Cooking Up A Treat (Felina)

[Felina Sunder]

Timestamp: Cryxatum, Brighting three, in the Season of Spring, Era I of the Celestine Mandate, Era XIII Post Fractum. The First Era of the Regency of Milo L'Evienne.

Felina Sunder nervously looked up at where she would be spending most of her time for some time now. She was a little nervous at what she was to find when she stepped through the doors of the establishment in front of her. She had always wanted to be a cook. Maybe it was the "hunter" instincts still in her being, some where.

Felina bit her lip nervously. She had never been a brave person like her older brothers. She had been the opposite of most everyone in her family with a fear of the new. She shivered for the hundredth time that day before pushing herself onward. She wanted to get this over with and wanted to start a new life. This was the way to do it, too. She stepped forward and opened the door.

[Viskyia Crow]

Felina probably didn't realize it now, but she'd really gotten lucky with her apprenticeship, extremely lucky. The card she carried had both a tavern name on it and a cook's reference. The establishment she walked into was none other than 'The Tavern of Six Lanterns'. It was a place that rarely had apprenticeships because its staff tended to stay put and rarely moved on creating such positions.

ooc: As originally described by Shortround here:

This well-known place contained every spectrum of Nexus Prime's colorful citizenry within it's two stories. Of course the classes did not mix, the wealthier and more respected patrons dined in a separate area than the masses. The first floor contained bars and tables for the commoners, always full and always busy. The second floor, however was off limits to them and hulking guards stood at the stairs preventing the curious from wandering. On the north side of the building a private entry allowed the worthy to climb to the second story.

It was spacious, and splendidly ornamented. The second floor was basically a large dining area with screened private booth's lining the walls. The air filled with the soft music of a small ensemble that sat in a corner out of the way. Lighting it all were six giant lanterns from which the Tavern got it's name.

'The Lanterns' as the staff called it, was a cooks paradise as well. The entire basement was dedicated just for cooking and food preparation. It also contained a small staff lounge, a laundry for cleaning the soiled napkins, and a huge dish washing area. The ovens, which were bricked and had a chimney that rose up through the very center of the establishment, kept the basement warm and well-heated throughout the year.

If Felina walked through the door and stopped anyone who worked there, showing them her card, she'd be directed to the staff entrance behind the massive bar on the first floor, and down into the bowels of this incredibly clean underground kitchen. The cook she was looking for, Fanny Niltilanius, would be bustling around supervising the junior cooks and the other apprentices Felina would be working with.

This was definitely a great opportunity. If Felina worked hard and did good work for her apprenticeship, she could have secure employment for as long as she wanted it in such an establishment.

[Felina Sunder]

Felina looked around with wide eyes. She had not expected the resturaunt to look like this. It was lovely here.

"Excuse me." Felina said to a server. Before they could ask her to take a seat she handed over the sheet she had been given. The server gave her a glance and they pointed in the direction she was to head. She thanked the man and headed toward the kitchens. She got an even bigger shock at the kitchen area. This is paradise! She thought as she looked around for Fanny Niltilanius. She did not have to wait long for she stuck out like a sour thumb. She was pointed in her direction.

"Excuse me, ma'am..." She said shly to the one they had pointed out. When she got her attention she shly handed over the paper she had been given.

[Viskyia Crow]

When Felina came face to face with Fanny, she was in for a surprise. Fanny looked, although no one in the entire kitchen had ever dared ask, like she was half halfling and half human. She was at least four foot five inches, perhaps six if she wasn't stooped so badly from her years bent over a counter chopping, cutting, dicing, and then working at the stove. Her age was dubious to guess, though one would say perhaps somewhere in her late forties. She had a beautiful black head of hair streaked as if purposefully, in strategic place with silver. Her hair was caught up twisted, and pinned to her scalp with a modified wooden spoon. Fanny took a moment to check Felina out, before she smiled. When she did, it lit the room and made everyone around her relax.

