Hungry people need to eat...

[basic_powers]

It took a little bit of bribing amid the waitrats and kitchen staff to arrange for four hours of uninterrupted time. Half an hour of that was spent checking over the entire kitchen for listening devices, scrying spells or astral anchors. Once that was done, everything was about getting all the bits and bobs for teaching someone cooking basics out and at the ready. Spices were arranged, the espresso machine was warmed and primed. Coffer of various types was set out in jars, ranging from the dreaded SANKA to Civet Cat to the special blend that the people on Security drank (It was always nice to have a coffee that doubled as a liquid to exorcise ghosts, spells and what not).

For what's he's worth, Beauford is standing calmly next to one of the polished steel prep tables of the kitchen, wearing a battered plain denim apron that may have a few char marks at the shoulder. At least that's how things appear to Quentin when the young man shows up at for lessons.

Comments

[basic_powers]

There's a pause as Beauford starts taking down the press. It doesn't hold a great deal of coffee, but it makes the best tasting stuff...

"She more a person for quantity, huh?"

[heatherandsteel]

"She likes quantity but lots and soon count a lot."

[basic_powers]

"Feed he army, not the general. Got it." He's just going to put the french press away and move to one of the other coffee machines. The one that looks more like something from the Ny-Quil fueled dreams of H.R. Geiger had one hell of a wild weekend with your average espresso machine.

[heatherandsteel]

Quentin eyes the coffee machine warily, they have a fancy one but not this fancy, "Yes and then we feed her. Will you show me how they both work? I'm pretty good at making things fast and maybe if the coffee tastes really nice, she won't need as much."

Its better to know something and not use it then not know.

[basic_powers]

"Sure, though the fast may only be fixed by the sort of coffee maker you own." All he can really do is shrug. "The fastest non-Milliways machine I know of right now is the Keurig and it makes decent coffee in seconds..."

Hrmm... fast seems to be the order of the...*snerk* Daye it would seem. "Hettie here is one of a kind, and really only available here in Milliways. Security tends to use them on especially difficult events I think, because I've only ever smelled their blend in use."

Yes, Milliways' coffee machine has a name. Everyone can register a total lack of surprise here.

"There's seven filters and Hettie's got their own ever-lasting reservoir, and you'd find yourself having either seven strength coffee in a single pot or seven carafes of the same blend if we fired them up right now."

[heatherandsteel]

"Oh wow, I bet Walther would like something like Hettie. He's an alchemist and teaches chemistry at Berkeley. Keurig's coffee pretty good but its easy to forget to get the pods. If we found a good thermos or something, I could bring the coffee home and see how Toby likes it,"

Then he'd know one to keep in mind.

[basic_powers]

"Go get one from the Bar. She won't mind anything you order so long as it isn't toxic to you species, living, or an illegal drug in your universe of origin."

Granted it'll be seventh strength coffee and possibly be of more interest to Walter at that state.

[heatherandsteel]

"I will. Could you show me the French Press and then maybe some food?"

Though he'll do that when he leaves, fresh coffee is best.

[basic_powers]

"Sure, really if you've made British tea before, you've got most of the steps for French Press coffee down." Much less fiddly than Hettie, but still more fiddly than your usual coffee machine. Before too long and even WITH showing Quentin every step of the process, Beauford has a good sized pot of Security's Finest Blend perfectly brewed inside of the press. "By the way... how's your list for the budget and kitchen supplies coming along?"

[heatherandsteel]

Quentin pulls out his phone, its fairly sleek and finds the list which he hands over to Beauford.

Then he goes and gets a thermos for the coffee while Beauford's looking it over, a lot of the food they buy out is cheap but there are meals at home, "Here, this is about how we eat for a month."

[basic_powers]

"Alrighty."

Cheap take out doesn't always mean....good food, in his opinion. Then again this man did grow up in a Firehouse so he knows how to halve the costs in his list within a week.

When Quentin comes back, the phone has been set to the side as Beauford starts writing out a long list of ideas.

Premade meals->Do they have the freezer space?

The Fifteen Easy Twenty -> Kitchen Basics Skills need evaluation

Basic Starches 10 different ways -> Low nutrition, could be better but it's fast.

Milliways Instants -> Keep section of freezer HERE stocked with premade meals if no freezer space available

Nocturnal? -> See about making contacts at Farmers' Markets and CSA's.

[heatherandsteel]

Once the coffee's in the thermos, he looks over at what Beauford, "Any questions?"

He hopes their food choices aren't too awful, he knows they could be better.

[basic_powers]

"A few, I didn't see a freezer listed in your items at home..." Beauford murmurs, before looking up from his list and directly at Quentin. "I'm guessing you've got a fridge at least, otherwise your family group would be having a dickens of a time just making sandwiches...I think my main ones right now are about how much experience you've had with making things in a kitchen. Chopping prep, cleaning veggies, cleaning meat, grunt work."

