บท 8: Chapter Eight
I woke to Jason jumping on the edge of my bed like it was Christmas morning. I groaned and buried my head under the pillow. I never should have let Iris taste chilled wine. We'd gone through two bottles before she finally called it quits and went to bed.
"Le-mon-ade," Jason sang. Every syllable jabbed me in the eye.
"Go away," I groaned.
"Le-mon-ade."
I tried again. "Go away for now and I'll make pancakes for breakfast."
"You can't. They don't have syrup. I already looked."
Even with a hangover, the cook in me reacted when syrup was mentioned. I realized I wouldn't need barbecue sauce to make meat tasty. I could create a glaze. I felt stupid for not thinking of it sooner. Syrup was just boiled down tree sap, sugar, and water. With that, I could make brown sugar. And if I could get my hands on cayenne peppers, I could use Uncle Harold's Cayenne-Cinnamon rib recipe. I already had everything else. Well, I'd have to make garlic powder, though.
My stomach growled. I knew my headache wouldn't go away until I ate something and drank some water, so I threw my blankets back and rolled out of bed. Jason cheered and ran out of the room. I followed at a slower pace, stopping by the bathroom before heading into the kitchen.
Iris was already there, looking far too perky for such an early morning. She held out a cup of black coffee for me, which I accepted like a dying man accepted water. "You're a Goddess," I groaned after the first sip. It was bitter. I usually preferred milk and cream in my coffee, but drinking it black woke me up faster.
"I wasn't sure if you wanted to cook this morning, so I pulled out all the usual ingredients," she said. "If you're not feeling up to it, I can put the eggs on to boil."
"How long do I have until Rafe comes down for breakfast? I'm thinking of making jam and biscuits for breakfast, but I'll need at least twenty minutes."
"He usually comes down at six thirty," she said. I checked the time with lifestyle magic. It was only six, meaning I'd gotten a full eight hours sleep. It didn't feel like it, though.
"If you want, go ahead and do the eggs and ham," I replied, my headache receding as I poured more coffee down my throat. "I'll do the bread, biscuits specifically. I'll write down the recipe for you later so you can have it."
Making the dough wasn't hard, although I had to eyeball the measurements. One thing I'd noticed is there were no standardized measuring cups in this world. I thought that might explain why cooking was difficult. It was hard to follow a written recipe when they had complicated ratios of water to milk to butter to flour. And that wasn't including extra ratios for flavoring spices. They practically had to be mathematicians to reproduce the same results each time.
I decided to ask Frank to enlist a glassblower to manufacture measuring cups. I also wanted a magic tool smith to make a weight scale. I needed to talk to him about having other tools made, too, such as a meat smoker, meat mincer, and a blender. If possible, I not only wanted a hand blender for batter, but a drink blender. I'd seen magic used in strange ways—such as heating the bath—so I didn't want to say creating them was impossible in this world before even trying. They'd turned a tattoo gun into a magical tool, after all. I'd seen self-rotating rotisseries in the Guild kitchen, too. Blenders should be easy. The only question was whether I could afford to have everything built.
Once the biscuits were in the oven, I focused on making jam. The pantry had strawberries in stock and I figured strawberry jam would be the most familiar for Jason. I also had the option of making peach jam or pineapple jam, but I doubted Jason's mother would have stocked those.
I minced the strawberries into fine pieces and set them to cook in a pot with sugar and lemon juice. As I stirred the mixture with a spoon, the strawberries slowly turned to mush. I used the back of my spoon to smash them until they lost form completely. It was the best I could do without a blender to make puree.
"Do you have a jar I could use?" I asked Iris. She quickly fetched me one out of a storage cabinet and I poured the mixture inside. The liquid parts slowly stiffed into a jam as the lemon juice reacted to the sugar. It probably wasn't as good as what Janet could do, but I thought it would work for breakfast.
"Is that pie filling?" Iris asked. "I've never seen any like it before."
