A great Chef is an Artist

[Megan Sims]

Megan Sims walked into the home economics room. After putting her satchel onto her work bench, she opened it and pulled out the sheets of cream paper with that day's recipe on it, she then walked around the classroom, placing two sheets on each work station:

BASIC MUFFIN RECIPE

Ingredients:
Gingerbread:

1. 2 cups self-raising flour
2. ½ cup sugar
3. 1 egg
4. 1/4 cup grapeseed oil
5. 1 cup milk

What to do:

1. Preheat oven to 356
2. Place al ingredients in a bowl and mix until just combined.
3. Spoon into pre-greased muffin pan.
4. Cook for approximately 20 minutes.
5. Rest for five minutes before removing from pans and place on a cooling rack.
6. Ice muffins as desired (unless they are savoury muffins of course.
7. Can be frozen for up to three months.

Sweet Suggestions:

1. Apple and Cinnamon: ½ cup of grated apple and ½ tsp cinnamon.
2. Apricot and Yogurt: 1/3 cup chopped dried apricots and 2 Tblsp of Greek yogurt.
3. Blueberry: ½ cup of drained (or fresh) blueberries.
4. Chocolate Chip: ½ cup chopped milk chocolate.
5. Bran and Banana: 1 banana and 1/4 cup bran.
6. Muesli: 3/4 cup muesli and 1 Tblsp golden syrup.

Savoury Suggestions:

1. Salami and Cheese.
2. Grated mixed Vegetable.
3. Bacon and Cheese.
4. Corn and Cheese: ½ cup creamed corn and 1/4 cup grated cheese.
5. Cheese and Sundried Tomatoes.

Returning to her own work station, she sat down behind her bench - the only one in the room that had a stool behind the bench, as at the other stations, the students would be too busy working to be needing to sit down, and any that complained would just have to deal with it, or transfer out of her class if they so wished.

Once all of the students had arrived at picked their workstations, the woman knew it was time to get started. "Welcome, everyone." She smiled around at the students. "As you will have seen, today you are going to make muffins. As you will see, the recipe on the sheet is just a base recipe. What you put in the muffins is up to you. As with the previous class, you can either work together or can work individually. You could do both, in a way that one person makes sweet muffins and the other makes a savoury option and then divide the muffins between you at the end of the class. Frosting and decorating the muffins is up to you. You will be marked on your creativity as well as how you work together, even if you work on two separate projects." She gave a conspiring grin. "And just to let you in on a little secret, when spooning your muffins into the pan, which can be pretty messy, if you use the quarter cup as a scoop, it's the perfect amount and no mess."

She paused to see if anyone had any questions (which will be answered in my next post if anyone has any). "As always, you will find everything you need for the recipe in your pantry of fridge."

---

Present:
Adonya van Rutherford 1
Cortney Smit 2
Jayne Doe 3
@jennap 1
Miranda Florin 2
Peter Holden 3

Absent
@faolan
@jase
@daretodream

[Cortney Smit]

Cortney hummed as she slung her bag over her shoulder and left Earth Science class, smiling as the other students seemed to move out of her way without her having to say anything. It seemed that being cheer captain did seem to bestow her with an ethereal power that created a large bubble around her that others had no choice but to move out of her way.

She all but skipped down the hallway toward her next class, super excited to find out what they would be making that day. "Hey Ms Sims." She greeted brightly as she slipped behind the counter of the kitchenette that she have been sharing since she joined Creative Cooking with Miranda.

She grabbed a black apron off the hook and placed it over her neck before tying the cords behind her back. She then washed her hands in the sink, drying them on a paper towel, which she then tossed into the rubbish bin that she opened with the foot pedal. She then stepped to the left and looked at the recipe sheets. "Ooh, muffins!" She loved baking and along with the suggestions on the paper, she had a few that she would love to try and this was the best place to do that.

When they were given the word to start, she turned toward her partner and arched her eyebrows at Miranda as she stepped over to the pantry. "How do you want to do this?" She asked, removing the base ingredients that were needed for the muffins. "I have an orange and chocolate idea that I want to try out. If you want to make sweet muffins too though, I won't argue." The girl had a wicked sweet tooth, though her body type wouldn't make anyone think that.

[Jayne Doe]

Jayne was in no real hurry to leave Earth Science, as she preferred to keep out of the crowd of students that hurried out of the classroom. Shouldering her backpack, she finally left the room and walked down to her next class.

Walking into the home economics room, she smiled toward the teacher. "Good morning, Ms Sims." She said as she walked behind the bench if the unit she always worked at. Putting the apron on, she looked at the recipe and nodded. At least muffins were a pretty fail-safe recipe. She pulled out her recipe folder and placed the sheet in there. She glanced around the room, hoping that Peter would come and work with her, they seemed to make a good team.

