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+--- Thread: [G] [P] 744.06.17 | Just in Time (/showthread.php?tid=5376)
744.06.17 | Just in Time - Corin - 17.Jun.23
Today was a busy day in the kitchen of Igen Hold.
Of course, the kitchen was always a busy place to be, as there were always people to be fed at any given hour of the day. But Corin had been working especially hard today, and it seemed to him that there was more to do than usual, for whatever reason, and he’d kept himself busy from dawn until dinner just keeping up with chores in the kitchen.
When the sun had arisen this morning, the albino had been immediately assigned to dish duty. This was a task which he did not enjoy, but was pretty much guaranteed at least once per day for anyone who worked where the boy worked. Because there were so many dishes, Corin worked at a brisk pace (as brisk as one could be without sacrificing the quality of their work), but it still took him about two hours to get the majority of them done.
Then it had been time to make soup for the lunch rush. Corin loved to make soup — was there anything that he didn’t love to make? - and started with the wherry bone broth that Peya had left to him this morning to simmer. He ran the stock through a sieve, discarded the bones, and then additionally seasoned the broth in a stockpot on the stove. Then he threw in some roasted wherry meat, some vegetables (celery, carrot, and onion were the holy triad of soup making), and put the mixture on to simmer, again.
While the stock was on to stew, the albino took the time to make homemade noodles for the mixture. He combined egg, milk, salt, and flour into a dough. Then he flattened and cut the dough into strips, allowing the strips to air dry for an hour before adding them into the soup. His creation was ready to serve by the time the midday meal was about to start.
Normally, at this point, Corin would stop for a small break, but there was still so much to do in the kitchen that he skipped the meal himself and continued on to his next chore, instead. This meant stoking the fires and cleaning up the mess hall after everyone had eaten, which was a big job that took more than one drudge to do. None the less, the chore had to be done, and the albino really put his back into the work to make sure that the task would be finished in a timely manner.
From there, Corin moved onto dishes, again. There was a never ending mountain of dishes to do, and somebody had to keep the mess under control, so the boy washed for another two hours until, once again, the sink was empty.
“That won’t last long.” The albino said to himself, as he dried his hands off on a towel so that he could start his next chore.
Not that he considered baking a chore! Of all the things he was tasked to do today, the baking of cookies for dessert after dinner, was the thing he looked forward to most of all. Peya wanted something simple, so Corin decided to go with shortbread cookies, since there was a lot of butter in the kitchen to go through before it went off.
To start, the boy mixed butter and sugar into a bowl until the two ingredients were sufficiently combined. Then he added a touch of vanilla, followed by a large amount of flour, and a little bit of salt. He beat the mixture together until the dough was even, then rolled the dough out and cut it into circles using the rim of a glass. Lastly, he sprinkled some sugar onto the tops of the cookies and then placed the sheets of cookies into the oven to bake for just under half an hour.
It was about this time that Corin began to feel tired. Here it was almost dinnertime and he hadn’t rested once during his day. He was getting hungry, also. While he waited for the cookies to come out of the oven, he decided to sit down and have something to eat, himself. He pulled up a stool to the kitchen counter (so that he could keep an eye on the cookies) and sat down with one of Peya’s meat rolls, and a lukewarm bowl of his wherry soup.
“Mmmm, that’s good!” He smiled to himself as he dunked the meat roll in the soup and then took a bite of it. He chewed slowly, savouring the flavours of the food before swallowing and getting ready to take another bite.
Corin squinted as the shapes of people, other drudges and staff, flitted in and out of the kitchen as they completed their own tasks. He stayed out of their way and ate slowly, glancing every so often at the oven to check his work.
Just as he was about to check the cookies for the last time, someone entered the kitchen from the dining cavern whom he recognised by the slight shape of her frame: Elwen, one of the other drudges. She was accompanied by the shadow of her wher, who followed her everywhere.
Corin glanced at the ground and smiled, softly, as the two approached. Though he did not make eye contact with either of them, he did raise his hand and wave a little at them so that they’d know he’d seen them. Instantly, he dug into the pocket of his apron for some scraps of wherry meat from lunch that he’d set aside for Elsk, and he held out the strips of meat at the wher’s level so that she could take them from him. He glanced at Elwen, then blushed as he tried to talk to her.
“H-hello, Wennie..! Umm, Elsk, t-too! Ah, you-you’re just in ah, just in t-time for the, the, uh, cookies!”