"It's jam," I said, sticking a spoon in the jar so it could be served with breakfast. "You can put some in the middle of the biscuits I'm making." Putting it aside, I asked, "Do you have a mortar and pestle or some kind of tool for grinding herbs?"
"Are you sick?" she asked in concern.
"No, it's for prepping a special topping we can put on the eggs you made." I had to smile at how she rushed to get it, leaving the ham slices unattended on the stove. I took over until she returned bearing a wide stone bowl and a smooth stone orb I could roll atop the herbs.
Trading places with her, I retrieved some peppercorn from my Item Box and poured them into the mortar, then used the orb—the pestle—to crush and grind them into a powder. It was hard work, but satisfying when I saw a small pile of ground pepper building up in the basin.
I poured it into a small bowl and filled another bowl with salt, putting both on the table. Iris gave me a curious look, but I merely winked at her.
Rafe came down the stairs as I had Jason setting the table. There were no formalities to meals and no blessings needed to be said, so we all sat once the food was laid out and immediately dug in. Everyone started the same, cracking their boiled eggs and shelling them, but then Jason and I did something that had Iris and Rafe staring. I broke my eggs in half and topped each half with a pinch of salt and pepper. Meanwhile, Jason broke his biscuit open and went straight for the jam, slathering it inside. He put the jam spoon back in the jar, then shut his biscuit again and took a huge bite.
"If you want to try the pepper, don't use more than a small sprinkling," I said, seeing they were curious to try it. "A small amount goes a long way. It's also good on meat, but I like my ham unseasoned."
Iris and Rafe tried it. They loved it. Both of them praised the taste while Jason stared at them like they were crazy.
"Eat," I told Jason with a laugh. "I'll teach you lemonade after breakfast."
"What's lemonade?" Iris asked.
"It's a tangy drink made from lemon juice, sugar, and water. It's so easy even kids could make it, which is why lemonade stands are a stereotypical way for children to make money where we're from."
"Miss Iris," Jason said hesitantly. "Would it be okay if I called my friends over to learn with me? We're all going to build the stand together, so they should know how to make it, too."
She gave him a warm smile. "That would be fine. You can use the scrying glass in the sitting room after breakfast. Do you know how to work it?"
Jason surprised me by nodding. I had no idea what they were talking about. "Hana has a pocket-glass, so she showed me. You activate the magic circle and say the name of the person you're calling. Once they activate it on their end, you'll be able to see and talk to each other." Jason glanced at me and said, "It's just like a video call, but it uses magic mirrors. Most homes have one and rich people have smaller ones they carry with them, but the pocket-glasses can only call people you've linked with. It's like exchanging phone numbers over Bluetooth."
I made a mental note to see how much they cost and get one for Jason and myself. I'd feel a lot better about letting him explore if I could call to check on him.
After breakfast, Jason ran off to the sitting room to scry for his friends, Rafe left for work, and Iris refused to let me help clean the dishes. She shoo'ed me away, telling me to get dressed before the other children arrived. I did exactly that, pulling on an outfit similar to the one I wore the previous day, except this time my shirt was green. I stowed my work apron in my Item Box in case I needed it later and made a note to pick up a chef's apron. Even though I hadn't intended to jump into life as a chef, wanting to take my time as a dismantler first, it appeared there would be no escaping it.
When I went back downstairs, there were two girls in frilly Easter dresses sitting on the couch with Jason and an elderly man in a three piece suit standing off to the side. The girls jumped up as soon as they saw me, each offering a graceful curtsy.
"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Master Russo," the girl in pink said, speaking first. "I'm Lady Hana Roland, eldest daughter of the House Roland."
"Thank you for you kind invitation today, Master Russo," the girl in yellow said. "I'm Lady Jenna Lockhart, third daughter of the House Lockhart."
Behind them, Jason rolled his eyes. "I told them they could call you Al, but they said it wouldn't be proper."
