collaborative_daredevil | Slavery RP Post XVIII

A dozen eggs between the five of them. Toffee smiled and got the eggs out, cracking them into the bowl easily enough.

Jamie turned to Toffee then, and decided to test his culinary knowledge--see if he'd guess the cheese. "So right now, we have eggs and two of my favorite 'enhancement' ingredients. What do you think we're going to put in the eggs as well as these?"

"Pepper, and maybe some salt, or salty cheese."

Jamie smiled, pleased. "You're correct about the cheese--we put a very sharp, dry Wisconsin cheddar in. But the dijon takes care of the pepper. So go ahead and get that out."

"Okay." He went to the fridge and searched for the cheddar Jamie had asked for.

Jamie resisted the very strong urge to help, and bit his tongue. He reminded himself silently that this was teaching, not enlisting a sous-chef, and that micromanaging another pet was not friendly and not going to work. Toffee needed to learn to feel competent, and besides, he could very well search for things. And once he got it out, Jamie smiled at him.

"Okay, so now we're going to combine ingredients and whisk the eggs--which one do you think we should do first?" he asked, keeping his voice friendly and neutral, genuinely interested to see if Toffee would make the mistake Hendrick had made the one time Jamie had tried to coach him through it while also lying in bed.

"Grate the cheese first right? And add that while we whisk the eggs."

"Exactly. Now I think the grater was left in a weird place, so let me get it for you," Jamie said, plucking it from overhead. The others were filtering in, looking curiously at them, but Jamie handed them mugs and creamer and shooed them out immediately after they got their coffee.

"Now I don't really ever measure things, so grate as much cheese as you think is good," he encouraged.

They'd need a lot for all of them, so he grated until they had about half as much cheese by volume as eggs, glancing at Jamie for any sign of disapproval.

Jamie smiled at him when he checked in--it was a bit more cheese than normal but certainly nothing unworkable or crazy. "Okay, so now we need to whisk the eggs first, as you said. I'd like to show you how I whisk first, and then you can try," he said, and picked up his very favorite whisk, a stainless steel one with a pretty ceramic handle patterned with daises and gardenias. "I like to actually hold the bowl, but if you think you might drop it it can stay on the counter," he explained, "And whisk like this, to do more gross than fine motor movements."

"Either on the counter, or sitting with it in my lap." He agreed, taking the whisk as Jamie set the bowl on the counter and stepping up to take over whisking the eggs.

Jamie watched, and stopped himself from perfectly optimizing Toffee's technique, but it was a struggle. "You're doing good, just keep going while I sprinkle in a little cheese," he said carefully.

"Thank you." Jamie was being kind, but he was getting a better rhythm as he worked.

Jamie then added the dijon bit by tiny bit--even a little was frequently too much--and grinned. "Now, what do you think my next step will be?" he asked.

"Either adding the basil or starting to heat the pan...I'd guess heating the pan and adding the basil at the very end."

Jamie smiled. "First I like to oil the pan before doing anything else--my choice of fat for these eggs is bacon grease," and he got out the little jar and spooned it into the nice non-stick pan. "Or if I'm making bacon the same morning, I just cook in the same pan afterwards. And you understand one of the nuances already--if the basil gets added first it's too strong no matter how little I put in. So you put the stove on," it was electric, much safer according to their master and Jamie hadn't cared to argue at the time, "And then heat the fat for just a second before pouring the nice fluffy mixture in."

"Right when it's melted?" Toffee waited for approval, then tipped the bowl into the pan.

The mixture sizzled loudly, and Jamie sighed with satisfaction. "That's the good sound," he grinned, and spied Hendrick peeking in from the living room to see what the sound was.

"We're cooking, you shoo," Jamie scolded him affectionately. The kitchen was *his* domain of authority.

He giggled at Hendrick's instant response.

"They really respect you and your authority." And that was nice.

Jamie smiled back. "It is nice, I was worried before I was bought that I would always be the lowest in the household and never get any respect unless I fought for it with everyone, and I really didn't want to do that. But they do think of me as competent, and of being the manager of the household as skilled work. So they respect the kitchen as my domain. I guess I got a little territorial about it when you came."

"Did....I make you feel threatened?" He couldn't hide his anxiety at the idea.

"A little, but it wasn't your fault," Jamie said easily, gently. He gave Toffee a kiss on the cheek. "I also got really pissy when I was recovering in the hospital and the others were doing all the cooking and ordering and stuff--I actually yelled at Hendrick once just for trying to make a big breakfast for all of us, because I felt like I was totally useless and he was trying to passive-aggressively communicate that to me. Which was completely nuts and wrong, of course, but sometimes emotions can work like that. And when they realized why it was upsetting me so much, we worked out some good solutions and workarounds, including letting me cook more, even when it meant they ate less fresh and very few from-scratch foods for a few months."

"Good to be able to talk out problems." He commented, glancing over at the eggs. "Should I do a quick fruit salad as a side dish?" Did he have time?

"Mm, not this morning--the eggs have to be served fresh, and I want you to watch them cooking," Jamie explained as he stirred them and prevented burning multiple times. "See how they solidify in bits and pieces first?"

Toffee: Overload and Burnout

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