As she smiled, words came tumbling off her lips, spilling over Felina's senses like a rainbow of laughter. "Welcome to the Lanterns, Child! Welcome! You must be Felina. Its such a treat to get a new apprentice. We keep seeing the same old faces around here. Someone new will be great." She reached up and managed to just barely pat Felina on the shoulder.

"I will get you settled into your room in a moment, but first I want to hear all about what you want to learn with us. We have all sorts of cooks here, so its no bother to get you started on the basics, then move you into any direction you want. The entire place knows we need help at almost every station anyhow." Fanny spoke brightly, and conversationally as she pulled forth an apron for Felina and handed it to her while she listened to Felina's response. It was a bright yellow one with the Tavern of Six Lantern's emblem on it. Then she was handed a tiny wooden name tag with her own name spelled out in big bold letters burnt into the wood. Fanny pinned it onto her apron and began Felina's training with a tour.

The tour took a good half candlemark, and by the time it was done, Felina should have had a good working idea of where the coolers were, which stations were which, and how a plate of food got from the menu where it was ordered to the customer's table where it was consumed. All the goings on was enough to make Felina's head spin, though fortunately the layout of the kitchen was simple, and the stations arranged logically.

"Shall we go see your room now? Then get started?" Fanny asked, having stopped talking long enough to hear Felina's answer.

[Felina Sunder]

Felina soon was relaxed in the woman's presents and was even happier to have gotten the opportunity to apprentice here.

"I will get you settled into your room in a moment, but first I want to hear all about what you want to learn with us..."

Felina didn't even have to pause before telling her. "I enjoy making dishes." She told the woman. "That is my favorite part of cooking, although I'd love to learn whatever you wish to teach me because I want to be a cook." She told the woman. They then took a tour of the place and everyone seemed friendly enough. This isn't as bad as I had feared. She had wanted to be a cook, but the thought of leaving her family and being pushed into a strange world with scary people who were unfriendly. This had not been what she expected at all.

"Shall we go see your room now? Then get started?"

Felina nodded her head. "That would be great, thank you, ma'am." She told her. She was not expecting much out of the room, but did not need a lot. She had been the only female in her family (other then her mother) so she had gotten the smallest room. This meant she was accustomed to smaller rooms. I am sure the house mom bought here is rather small as well. Felina thought as she followed Fanny. She had mixed feelings about the mysterious house her mother had given her the deed for, but it would not be needed until after the apprenticeship..if it is needed at all. But she had decided that she wouldn't sell it until she was 100% sure that she would not be needing it.

[Viskyia Crow]

Fanny grinned merrily. "Felina, this is a tavern and all them boys upstairs know how to do is eat. I'd imagine you'd get to make dishes to your hearts content." She claimed, as she lead the way to a back stair and climbed out of the basement level. She passed the opening to the main floor of the tavern, and climbed two more sections of stairs to an attic level that contained all the rooms for the apprentices. She opened a door on the righthand side of the hallway, three down from the stairway and gestured to the end of the hall. "Thats the bathing room. We have a cistern on the roof that holds the water so you don't have to haul it. There's also a stove to heat it in there if you want your baths other than lukewarm." She grinned and opened the door marked #4, and handed the key to Felina.

"This is it. It's not much, but it certainly should suit you. No visitors overnight, though you can have guests during the day when your not on duty." She stepped aside showing Felina a neat little room with a wide comfortable bed and a desk near a back window. There was a free-standing wardrobe, and a small ornate oil lamp on the desk. "Writing materials are in the desk if you want to keep notes for yourself." She said simply, then bustled out to go fetch Felina bedsheets, pillow, and a blanket or two. She returned momentarily, depositing it all on the bed.

Then she stepped back, laided her hands on her waist, and grinned. "All ready to get started? I'm going to teach you how to make the breakfast sweetbreads first, since thats where all apprentices start and its an easy thing to do. Everyone loves cinnamon and sugared breads in the morning, so we can't keep enough of them around." She was already leading Felina back down to the kitchen as she walked, laying out the course of the initial apprenticeship to the girl as she started down the steps.

