Egret, Day 23

[laurefindil]

Who: Glorfindel and Open
When: Day 23
Where: Kitchen
What: Food and knives!
Warning: Sharp things

Having taken Evie's class and learned how to use the stove, Glorfindel was able to take part in his Team's chores of preparing the meals. Although, technically, that was what some of the more experienced cooks did. Glorfindel was more of a sous chef (chopper of things). Today he was making some quick, portable snacks that people could come and take with them if they wanted to go to the gym or the library or elsewhere on the train.

[What do people want? Come and ask! You might not get what you hope, but it will be interesting!]

He has also made an concerted effort to go through the kitchen and sharpen every blade in the room, except the butter spreaders.

[You can come help or just chat about sharp things!]

Comments

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin came into the kitchen with a mop and a bucket, intent upon taking care of Orange Team chores. But when he saw Glorfindel, he grinned and came over to the counter.

"Glorfindel! What's on the menu for today?"

[laurefindil]

"Curufin!" Glorfindel welcomed him with a grin. "You are just in time to try my attempt at lembas." Elven waybread was made by females, from special corn, which he did not have, but he thought his was a fair approximation, though not as nutritious, or as long-lasting as the true stuff.

"I had to take a few short-cuts, of course. Not that any but one of us would know what Lembas is, but I am trying my best to at least get close to the flavor."

[so_dark_a_road]

"It's been a long time since I've eaten any of the stuff," said Curufin with an answering smile. "I can bake, but I've never attempted Lembas on my own." He reached for one of the small wafers, took a bite, tilted his head in consideration as he chewed and swallowed. "Say, this is pretty good!"

[laurefindil]

Glorfindel laughed. "I wouldn't have thought so. Very few women know the recipe and they do not let males into the kitchen when it is being prepared." He held his breath as Curufin tried his version. "Oh, thank Iluvatar," he said. "I wasn't sure it would work out. I mean, sure I thought it was decent, but I'm biased."

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin grinned. "My wife knew the recipe, though I have no idea where she learned it. She used to shoo me out of her house in Himlad. 'Curufin, go and make yourself useful elsewhere! Go and kill some Orcs, or take Cel for a walk. Don't show your face in here again until dinnertime!' She was a very gentle person, but she'd get this look, like she was going to bonk me on the head with a frying pan if I didn't vamoose! I didn't dare disobey."

Curufin gobbled up the remainder of the wafer and licked his fingers. He wouldn't normally have such terrible table manners, but oh well, he wasn't sitting at a table!

"Of course it's decent, Glorfindel! You're obviously a good baker."

[laurefindil]

"For all we know, Yavanna visits them in a dream when they are young and gives them the recipe," Glorfindel agreed, laughing at the image of poor Curufin being chased out of his own home. "I did not know you wed, though. Are congratulations still in order?"

"I appreciate your kindness. Spend a few hundred years out patrolling and hunting orcs and you have to learn to cook if only to preserve your sanity."

[so_dark_a_road]

"Hmm, maybe so!" said Curufin, imagining his wife and all his female relatives having holy lembas visions sent by Yavanna. "That would be only fair. Ulmo sent dreams to some of the males of the Noldor, so why should not the women receive visions from our Earth Goddess?"

Oh yes, that marriage. "Well, Celebrimbor was not left on my doorstep in a basket! I married his mother a little while after we Fëanorians left Hithlum and settled in East Beleriand." (That is, after a few years of wild parties and wild liaisons with other Elves, both men and women.) "Her name was Sulriel, and she was the daughter of a colleague of mine, an Elven-smith. I didn't send out wedding invitations, since I didn't think any of my kin would come, except for my brothers, of course." He sobers a little. "The marriage did not last. However, I will be eternally grateful to her for my son."

But he smiles at Glorfindel's remark about Orc-hunting and cooking. "I'll agree with you there. It was the same for me, except I don't think I'm as good a cook as you are."

[deductiongeek]

Conan enters the kitchen and heads straight for the coffee machine, dragging a chair behind him. The chair is carefully placed in front of the counter, allowing him to climb up and reach the machine.

He stops on the way up and peers at the knives out on the counter.

"Have these been sharpened?"

[laurefindil]

"Yes, yes they have," Glorfindel said, as he sighted down the blade of the one he was currently working on. "A dull knife is more dangerous than a sharp one, as you do not give it enough respect. Plus they make cooking far more difficult that it should be."

He tapped the cabinet next to him with the toe of his shoe. "You know there is a stool in here for when people need to reach things?"

[deductiongeek]

"That's true, I guess." In certain circumstances. In others, a sharp knife was definitely more dangerous.

"It isn't tall enough for me," Conan says sourly.

[laurefindil]

Glorfindel put down the knife he was holding, pulled out the stool and looked at it. It was some sort of material that wasn't metal, stone, or wood, carved from a single piece. "It is insufficient," he agreed. He decided to take it to the artificers to have them make another from metal that would be expandable so those of all heights could use it. He put the stool back for the time being as it wouldn't do any good for those who could use it if it were missing.

