Delicious use of honey within (Closed)

[springforth]

Who: Persephone, Nita, LO, Zetta so far
Where: Kitchen & Laundry
When: Backdated to Day 4
What: Persephone makes delicious honey things and helps avert a bubble crisis
Warnings: None so far


b>A. baklava is my comfort baking
(Closed to Nita and LO)

Persephone waited a few days. Mostly because, who wants to make their own phyllo dough? No one. No one without a great deal of insomnia to deal with and or nothing better to do. Which means she was going to do it in like a week, right before their mission inevitably popped up. But she discovered through the offerings in the dining hall that there was premade phyllo dough and she was sold.

Persephone has ended up sticky, honey on her cheek and probably in her hair, the smell of nuts and baking phyllo wafting through the kitchen. It reminds her of home in a way that sometimes makings her want to cry and sometimes makes her want to throw open the doors and invite everyone in to try it. She had to fudge the recipe, the one provided is not Hestia's after all and definitely not the one she altered from Hestia's. But it's close enough to give her this deep warm feeling.

When someone arrives, she's pouring the honey syrup over, focused on watching it disappear beneath the layers of phyllo. Or perhaps they arrive when she's cutting them into neat little pieces, two big industrial size trays of the things.


B. the wrong washing setting
Closed (For Zetta)

Hefting a large jar of honey in one hand and a bag of walnuts in the other, she elbows her way into the storage car, not really paying attention to the surroundings so much as keeping a hold of precious precious baklava making cargo. What happens next is a comedy of errors. She slips on--something, walnuts--gone. Fallen from her hand. She flails out for something solid, wham, other foot out from under her, honey slipping from her hand. But the fall lands with her sat on stairs, the honey caught in a miraculous grab for the ages.

And then she finally notices the bubbles. The bubbles that were totally not here when she came in here to get all of these things earlier. Nope, it had been utterly free of bubbles, suds, the gentle trickle of water down the stairs. Oh no. She sets the honey on the nearest shelf and clambers carefully up the stairs.

"Oh dear.

Comments

[unfavorableinstigation]

"Persephone?"

Nita had thought she was just passing through, but seeing her friend - in addition to being suddenly greeted by a very delicious smell - had grabbed her interest.

"... Looks like you've been hard at work, there. You need an extra hand at this point?"

She didn't know if Persephone would appreciate someone hovering, though, but if she were invited, well.

She'd be happy to stay.

[springforth]

"I saw honey and I couldn't resist."

It's a piece of home and she's missed it. With an eye toward to tray she's working on, she tilts her head toward the second tray and the accompanying honey syrup.

"You could pour that over? It's better when the baklava is still hot."

[unfavorableinstigation]

"On it."

Both her hands are free, thankfully, so it really is no problem for her to go over to the second setup.

"Pretty powerful combo; warm honey's always better than cold, if you ask me."

Once she's found herself a good pouring pace, she lets herself get into it, doing her best not to let anything splatter.

"This is the first time you've made it in a while, then."

She gets the impression it's not nearly the same with any substance other than honey.

[springforth]

"I made it for a friend at work. Months ago now but a few days before I left. This is kind of my recipe... Adjusted from Hestia's. Well as much as I can remember at least."

Persephone finishes her batch and starts sprinkling chopped walnuts on the diamonds.

"And you kind of really need honey. At least in my opinion."

[unfavorableinstigation]

The name Hestia makes Nita look up for a second - before she puts it back into context, at which point she smiles, nodding as she pours the rest of the honey on.

"Well, it is a unique flavor; wonder if other planets have anything like it?"

She'll wait for Persephone to finish with the walnuts before taking any for her own set - unless there's a second pile around she hasn't seen, in which case she may start mentally kicking herself in a minute...

[springforth]

There is not and Persephone hands it over when she's done sprinkling. Then she taps her chin and tilts her head.

"You know, it's kind of surprising if there aren't. Plants need bees to pollinate. I mean, ours get by because I do the whole goddess thing but you'd have to do it by hand. There's been plenty of flowering plants in these worlds, be stranger if there weren't bees of some sort. Though birds and wasps and butterflies all do their part."

Now she's wondering though. Is honey a unique to their worlds sort of thing. Do you just get other animals to fill that role?

"Would be a pretty sad world without honeybees."

[unfavorableinstigation]

"Oh, definitely."

There's a pause, as Nita remembers the sad state honeybees are in in her time, on her Earth. Even wizardry isn't enough to turn back the tide of so many pesticides and policies...

She shakes her head, returning her mind to the task at hand and finishing her handfuls of walnut-sprinklings.

"Though, where I'm from, Earth is the only planet that has chocolate; there might be something that's that kind of weird going on elsewhere."

[springforth]

"Really? Nowhere else with chocolate?" Persephone pauses in lifting a spatula to her mouth, honey dripping onto her fingers.

"Why? Just not the right plants?"

[unfavorableinstigation]

Nita can only nod.

"Or something else was up with the equivalent ecosystems. So unless you count parallel dimensions, Earth's basically it."

The last walnut gets placed with aplomb.

Then she cracks a smile.

"Of course, that also means there's a hell of a black market for the stuff across the galaxy. I stay out of that, but when you start getting introduced to other worlds' cultures, you still learn about it."

[badassfreakingoverlord]

The scene: One washing machine, spewing suds out as if it were made for the purpose. Two Prinnies, shoving against the washing machine door in a futile effort to hold back the tide. One Prinny peering over the wall of suds, looking a little taller -- almost as if it were standing on something about the thickness of a large book.