"So, for starters I teach basic kitchen work, food preparation, storage, care of your utensils, and your ingredients... and a basic recipe. Once you get sweetbreads recipe down, we will start you on all sorts of breakfast goodies and work you up through the day. How does that sound?" She grinned, already back down to the kitchen with Felina.

[Felina Sunder]

Felina glanced around her new room as Fanny talked about "The Lanterns". The room was small, but she had expected that. What she had not expected was the bathing room, but she wouldn't be using it much. She avoided water as much as possible. She did dishes, but that was far as it would go.

Felina didn't have a lot of things either so she didn't think she would have a problem with filling up the space. She had the clothes on her back, some crowns and Leo's dagger. Leo, her eldest brother, had pressed is upon her before she had left.

"You know I can't use this." She had told him.
"You can always pretend." He had responded before giving her a bear hug.

"All ready to get started?..."

Felina nodded her head and followed her teacher out of her new room. She had never made sweetbread before. Cinnamon and sugared breads were a luxury that her family had not been able to afford. They had stuck to simple breads and the blamed foods that Felina knew too well.

"I'm ready, ma'am." She told her teacher.

[Viskyia Crow]

Fanny lead her back down to the kitchen, and to an empty workspace that had an air of a bread-station about it. Ingrediants that would go into breads, rolls, doughnuts, anything you could imagine, lined the workstation. There were enormous rolling pins, square pans, round pans, and a huge marble slab that allowed someone easy access to rolling out crusts.

Fanny smiled. "Now, the first and most important thing about basic cooking is keeping your workspace clean. Its important. You also want to have everything within easy reach, so pay attention to how this workstation is set up. I expect, throughout the day, you to keep it clean and pick up any messes as they happen. We tolerate nothing but the best here at the Lanterns, and that includes a clean kitchen."

She heaved a deep breath, looked around, and continued onward. "Also, you want all your tools sharp and within easy reach. Ingredients in tightly sealed containers as possible. And you need to know whats going in your recipe before you start so you can get all the ingredients out. Next you need to make sure your stove fire is going, and its hot enough to heat your oven to warm enough to bake. Our ovens here are baking ovens, so they tend to hold their heat. Now.. child, here is the recipie. She handed Felina a blank sheet of paper and a pen and ink. Write it down. Then, tell me, how would you start?" Fanny quizzed her on her knowledge.

The Recipe:

1. Put 1 cup of warm water plus one tablespoon sugar in a mixing bowl. Add two tablespoons of yeast. Let sit for about five minutes.
   
2. Add three cups of flour, 1 cup of milk, dash of salt, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and 3-4 tablespoons of oil or melted butter. Stir 50 times clockwise, and then 50 times counter-clockwise.
   
3. Add another 3 to 4 cups of flour and mix until the dough forms a good ball. Turn dough out of the bowl onto a floured surface and let it sit for ten minutes. Then, knead the dough for 5 to 10 minutes.
   
4. Let rise in a greased bowl for about an candlemark (it should double in size). Punch down the dough. Let it rise again for 30 to 45 minutes. Divide into two equal parts and shape into loaves. Place in loaf pans and bake a hot oven for about 25-30 minutes.

Fanny waited patiently, wondeirng how the girl was going to respond.

[Felina Sunder]

It made sense that everything needed to be kept clean. If something is kept out on the cutting board it might get into what you are making and ruin it. She thought as she was handed over a recipe. My first test... Felina thought nervously.

"The first thing I would do is get all the ingredients I need..." Felina frowned as she read over everything. "Get everything prepared and ready to put into my bowl." She would need melted butter and warm for one thing. Those ingredients needed preparation before going into her bowl.