When they were allowed to start, she began to get the flour and things out of the cupboard. "What would you like to make?" She asked her partner as she also pulled out things like chocolate chips and tinned fruit. She had no idea what kind of muffins she wanted to make, and hoped that her partner would at least take one option off the list.

She glanced at the tinned apple and cinnamon pie filling and then over at that the chocolate chips, wondering what it would be like to combine the fruit with chocolate. She looked at the recipe sheet again and wondered if she should add extra cinnamon, even though the tin said that it had cinnamon in it.

[Miranda Florin]

Miranda ducked into the bathroom after Biology to wash her hands. They had done a lab, and while they had been wearing gloves, since she was going to be handling food next, she didn't exactly want to contaminate it.

However, soon after that, she was at the home ec classroom. She greeted Ms. Sims, then approached the bench that she always shared with Cortney, grinning at her friend, whom she had approached just in time to hear the exclamation, "Eek! A talking muffin!" Grinning at the joke, she picked up her own apron, tying it on as she looked down at the recipe and suggestions.

Once it was time to start, she glanced back down at the suggestions. However, as she heard Cortney's suggestion, she smiled, "That sounds fun!" She looked back at the savoury options, "I think I'll try the bacon and cheddar one, then." As she grabbed the bowl, she looked over at the ingredients that Cortney had already taken out, grinning as she nabbed the flour and started measuring it out, sifting it before she switched it for the sugar so that Cortney could get started as well, "With all of the extras, we could turn Coryn into a feather bowling ball."

[Adonya van Rutherford]

Blythe stuffed the paper full of scribbled Lewis Structures into her Chemistry folder, then walked out of the classroom, bulling her way through the crowds where they wouldn't part for her. She had no issue with pushing through, although she could feel a few eyes on her back as she made her way towards the classroom where Creative Cooking was held.

As she entered, she nodded at the teacher, then glanced at the benches. Cortney was already working with someone, and she didn't know the other girl, so she walked to an empty workspace and dropped her backpack next to it,kicking it out of the way before picking up an apron.

When they were given the green light to begin their project, Blythe looked down at the list, then over at her partner, "I'm going to make blueberry chocolate chip muffins." There was no question in her voice, and she turned away to find the ingredients she would need, giving her partner no chance for an argument. She might not eat more than half of the muffin, but sweet things were always more fun to bake than savoury dishes, in her opinion, and she wasn't going to give her partner a chance to take that fun away.

[Deleted]

Jenna finished washing her hands off after her biology class then started to make her way towards her next class. Would she ever use creative cooking for anything in her life other than not having to worry about feeding her future husband burnt dinner? No, probably not, but it sounded fun so why not?

"Hey Ms. Sims." She smiled and glanced around the room. Some of the girl's in class had already paired up so only two were left. Jenna picked one of the two blondes who were still free, being the one who didn't seem to be waiting for someone. She stood in front of the table and tied the apron around herself while looking at the recipes. Both looked good but she was leaning more towards her sweet tooth at the moment.

When they were given the go ahead, Jenna was about to introduce herself but the other girl spoke first. She was a little taken back at her partner's dictatorial manner but said nothing to her. Unfortunately, Jenna couldn't use seniority on the girl until next year so she just went along with it, sending little daggers at the girl whenever her back was turned. Though she agreed that she wanted cupcakes she didn't like being bossed around all that much so she was going to hold onto that one for quite a while as she had little internal tantrums.

[Peter Holden]

    Peter was nearly late to his Creative Cooking class, but hurried in just in time, and found a spot in the last station with only girl without a partner. He had left his past class a little late, and hadn't put much thought towards the fact that he may be late to his next class until he had checked the time.

    Smiling at Jayne, whom he had worked well with before, he turned his attention to Ms. Sims. Once the teacher had finished her instructions, Peter tied on an apron and turned to Jayne after glancing over the recipe and suggestions. "I was thinking banana walnut muffins. Is that okay?" The option wasn't on the list of suggestions, but the combination sounded good, and perhaps he would earn some points for creativity.

    When they started working, he washed his hands, gathered his ingredients, and preheated the oven before reading over the recipe fully and beginning. It seemed pretty simple, and he would just have to work out how much banana and walnuts he should use since the pairing wasn't specifically stated on the recipe. He decided to go with using one banana as suggested with the banana bran recipe, and a scant 1/4 cup of walnuts. 