[springforth]

Oh gods. Taking in the scene takes a moment, her hands clasping in front of her face as she mutters something under her breath. Then she springs into action, swishing through the bubbles.

"Hey, turn it off!" She's trying to get closer to the washing machine without slipping and falling beneath the suds.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"If we move, it explodes, dood!" one of the Prinnies said.

Luckily, Persephone had traction in the form of soggy towels, strewn across the floor just below the water sloshing around in there.

[springforth]

"This seems unlikely." Persephone mutters under her breath, finally reaching the offending washing machine and literally clambering on top. Could she have flown? It occurs to her that yes she could have. She keeps forgetting.

"Just--" She fiddles with the dial, trying desperately to turn it off. If this doesn't work, maybe pull the plug? Do washing machines that seem to work via power and water of unknown sources have plugs? She's never checked.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Good news: the washing machine turned right off!

Bad news: the bubbling wasn't getting worse, but it was still pretty bad.

"Ackpth!" said one Prinny as it got a beakful of suds, and it staggered off to hack and cough and gag. The other Prinny got a really desperate look. "Save us, Persephone, dood!"

[springforth]

Persephone stared at the sea of bubbles, then the two Prinnies. Then back. Incredulous is a word for how she looks. Put upon is another.

"I'm not the goddess of bubbles." Persephone reminds them, climbing back down into the fray if only to pick up the one who gave her such a desperate look. Short as she is, this is probably not an incredible improvement in circumstances, beyond being held by Persephone as opposed to no one.

"This is ridiculous, I hope you're all aware."

[badassfreakingoverlord]

With one Prinny saved, the door popped open and disgorged its last wealth of bubbles. The coughing Prinny and the suspiciously-elevated Prinny disappeared beneath the wave, flippers sinking below them as it all came up to almost the height of the washer.

But no higher. And the washing machine was silent now, so the air was full of only the susurrus of popping bubbles and the practically audible awe the saved Prinny regarded her with.

[springforth]

It is only through the grace of not wanting her good clothing to get messy in the kitchen that she's not wearing something nice. It's just basic old train provided things, but it will all need to be washed it seems. Or at least dried. The wave of suds sends bubbles floating up, free into the air and right into her face and she sputters as she sets her freed Prinny on top of the washing machine. Honestly, it's practically up to her shoulders in places and it's sorely tempting to leave them to this mess.

"...I am not cleaning this up." She mutters. There is a lot of muttering needed when dealing with Prinny disasters it seems. Then with a deep breath, she blindly pats around for people within the mass. And when she finds one of them, she yanks them up into her reach.

"This would be easier if you would just--grab on!"

[knifewithnoname]

She is pretty happy there is honey in the kitchens this month. It doesn't quite sooth the sadness she feels about everything else, Peter is gone and there's no amount of honey that would help with that. But at least the food is sweet.

She smells it before she sees what Persephone is making, she doesn't even know the woman very well but she still gets closer, following her nose.

"You do be making baklava?" And a lot of Baklava at that!

[springforth]

"I am indeed." Persephone cuts down firmly, fully separating the sticky diamonds of baklava. "Reminds me of home. And if I wrap it up, we can take it on missions, you know? For an energy boost. Pick me up."

[knifewithnoname]

"You did be being eating baklava a lot on your world?" She nodded at the last, missions would be much less stupid if they had baklava to eat. It would make a lot of things better.

"Where I did be living do be being famous for how good it's honey do be being." She told her, "So it do be reminding me of home as well."

In a good warm way, not a sad painful way.

[springforth]

"Not a lot, I suppose. Baklava is more of a special treat." Persephone waves the knife in a little circle, trying to find the right way to describe it, "It's a lot of work to make the pastry by hand, but it came frozen here. I could make it all month."

But honey--gods she loves honey. Honeycomb is her favorite treat and honestly, the lack of it in their jars of honey put a bit of a damper on her enthusiasm.

"But I get why they'd make it if your honey is really nice. Really good honey can change the whole--the whole flavor. Do you know that some people try to put things like rosewater and lemon in it? Ruins it."

[knifewithnoname]

She pulled a face at that, why would people put lemon in it?

"That do be sounding stupid." She said, leaning forward to rest her arms on the counter.

"Honey do no even be needing other flavours because it do be being perfect as it do be being."

The idea of frozen pastry was strange though, but the idea of freezing food at all was still weird. "Did it no be being really hard if it did be being frozen?"

[springforth]

"Exactly! A little cinnamon is all you really need, give it a little warmth. Who wants tart baklava?" Preaching to the choir as she might be, it's nice to have someone to talk very serious baklava and honey opinions.

"Oh it was hard when you just bring it out. But you can just let it thaw while you're working on other things. If you time it right. Otherwise you stand around waiting. It's just that I don't have to spend half my day stretching out the sheets of dough like tissue paper."

[knifewithnoname]

"Pastry do be taking a very long time." She agreed, "We did no be having freezers in my world though so frozen pastry do no even be existing."

She wrinkled her nose, "Maybe that's why people would be putting stupid things in it, they do be having too much time to think when they do no be needing to be spending their day making the pastry."

She is perfectly happy to blame terrible honey choices on freezers.

[springforth]

Persephone snorts and starts carefully levering up pieces. The first one is always a wash, never really holding its shape so she dumps it on a little plate.

"People will use any excuse to mess with a classic. You should see what they do with olives. Ah, if you don't mind it not being very pretty, you can have that. There'll probably be another broken piece in the other pan too, if you want to stick around." As if there won't be a whole pan. But giving the first bits sneakily to the younger nymphs is a time honored tradition that you must keep up.