he plated the pancakes and dipped out another four.

"See?"

All lives are hard... It's how you know you're living them. Annette thought truer words had never been spoken.

But she was doing better now. Much, much better, and thinking about everything from the past, most recently, was something she didn't want to do right now.

"Yes, I see that. You make it seem all so easy..."

"It's easy enough when someone shows you," he said with a faint smile at her. She sort of looked like she might need a hug, but he thought it would be presumptuous since this was all of the second time he'd even spoken to her. Then again, he'd shanghaied her attempt at breakfast. Which one was really more presumptuous?

Bubbles. He flipped them.

"The trick is to break it down into the pieces you can handle. Make sure you're prepared right from the start and don't rush or get overly anxious. Everyone I've spoken to who seems to have trouble cooking all seem to say the same thing: they burn it.

"It just takes a little more patience and lower heat and you have edible food. Really."

Edited 2008-03-06 20:01 (UTC)

It wouldn't be presumtuous, especially given the fact that Annette rarely recieved them. Hugs are nice, whether you know someone well enough or not. And since he did take over breakfast for her and gave tuna to her cat, a hug would be more than welcomed. It would probably make her day.

"I suppose trying to cook three things at once doesn't help either. I was doing the pancakes, bacon, and eggs all at the same time." There was that sheepish look again. "I have to admit, I've never been good at being patient."

"When you're just learning," he said, soft, as if he was talking to a rabbit or a horse, "it's best to do one thing at a time. Once you know it well enough that you're comfortable, you move on to doing more at the same time. Learn each piece and while you're learning, you'll see how you can put it all together."

He plated the pancakes. Dipped. Then looked over at her, putting the ladle down before ghosting his hand over one of hers, not quite touching. He wouldn't presume.

"Would you like to try this round?"

She nodded, looking up at him. "I'll remember that from now on, and especially when I try to make my own pancackes next time."

The pancakes smelled wonderful and she watched again as he prepared to ladle more...

"What? Okay, sure," she said tentatively and reached for the ladle.

He stepped back and let her at it.

"Do you have a syrup already prepared? Or one" it was still so odd "store-bought? I can set the table. There should only be a couple more after that round left in the bowl."

Biting her lip, Annette carefully ladled in four small dallops just as she had seen Liir do, and watched them carefully.

"There is some in the pantry. I think there is strawberry and blueberry syrup too."

As soon as they bubbled on top, she turned them over, smiling at how they were turning out.

He kept an eye on her, grinning as well when she flipped them just right, before he reached up into the pantry to grab the syrups. He took all three and put them at the table before setting out forks and plates.

"You don't mind if I join you, do you? Unless you're really very hungry..."

"Oh, please! You better join me. No way can I eat all of this," she laughed lightly and plated the last of the pancakes, feeling very proud that she didn't burn the last of them.

Annette carried the stacked plate over to the table then stepped back to the fridge. "Would you like some orange juice? Milk? I think there is some apple juice in here too..." she opened the door and peered inside.

5th floor common room, late Thursday morning

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