4th Floor Common Room [Tuesday afternoon]

[make-the-shot.livejournal.com]

Proto had an actual cookbook out. He was staring at it dubiously, and with a mild expression of confusion, but he had it out, dang it! Of course he didn't recognize a number of ingredients listed on the page he had open, and he wasn't entirely clear on how one properly 'sautéed' things, but he was going to try.

Though... any help would probably be appreciated.

[Open and all that stuff.]

Comments

[make-the-shot.livejournal.com]

"Well, first of all, what does 'sautee' mean? I've cooked a lot, and it doesn't make any sense!"

Of course Proto's 'cooking' mostly involved campfires and field rations.

[daventryprince.livejournal.com]

Alexander's amusement could only continue to grow as he stepped forward into the kitchen to see how he might be able to help. "It's French," he said, proud of being able to recognize its origin (like a dork), "and, basically, it means to lightly brown or cook something in a pan with some sort of butter, oil, or other fat, in a pan, like...." He opened a cupboard, reaching for the right equipment, "this one."

[make-the-shot.livejournal.com]

"Then why don't they just say that?" Proto griped as he eyed the pan. That, at least, he was familiar with.

[daventryprince.livejournal.com]

"Because saute is only one word?" Alexander suggested. "And they must suppose that, if you're about to cook, you would likely already know it, which is admittedly an unfair assumption."

He smiled as he held the pan over to the other boy. "And now you'll know from here on in. What is it asking us to saute?"

[make-the-shot.livejournal.com]

"Mushrooms," Proto answered as he took the pan and looked over it. Yeah, he could use this.

[daventryprince.livejournal.com]

"Those shouldn't be too difficult, then," Alexander said, nodding in approval because something with mushrooms did sound tasty at the moment. "Have you already got them prepared?"

[make-the-shot.livejournal.com]

"Prepared?"

Apparently not.

[daventryprince.livejournal.com]

Eventually, Alexander might stop grinning during this conversation, but it wasn't happening yet.

"Here, I'll show you," he offered. "Where are they? You always want to prepare the things first, so that you don't accidentally burn anything while trying to get something ready. What else does the recipe call for that might need some clarification?"

It wasn't that he had meant to sort of take over things; it was just that he was going into a bit of auto-pilot mode.

[make-the-shot.livejournal.com]

"Most of it?" Proto admitted wryly, holding the book out with the appropriate page (http://www.grouprecipes.com/45645/tenderloin-with-sauteed-mushrooms.html) open.

[daventryprince.livejournal.com]

"Fair enough," said Alexander with a light laugh as he leaned in to take a look at the page and start formulating a plan. It was simple enough, there was that, but he felt compelled to ask, "What inspired you to give this a go if you're so unaccustomed to preparing a meal in this fashion?"

Which was an assumption, sure, but...

[make-the-shot.livejournal.com]

"I... wanted to try something different?" Proto's tone suggested that there was a girl involved.

[daventryprince.livejournal.com]

"I see," Alexander said, chuckling again; though he might not have picked up on specifically that a girl was involved, he had a feeling that the answer would be something like that.

"Let's take it from the very beginning, then," he said, so that they could do this in a way that maybe might help for an easier experience next time. "And that's to look at the ingredients and make sure you have them all prepared first. So I'm working on the mushrooms, what else would we need?"

[make-the-shot.livejournal.com]

"Salt, pepper, butter, onions, some other kind of salt, um... broth. And wine?" Someone was reading straight off the ingredient list.

[daventryprince.livejournal.com]

Alexander considered for a moment how that was answered before holding up his hands slightly. "Now," he said, "no offense is intended when I ask you this next inquiry, but I feel I must know. Did you set to this task knowing you were going to be making this, or did you just sort of open up to a random page and decide to go for it?"

[make-the-shot.livejournal.com]

"It wasn't quite random," Proto answered. He'd skipped a few which looked way, way too complicated for him.

But... yeah. Pretty much.

[daventryprince.livejournal.com]

Alexander had to admit, he sort of liked how Proto never really answered the question, and yet still managed to answer it precisely all the same.

"Let's make sure, then," he said, "we've all the ingredients before we start. I'm positive we've got almost all of it, but the wine's a little questionable. I'm not sure if that's something they just let us keep hanging around the kitchenettes..."

[make-the-shot.livejournal.com]

It was one of his many talents! Like... um... other things he was talented at!

"Oh." Proto hadn't thought about that.

"What do we do if there isn't any? Pick another recipe?"

[daventryprince.livejournal.com]

"We could do that," Alexander said with a nod. "Or we could give it a try without the wine. Or one of us could easily go into the village and get some. It isn't a long trek, after all."

[make-the-shot.livejournal.com]

"You... don't have to have all the ingredients?" Now Proto was confused. What was the point of a recipe if you could just fudge things?

[daventryprince.livejournal.com]

"Not necessarily, no," Alexander said with a faint shrug. "The end result won't be as good, but, sometimes, one finds they do have to compromise."

[make-the-shot.livejournal.com]

"Hey, it'll probably turn out better than what I usually do." Proto was pretty grateful about this, by the way.

[daventryprince.livejournal.com]

"Let's try to improvise without the wine, then," Alexander offered. "Or I wouldn't mind fetching some if we'd like to play it safe. I actually have a jug of wine in my room, but I don't think we'll want to use it; I think it's gone bad or something like that."

[make-the-shot.livejournal.com]

"You don't know?" Proto asked, amused.

Then he wave a bit vaguely. "But I wouldn't worry about it, I guess?"

[daventryprince.livejournal.com]

"It's....it doesn't taste right," Alexander explained. "It's quite strange; the gentleman at the shop just gave it to me when I came in to get things for a moving picture night with my friend, but we couldn't quite get a taste for it. I think it may have gone bad..."

He shook his head. "But that's neither here nor there. Let us see how it is without the wine and, if it does not work, we have the wonder of the convenience of all of the food on the island as a back-up plan!"

[make-the-shot.livejournal.com]

"You're the expert," Proto decided. "At least compared to me."