I grinned, offering them my best imitation of a gentlemanly bow. "Thank you for coming, Ladies," I said. "You are most welcome here. I am Chef Albert Russo. As Jason informed you, you may indeed call me Al or Chef Al, if you prefer. I'll be you humble instructor today."
"Al," Jason whined. "Knock it off or they'll think you're serious."
I laughed and reached out to ruffle his hair. "Read the room, kiddo," I admonished. "These young ladies are the children of nobles. If I can't show this much respect for their position, their watchers aren't going to feel comfortable letting them into my presence—or yours. You're going to have to learn to do at least this much if you want to stay friends with them."
Jason made a face, but I caught sight of the butler character slightly bowing his head in agreement. I turned to him, deciding I should ask for help for Jason's sake. "It's a pleasure to meet you," I said. "I hope Jason has been behaving himself. The ways of our homeland are quite different from here, so please educate him if he oversteps."
"If I overstep!" Jason spluttered in outrage. "If anything, it's everyone else who need to be educated. Do you have any idea how many people seem to think it's okay to pat my head and mess with my ears? It's harassment, I tell you!"
I might have snorted. Okay, I totally snorted. Even the butler couldn't completely hide his smirk.
"There, there," Hana said, patting his head as if she'd been deaf to his complain. "Calm down. It'll be okay."
Jason gave me a suffering look and I decided to help him out. I knelt down next to Hana and said, "Lady Roland, it's not good to ignore it when people say they're being bothered. Imagine if a boy suddenly came up to you, messed with your hair, and didn't stop when you asked. What would you do?"
"I'd tell Gregory and the boy would be arrested by the peacekeepers for putting his hands on me, my father would ruin them, and I would never have to worry about it again," she replied.
Scary. This little girl was scary.
However, in my family, we ate scary for breakfast. "Ah, so you're saying I should call the peacekeepers and have you arrested for putting your hands on Jason, even though he's asked you to stop."
Behind me, the butler, Gregory, made a choking noise, but I silenced him with a quick glare. I was making a point here.
"W-What?" the girl stuttered, quickly pulling her hand away from Jason's head.
"Jason might be a Beastkin, but he's not a pet. He's a person who deserves the same right as everyone else to say who can and can't touch him. If you ignore his wishes, it doesn't matter if you're a noble lady or a commoner, you're nothing more than a criminal."
I could see tears building in her eyes, which was good. It meant she understood the seriousness of her trespass.
"I don't think calling the peacekeepers is necessary right now," I relented. "As long as you apologize, I think Jason will forgive you. He knows you weren't being malicious about it. Just do your best to respect other people's personal space in the future. Remember, Jason might be cute, but he's also a boy. If you put your hands on him so freely, he's going to misunderstand and think it's okay to do the same to you. That could get him in some big trouble down the line."
"I'm sorry," Hana said to Jason in a quiet voice.
"Me, too," Jenna piped in. "I didn't think about it like that."
I looked at Jason, waiting on his response. I figured he'd just blow it off, but he surprised me by saying, "I makes me feel gross when you pat my head like that. It's like you don't even see me as a person, which really sucks because I thought being a Beastkin was cool until you started treating me like a pet."
"We won't do it again," Hana promised.
Next to her, Jenna clenched her hands in front of her and nodded in agreement. "If we do, you can pull our hair in punishment."
Jason looked over at the butler, who was watching everything impassively. "You won't get mad if I do that, will you?"
The butler smiled and gave Jason a small, formal bow. "Normally, I would, but I believe it would be acceptable in this instance. You're the one who's been greatly inconvenienced, Master Jason."
"Okay," Jason said firmly, turning back to the girls. "I'll forgive you this time, but next time I'm going to yank your hair really hard, so be prepared. You're not allowed to cry if I do, either."
Just as everything was settled, there was a knock on the door. I went to answer it and found three teenage boys standing outside with an even older boy standing behind them.
