New Plan, Step One: Provide For My Community [open]

[summerdude]

Magnus needs something to change, so when a Mansion calendar helpfully informs him that it's International Falafel Day back on Earth, he goes to the library for some cookbooks, and then to the kitchen.

He lays out ten different falafel recipes. He gathers the ingredients they list, as best as he can understand them. He has canned chickpeas and fresh chickpeas and dried chickpeas and chickpea flour and box mixes of falafel that say 'just add water!'

Cripes.

"I can do this," he says, peering at the assorted recipes intently for a good ten minutes, and then takes the dried chickpeas over to the sink to rinse and soak.

Comments

[summerdude]

"Okay," Magnus says, after a moment of consideration. "But you should know, I'm really good at keeping secrets."

[sporesprouter]

"Okay. In that case... I'll give it a month. And if he still hasn't found out, I'll tell you. And you still get the hint now."

[summerdude]

"Deal."

[sporesprouter]

"Deal. Now I'm just trying to think of a good hint."

[summerdude]

"I can wait."

[sporesprouter]

She shakes her head. "You're going to have to wait enough. All right. The hint is that it's a short name. Not really any longer than just 'Tress' is."

[summerdude]

"Not really any longer?"

[sporesprouter]

She nods. "At least in every way I can think of. I know some alphabets are different, though, so maybe it might have a different number of letters in some alphabet. But it's definitely just one syllable."

[summerdude]

"This is an incredibly vague clue," says Magnus, approvingly. "It's gonna gnaw at me for weeks." He grins at her.

[sporesprouter]

Tress grins back. "Like a rat?"

[summerdude]

Magnus laughs. "Exactly like a rat."

[sporesprouter]

"Gnawing on things is good for rats. I hope gnawing on the hint is just as good for you."

[summerdude]

"Oh, I'm sure it will be." Magnus pokes the mixture. "Think this is ready now?"

[sporesprouter]

"Oh! It should be, really. If it's not, it will get there by the time I heat up the oil to fry them."

[summerdude]

Magnus grins. "I can't wait to learn how to fry stuff."

[sporesprouter]

"It's not too hard. You just have to be careful because the oil might splatter." A bit of oil goes in a frying pan and she puts it on the stove to heat.

[summerdude]

"Tress. You overestimate my knowledge of anything in the kitchen."

[sporesprouter]

She laughs. "Okay, fair. This is just going to be pan-frying, so it's a bit simpler."

[summerdude]

"What's the difference?" Magnus asks, curious.

[sporesprouter]

"Pan frying uses less oil, and since you're not submerging what you're cooking completely, there's a little less to worry about."

[summerdude]

"And why would someone choose to do one or the other kind of frying?"

[sporesprouter]

"Deep frying tends to be a bit faster, and it's also the best way to go if you want what you're making to be really crispy. Pan frying uses a lot less oil, it's easier to clean up, and all you really need is a frying pan."

[summerdude]

"I think the Fadlans had a deep-fryer, but I think that's probably easier when you run a restaurant," says Magnus, thoughtfully.

[sporesprouter]

"Yeah. It's definitely useful if you're doing a lot of frying."

[summerdude]

"There's so much to remember," Magnus sighs.