[Viskyia Crow]

Fanny grinned in delight. She was well-pleased with her student. "Very good girl, very good. Now, we are going to make this bread recipe, and once we have a couple of loaves, we are going to alter it slightly for several varieties. Sweet bread, cinnamon rolls, and crescent rolls. You will love how just altering a tiny basic recipe can have such delightful results." Fanny motioned at the ingredients then smiled at Felina.

"Well, don't keep me waiting all day. Check your ovens... you don't really need this step, but do it anyhow because its good to memorize this step it as part of your training. Then, get your ingredients out and premeasured. Then start combining them." Fanny said, gesturing. It was obvious she wanted the girl to succeed and do well in her new career.

To Fanny's way of thinking, this was the absolute magical moment for a budding cook. They were going to make bread, then transform ordinary bread into the extraordinary. When Felina was done doing so, she'd have a great foundation to start her career on.

[Felina Sunder]

Felina bobbed her head excitedly as she did as her teacher asked of her. She couldn't help but let her tail slash out a few times in pure eager happiness, but that didn't last long because they were in a kitchen and she didn't want to hit anyone or anything. She kept herself in check as she crossed over to the ovens to see if they were warm enough. It did seem like it was all in order so she came back to her station and then she began to measure out everything she needed...

1 cup of warm water, one tablespoon of sugar, two tablespoons of yeast, three cups of flour, 1 cup of milk, a dash of salt, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 3-4 tablespoons melted butter and about 3 cups of flour.

Once all was ready she gave her teacher a big grin before combining what needed.

[Viskyia Crow]

ooc: I feel like an idiot. I posted to this a couple of days ago, and must have just hit preview instead of post before I got distracted on another screen. argh!

"Okay Felina..." Fanny grinned. She was the teacher here, so she was going to teach the girl how to manage her time effectively as well. "Next time, lets do it this way. Get out your butter, and take it with you when you go check the oven. Then go check the oven, leave your butter to melt on a bread shelf, grab your hot water while your there, come back, set your yeast to soaking in it with the sugar, then gather the rest of the ingredients and set out your bowls. Then we can start with your dry ingredients, and get them combined while we wait on the yeast to wake up and look lively." Fanny loved managing time better, because it made her cooks more effective in the kitchen.

Fanny helped Felina with this, pre-measuring the ingredients, and showing her the proper way to measure dry ingredients verses wet ingredients... lightly scraping off the measuring cup for the flours and sugars and explaining about the importance of getting the measurements exactly perfect for the wet. "There is a dip to the level... its called a parabola. Go ahead and measure to the bottom of the parabola, not to the edges..." Fanny displayed, pointing. Then the two women combined the dry ingredients, stirring the mixture firmly. Then the wet went together... all in the yeast mixture. She sent Felina to get her melted butter, and add that in together as well. With the wet firmly combined, the experienced cook had Felina slowly add the ingredients into the dry, combining them neatly and stirring the proscribed 50 one way, and 50 the other.

"Very good... now... lets add the extra flour." Fanny directed Felina, but Felina did all the work, slowly dipping in the flower as she worked the wet messy dough into something more managable. "You stop when you get the bread dough a good firm texture without being too dry. Then, flour your breadboard... heavily... and dump your dough out onto it. Set your bowl aside.. we will be doing more dough in a few minutes. Let it rest for ten minutes, then lets start kneeding..."

Fanny was sure Felina had a lot of experience with this sort of work, but she wanted to make sure she had all the basics without fail before she moved her into something harder.

Ten minutes later....

"Okay, lets begin kneading. Show me what you know." Fanny sat back and let Felina demonstrate her prowess kneading the dough. She nodded her approval as she did so, adding only a few helpful suggestions as she did so. "Keep up a rhythm. Push, pull, squish the sides, push, pull, squish the sides... get a song you like to sing going in your head and time your kneading to that. Or anything else you like, just to keep your timing down good. You want five to ten minutes, depending upon how elastic the dough gets." Fanny showed her what consistency she was looking for, and the two women set the dough aside to rise in its pan when they were done.