He considered the small human in front of him. Though he had the appearance of a child there was a feeling of age about him. It was not like an older Hobbit, such as Bilbo, however. This seemed different. More like Aragorn as a child, impatient to grow up, forced to do so at the speed of time. He tilted his head. Except more so. "May I get you a cup?" he offered. "Do you take milk or sugar in your hot beverage?" He'd tried the stuff, he far preferred the tea.

[deductiongeek]

"If you don't mind," Conan says with slightly forced cheerfulness. He found it harder to put up the helpful child act these days. "And just the coffee is fine. I don't like anything in it."

[laurefindil]

"You look in need of a bracing beverage," Glorfindel said. He found a mug that was just the right combination of holding a lot, but not so big for a Hobbi...smaller person's hands. "May I interest you in a snack to go with it?" He placed the mug on the counter, letting Conan pour his own. He pulled down a similarly sized mug for himself and a bag of tea.

He filled his mug with water and heated it. It wasn't something he often did back home, but there he tried not to remind the others that he was more than just another elf. Once the water was steaming, he dunked the bag of tea in it."I could use a break, if you'd like some company." It wasn't quite a lie, he had been going non-stop for well over an hour, sharpening knives. His whetstone could certainly use a break.

[marriedanidiot]

Oh! Lord Glorfindel!

[ Nerdanel comes in looking distracted and smiles ]

Am I interrupting? Tis only... I was hoping to bake a cake...

[laurefindil]

Glorfindel turned and smiled at her. "Of course not! I am simply trying to make a few snacks for people to take if they wish. I can get out of your way. Unless you'd prefer company?" He could tell she looked a bit distracted as she'd entered.

[marriedanidiot]

"Oh, I don't mind." She smiles at him. "It's been so long... I don't know if I even remember how!"

[laurefindil]

"In that case, as I understand baking is like a science, as opposed to cooking, which is an art? I recommend we refer to the cookbook available," Glorfindel suggested with a smile. "Just to give us a frame of reference."

He leaned down and started to pull out a couple of bowls and some measuring bits. "Any particular reason you feel like making a cake, or is it just Time for a Cake?"

[marriedanidiot]

"A good idea." She laughs.

"Oh, there's a lovely young man here named Bucky. He turned 100, not that long ago - but owing to... well, we'd probably call it train shenanigans, he missed his birthday. It seemed such a shame to not celebrate, especially since 100 is an important age for Men too!"

She makes a pleased noise as rifling through the cupboards produces the chocolate she was looking for.

[laurefindil]

Glorfindel laughed. "I remember the first time I turned 100. That's the joy of being reborn, you know, you get to do some things twice! Yes, there must definitely be cake!"

He pulled out a couple of options for baking pans, then went for spoons. "How big of a cake are we making? Personal sized for him, big enough for him to share with select friends, or are we inflicting cake on the entire train?"

The second prompt~

[unfavorableinstigation]

Nita had been metaphorically chewing over the prospect of train council for most of the week - in her distraction she almost didn't pick up on the sound of sharpening blades until it was too late.

Looking up abruptly, she jerked herself back mid-step from where she'd been heading towards the fridge. "Uh- Oh! Sorry!"

She probably looked like the deer in the headlights, such was her shock - and embarrassment, once she started to recover.

Re: The second prompt~

[laurefindil]

Glorfindel nodded and smiled at her, pausing in running another knife over the sharpening stone. "Hello. Sorry for what?" he asked.

[unfavorableinstigation]

"Seems like a bad idea for me to interrupt you, is all," Nita replied.

"Wouldn't want either of us to end up on the wrong side of a knife. Where'd you find the stone, though?"

Stepping none-too-close to where he was working, Nita walked around to get a better look at it.

[laurefindil]

Glorfindel tilted his hands so she could get a better view of what he was doing. "I very rarely cut myself these days, have no fear," he said with a smile.

"I got it from the garden...the one with the rocks. It just took a little finessing to make it into the perfect whetstone." It wasn't the first time he'd had to make one, after all. He'd worn through more than one in over four millenia.

[unfavorableinstigation]

"I did say 'either of us,'" Nita said with a self-depricative smirk.

"You won't be short of supplies for a while, then. Though I think you're running out of knives," she added, looking around the kitchen.

"And scissors, though I think they're only in the emergency kits."

Meaning they were fabric scissors, mainly. Or for stitches.

[laurefindil]

"I have never Accidentally cut another being," Glorfindel assured her. "Only on purpose." That probably did not sound as reassuring as he'd intended.

He laughed. "Sharpening knives is not a job one really ever stops. The state of these was quite deplorable, so I thought I'd do my bit to help out by making sure they are ready when people wish to use them."

"Ah, good point." He grinned at her. "Perhaps I should use the ICP thing to see if anyone has anything else they want sharpened. I had forgotten about sewing and emergency kits."