"Hello," the boy at the back said, giving me a lazy wave. "We're looking for Jason."
Jason squirreled past me before I could say anything. "Hey guys, come on in. This is my big brother, Al."
The boys gave me informal greetings in passing, following Jason as he led them inside. Only the eldest boy stopped to offer a handshake. "Sorry about their poor manners. I'm Kalim's older brother, Rark. I hope you don't mind me tagging along. I was really curious about this lemon drink the boys were talking about."
"No, thank you for agreeing to supervise them in the market. I wouldn't know what to do if any issues arose."
Rark's gaze flickered down to the white belt on my waist. "No problem," he said, his expression filling with sudden comprehension. "You can count on me."
I led him inside, where he walked over to introduce himself to Gregory. I watched the younger kids interact for a few minutes until I was satisfied they truly were friends. There was no sign of bullying and no signs they were only using Jason.
Clapping my hands together to get their attention, I gestured for all of them to take a seat. "Before we begin, there's a few things I need to know. First off, how much lemonade are you planning to sell and how do you plan to transport it to the market?"
"I brought six small kegs," one boy said, holding his hand up like we were in a classroom.
"I have two large barrels in my Item Box," another offered. Right away, I knew we had a problem, because I didn't have enough lemons for that much lemonade. I didn't think Iris had that many lemons, either.
"And how do you intend to procure ingredients?" I asked, remembering this was supposed to be a school lesson.
"I have those," the third boy said. "Jason didn't know how many lemons we needed, so I got sixteen bushels. He also said we needed sugar, so I brought two greater sacks and I can get more if we need them."
Greater sacks were the fifty pound bags they had at the Guild kitchen, so it was far more than we needed.
"Good work," I praised. "Now, the most time consuming part of making lemonade is squeezing the lemons. I hope all of you are prepared."
Leading everyone into the kitchen, I set up an assembly line along one of the counters. The first person would cleanse the lemons and the second would cut the lemons in half—I assigned the girls to those tasks. After a little thought, I cleaned out the mortar and pestle and decided to use that as a shared juicing station. The orb-shaped pestle wasn't made to be used as a juicer, but beggars couldn't be choosers. I put last boy in charge of filling all the barrels with water.
I had everyone rotate jobs every five minutes so they could all have a chance to try each step. It made the work go faster, too, since no one had a chance to get too tired.
Once the mortar was full of lemon juice, I laid a hand-towel over a bowl and showed them how to strain it, separating the pulp from the juice. "Some people like to leave the pulp in," I said. "But that would clog the taps if you put it in a keg, so it's better to leave it out."
With the lemon juice ready to go, I quizzed the children, "Do any of you know what would happen if we just dumped all the sugar into the water?"
"Wouldn't it make it sweet?" one of the boys asked. I thought it was Kalim, since he had the same color hair as Rark.
"Let's try it," I said. I filled a bowl with cold water and let the boy stir in some sugar. He glared when the sugar refused to dissolve and I smiled at his frustration. "It'd dissolve eventually," I said. "But there's a better way to make sure it's done from the start so we can check the flavor immediately. That's by heating it up to make the sugar melt."
I gestured for them to follow me over to the stove, warning, "Never try to cook without adult supervision." I showed them how to melt several cups of sugar with a little water until it became syrupy, then I added more water to thin it further.
"Now, we don't have measuring cups, so we're going to slowly add this melted sugar and the lemon juice to the barrels until it becomes lemonade. It doesn't take a lot of lemon juice, so only add a few teaspoons at a time. Okay? Then we'll add the melted sugar until it's tasty. Add some more lemon juice to make the flavor stronger, then more sugar to balance it out. Jason, you've had lemonade before, so you'll be the test-taster. It'll be your job to let the others know if there needs to be more lemon or more sugar. Hana, you manage the lemon juice. Kalim and Jenna, you can make the syrup. Uh—"
"Jeremiah," the taller of the remaining boys supplied. "This is my younger brother, Jericho."