[heatherandsteel]

"Our fridge has a freezer, the ice cream's in there. I have some since I've spent time in the kitchens of knowes and all. Mainly I know how to chop things and stuff like that,"

The cooks do the real work, but he knows how to follow directions.

[basic_powers]

"Alright, so it's probably a standard sized one...you might have the option of about three days worth of premade meal storage in there, going at four meals a day for six people, if you're good at playing Tetris. It's an option where you only spend a day or two evey three weeks cooking like a mad man." He's not entirely sure of Quentin's skills in that regard, or of Toby's patience in regards to that organization. "Showing you how to make mix and match staples would be another option. Instead of full meals you could have the supplies and sauces ready to mash up meals together on hand at any given time. That one has your time put at about 6 hours spent prepping things every week or so."

"So most of our lessons for this are obviously going to be flavor pairings and meal creation. What goes with what, how long it can keep in a fridge or without and why molecular gastronomy is not for beginners."

[heatherandsteel]

"Mix and match would work would better as I don't know if I'd be able to have a day or two free. That sounds good, show me what to do,"

He has a lot of responsibilities but he wants to help feed everyone.

[basic_powers]

"Right, we'll start with pesto. You can put that sauce on just about any protein or starch and have something delicious." It also has the advantage of being easy to make with the technology level present in Quentin's current life. It only takes a few minutes for Beauford to get out the ingredients to show how it's done. 3 cups of basil leaves packed down, two cloves of garlic, half a handful of pine nuts, a good shake or three of grated parmesan cheese and at least two cups of olive oil into the food processor until it's a fine green paste with a few pale chunks. BAM! Pesto.

"You can spread this into an ice cube tray and freeze it for easy to snag portions too. We'll work on making roux next, it's the base for all of your cream sauces. You can use walnuts or pecans if pine nuts are too expensive in your area."

[heatherandsteel]

"An ice cube tray, that's clever and a good use for them. Its San Francisco, everything's kind of expensive but I can make it work,"

Through his parents and the Duke, there's money when needed and his mother would approve of him learning to cook. They're not a house that drinks that many cold drinks, being mainly nocturnal helps.

[basic_powers]

"Well if you can grow your own basil, which isn't hard if you've got an actual house, you'll be saving yourself a great deal of fuss right there. Now roux has less ingredients, so while it's a simple thing to make... it's also really easy to fuck up." This time Beauford's going into the walk-in fridge for butter, milk and four different cheeses. "With this one, we've actually got to melt butter in a pan to start... then slowly add in your flour...and keep the heat steady while you stir it around until you get a nice toasted golden brown colour to it."

This also happens to take a bit longer than the pesto. So the squire may be getting a long talk about the virtues of roux. "It's the base for ALL of your milk or cream sauces and you can use it in making a few of the wine sauces thicker too."

[heatherandsteel]

Quentin's quiet and focused, he's unconsciously fallen into the version of rest that squires and pages use in Shadowed Hills when Sir Etienne is being useful but long,

"Those would go over well and I could ask May to buy the wine."

[basic_powers]

There's a smell just before the edges of the floury butter mixture start to turn almost too brown. The pan is yanked off immediately and pulled over so Quentin can see and smell exactly what's going on. "Right here is almost too done, what I call the Windmill Point."

There's a few flecks of too-dark-brown in the stuff Beauford is displaying, but those are neatly getting flicked out of the pan and perfectly landing into the wastebasket with a metal spoon.

"Now you can pot this in the fridge for a month and a half, or right next to the stove for two weeks at this point."

[heatherandsteel]

"What does it need before being ready to use for a good cheese sauce?"

Where he grew up, those mattered and roux and grating so much cheese.

[basic_powers]

"Heating in a pan and milk," Beauford says grinning, after scraping most of the roux into a ceramic dish and grabbing the milk jug. "You start getting those cheeses grated."

There's good hard aged cheddar, gouda, parmesan and romano cheese waiting right there. About a cup of each should be good.

"Grate however much of which cheese you'd like this sauce to be. Four cheese macaroni might win everyone's heart back in your house... orrrrr we could make cheeseburger shephard's pie."

[heatherandsteel]

"How tricky would both be?"

Quentin's hungry a lot and could eat huge amounts of both of those but there needs to be enough for bringing home. When he starts grating, he aims for about the same amount of each cheese.

[basic_powers]

"Doing both would fall into the category of "Getting another pan for sauce and grating triple that amount of cheddar" tricky." Beauford answers after a few moments of intense contemplation. Two pans for making the sauces, one pot for pasta, one pot for potatoes...oh right, going to need another pan to fry the bacon, ground beef, ground pork, onions and ketchup. "Also, grab some sliced bacon and a few ground meats from inside of the walk-in.. make sure it's meats you're familiar with. Headcrab meat makes terrible shephard's pie."