They'd punch it down in a candlemark or so... but until then, Fanny went on to explain. "Its easy to double and triple this recipe. The only thing you have to watch is how much dough you can knead at once. Limit your doubling to that amount. Otherwise, in this kitchen alone, we make thirty loaves for morning, and thirty for evening..... and all the varieties in between. Now, ready for the alterations? We need to do something with you while we are waiting for the dough to rise and be ready to bake..."

She told Felina to wash her hands, and then told her to get ready to write again...

• For sweet roll dough (such as for making raised cinnamon rolls), increase butter to ½ cup, increase eggs to 2 eggs, increase sugar to ½ cup, use 1-1/2 cups milk, reduce water to ½ cup. Make into desired rolls after the second rising. For Dinner Rolls, prepare as sweet rolls, use less sugar, use 1 cup water and 1-1/4 cups milk. Dinner rolls bake in a hot oven for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown. Form dinner rolls by rolling dough into small balls (after second rising), let rise a half hour, then bake.
  
• For Ice Box Rolls, after first rising, put in an ice box right on the ice, in tightly covered container. When you want to bake rolls, take some dough out of the container, form into rolls, let rise in a warm place, then bake in a hot oven for 15 to 20 minutes.
  
• For Crescent Rolls, after first rising, divide dough in half. Roll each half into a circle, spread some melted margarine over the dough. Cut like a pie, and roll each piece up starting with the large end first. Let rise double, bake in a very hot oven until golden. Variation: in addition to margarine, spread dough with some kind of filling, roll up, let rise, and bake.
  
• For potato bread or hot roll dough that keeps particularly well in the ice box, add 1 cup mashed potatoes to the water and yeast, increase sugar to ½ cup. Its a good way to use up old unused potatoes.
  
• Cinnamon Rolls are Sweet roll dough -- sugar -- cinnamon -- melted margarine all put together in a unique way. Roll sweet roll dough into a rectangle, spread with melted margarine, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Roll up and pinch seam to close (sometimes it helps to dip your fingers in water as you pinch the seam). Cut into 1 inch rolls. In a 9 X 13 inch pan, mix together the following: ½ cup butter (melted), ½ cup brown sugar, 2 tablespoons white sweet syrup. Coat the bottom of the pan with this mixture. Set the cinnamon rolls in the pan (don't crowd them). Let rise for 30 minutes or so. Bake in a warm oven until done, about 20 to 25 minutes. This makes a cinnamon roll with a crunchy caramelized bottom. If you don't want the crunchy bottom, just place rolls in a greased pan to rise and bake.
  

Fanny grinned. "Now, while we wait for your basic white bread to rise, which of those do you want to mix up?"

[Felina Sunder]

Felina was growing more and more relaxed in "the lantern" kitchen. It was most pleasent to work side by side with Fanny and she liked having her as a teacher. She knows a lot of things about the kitchen. This is more then mother had ever taught me about cooking. She thought to herself and felt sad that she thought such things, but it was the truth.

"Now, while we wait for your basic white bread to rise, which of those do you want to mix up?"

"I would like to start with the sweet roll." Felina told Fanny with a shy smile. She would remember it easier if they went in the order she was writing them down in.

[Viskyia Crow]

Fanny chuckled and nodded. "Well alright lass, you have the recipe, the basic knowledge, and time while your first batch of bread rises. Get started already! And this time, I'm not helping one bit. I'm standing back here while you make the sweet bread."

Fanny did just that. She wandered away a moment and dragged a stool back over to sit near Felina and watch her. She didn't just sit though. She brought with her a giant bowl of strawberries, and two other smaller bowls. She started de-steming the fruit, and slicing it. One bowl was for the discarded stems placed on the floor at Fanny's feet for her to drop them into. The other rested on her lap, to slice the strawberries in.

And while she did that, Fanny watched Felina like a hawk, letting her have your way in the sweet bread attempt.