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

[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.

[sporesprouter]

"You're not going to learn everything at once, and it's not all going to stay in your head as soon as you first learn it. Just take it a little at a time. Practice one simple recipe until you get good at it, and then move on to something else."

[summerdude]

"That's so reasonable," Magnus says. "You're so reasonable, Tress. Teach me how to be reasonable. Is it anything like cooking?"

[sporesprouter]

She laughs a little. "Well... you're not going to be reasonable all at once, and you won't necessarily stay reasonable permanently when you first start. Just take it a little at a time. Practice being reasonable about one little thing until you get good at it..."

[summerdude]

"So it is like cooking."

[sporesprouter]

"Basically, I guess. I think the simple steps work for most things, really."

[summerdude]

Magnus laughs. "You should tell that to some people back home. My home."

[sporesprouter]

"Not a lot of them go with the simple steps, then?"

[summerdude]

"Nah, it's all about complicating things as much as possible."

[sporesprouter]

"That doesn't sound like a way to get much of anything done, if you ask me."

[summerdude]

"Nah. But I guess they're not really interested in getting anything done."

[sporesprouter]

"But why?"

[summerdude]

Has Magnus never told Tress about this? "Everything is, like, prophesied," Magnus says. "So they're mostly just killing time."

[sporesprouter]

"Isn't it worth making the most of your time before you hit all the prophecies, though?"

[summerdude]

"That's what I keep saying!"

[sporesprouter]

"Because you have a good head on your shoulders."

[summerdude]

"Coming from you, Tress, that's a huge compliment," Magnus says. He squints at the oil. "How do we tell when it's hot enough?"

[sporesprouter]

She grabs a wooden spoon and sticks the end in the oil, looking at the bubbles. "It's ready."