"You two will be in charge of stirring. Hmm, I don't think I have spoons large enough to reach the bottom, though."
"Allow me," Gregory said from his watching post in the corner of the kitchen. He pulled two wooden paddles from his Item Box and handed them over to the boys. I was really starting to think everyone in this world had access to that particular blessing.
Giving him a nod of gratitude, I watched over the kids as they worked, stepping in only when there were mistakes and the kids asked for my help. Kalim got impatient with the stove and scorched his first batch of sugar syrup by raising the heat too much. Hana accidentally got lemon juice in her eye and needed help washing it out. The boys got bored stirring and I had to stop them before they started sword-fighting with their paddles.
"I think it's done," Jason said suddenly, bringing everything to a screeching halt. I went over and dipped a cup in the barrel to check the taste.
Surprisingly, it was perfectly made lemonade. Tangy instead of tart and sweet without being overpowering. It was only missing one thing.
Filling a bowl with water, I used ice magic to freeze it into a solid chunk and dumped it in. I gave the kids a wink when they stared at me. "Lemonade is better cold. Try it."
As the kids and adult supervisors gathered around to taste-test, I went over to the stove, taking the pots off before they burned, and cleaned off the counters. The sounds of pleasure and 'delicious' comments coming from behind me made me smile as it always did.
I gave them a few minutes, but spoke up when I saw some of the kids going back for a third serving. "If you drink it all, you won't have anything to sell," I teased. "Back to work everyone. There's another barrel and six kegs to fill."
Now that everyone knew what lemonade was meant to taste like, I rotated them through the jobs so everyone got a turn making syrup, stirring, adding lemon juice, and taste testing.
At one point, we ran out of lemon juice, so I put everyone back to squeezing lemons for a while. Then it was over to mixing lemonade again.
It took nearly an hour to finish all the lemonade the kids wanted to make. We ended up having to start over on one of the kegs when too much lemon juice was added, but they got the hang of it. The last keg was completed at a much, much faster rate than the first one and everyone seemed confident they could make it again without my help.
"Chef Al," Hana said timidly to get my attention. "We never discussed payment for your teaching."
I wondered if that would ever come up. From the way Jason had talked, they weren't allowed to get free help from their parents.
"Well, about that," I replied. "Would all of you be willing to make an extra keg of lemonade for me? I like the stuff, too, but it's a bit tiring to make it by myself."
The kids found that acceptable and Iris had guessed which way the winds were blowing. When I asked, she already had a small keg prepped and ready in the dining room.
While they worked to make my share, Gregory let me know everyone else who'd agreed to help the kids had asked for the same thing. Five of the six kegs were intended for paying off debts while the last one would be used to serve the drink in the marketplace.
I waited until they left on their next step of their 'lemonade stand' adventure, then went back to clean up the remaining mess in the kitchen.
"I'm going to start on lunch for the kids," I warned Iris. "Would you like me to make your share?"
"I'm leaving for the market to start on your shopping list," she replied. "I can pick up something there. Oh, but would you be a dear and take Rafe something? He works too much and won't think to stop and eat."
"No problem. I need to go there anyway to meet with Frank. Did I give you enough coins for everything?"
"You gave me plenty, dear." She bustled off as I gathered everything for fried chicken and I heard her call out that she was leaving a few minutes later.
The hardest part of making fried chicken was dismantling a whole chicken by myself. My mithril butcher knife turned out to be invaluable. For side dishes, I went with simple french fries, buttered corn on the cob, and soft dinner rolls. For dessert, I went the lazy route and made strawberry jam thumbprint cookies.
I grinned at the finished dishes until I realized I had no easy way to transport everything, but Iris had foreseen that, too. When I went looking, I found two picnic-type baskets in the dining room—a large one for families and a smaller one likely meant for Rafe.
I was really starting to like that woman.
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