[Megan Sims]

Megs listened as the students discussed with their baking-buddy what they were going to make, and there were some delicious sounding muffins being thought up. As she wasn't needed, Megs remained where she was sitting and thought toward the next class, deciding to do something more healthy, more dinner orientated next time, but she would think more about that later, when she was in her apartment and able to experiment with different recipes... which would also mean that she might invite those living around her for dinner, as she would no doubt have more food then she could eat or freeze.

"Don't forget to turn your oven on before you start constructing your muffins." She offered, knowing that she herself was guilty for forgetting about the oven while she was thinking of muffin or biscuit fillings.

Maybe in the next class she could get them to make a three course meal, and they could serve the teachers. She smiled and shook her head at that thought. However, they could make a three course meal and each invite a friend for lunch... now, that might be a plan. She pulled out a notebook and started making notes about what they could make - that was achievable in the time they had, and what each station would need for the recipes.

[Cortney Smit]

Cortney grinned as she grabbed an orange out of the fruit bowl, as she'd use orange zest and juice to put the fruit flavour into the muffin along with chocolate chips. "That sounds really nice." She commented on her friend's muffin idea. She shot the girl a withering look about the comment on feeding them to her bird. "Coryn would probably look at them and turn his beak up at them." She replied with a shrug. "He doesn't often like my cooking unless it's made with birdseed." She's made him some bird treats and a mini bird feeder with a small pinecone.

She glanced over at Ms Sims suggestion and nodded her head. "She makes a good point." She said as she walked over and turned the oven on to the correct temperature.

She put all the base ingredients for her muffins into the bowl, minus the milk, before adding the chocolate chips, grating the orange rind into it, making sure to stop before she got to the pith, and then cut the orange in half before squeezing juice from the two halves into a measuring cup to get half a cup and then adding half a cup of milk and mixing it all together with a wooden spoon until it was just combined. She then washed out the cup she had used for the oil and used that to scoop the mixture into the pans that she had greased earlier.

"Are you ready to stick yours in?" She asked Miranda, not seeing the point in putting hers in until her friend was ready so they could go in at the same time.

OOC: You can have them putting the muffins in at the same time, Stern.

[Jayne Doe]

Jayne couldn't help the smile that touched her lips as Peter stepped into the work-station beside her. "That sounds really nice. I'm going to make apple and cinnamon with choc chips added for a extra flavour." She couldn't think of many sweet muffin flavours that you couldn't add chocolate to. She walked over and turned the oven on to preheat while she walked to the pantry to grab the tin of pie filling.

She began to put the base of her muffins together and then emptied the contents of the tinned fruit into the bowl, along with a teaspoon of ground cinnamon, and mixed it all together. She then spooned the mixture into the muffin pans. She now had to wait for the oven to heat up. She wondered if she would have enough time to make another batch of muffins while she waited, but then there would be a chance of over filling the oven and then over or under-cooking the muffins.

Leaving the muffins on the bench by the oven, she filled the sink with hot water and dishwashing liquid, and started on the dishes. Once they were washed, she could make the frosting for the muffins, however washing the dishes gave her a chance to think on what kind of frosting to make.

OOC: Cym, you can have Peter putting Jayne's in the oven when he puts his muffins in.

[Miranda Florin]

Miranda grinned at Cortney as she heard the comment. She was starting to get more comfortable with trying things, and she knew that part of that was how nice Cortney had been when they had first started working together. Seeing the look that she earned for her comment on the girl's bird, she laughed, "Someone spoils him too much, then."

She started following the instructions they were given, looking back at her recipe sheet once in a while, although she had to think for a minute before she decided to just give it a shot and added cheese and bacon bits until they seemed to be mixed in well enough to give a bit every bite, but not too much. Finally, she spooned the mixture into the muffin pan, finishing just as she heard Cortney's question.

"Yup." She picked up her tray and opened the oven door with the other hand, leaving it open for Cortney to put hers in before she placed her own batch on the rack next to her friend's. Closing the oven door again, she turned to the timer and set it to twenty minutes. Not having to worry about frosting, she started collecting the dishes, hers and Cortney's, and washing them, setting them upside down on a towel to wait until they were dried.

[Adonya van Rutherford]

Blythe could feel that she'd made an enemy with her comment, but she didn't care. If she was going to be in this class, which was the best thing she had found for electives, she would rather work alone, especially if there was space. That, however, was not an option, so the next best thing would be to make sure that the girl stayed out of her way, which appeared to be working.

She didn't push it, though, keeping to her own space as she prepared the batter. She heard Ms. Sim's comment about turning on the ovens and realized that she had forgotten to do that. She moved to do that, then turned back to her muffins, using the quarter cup scoop like the teacher had suggested to make sure that the correct amount went into each pan.

When she was ready to put everything into the oven, she turned over to look at her partner, "Are you ready?" She tried to inject a spot of actual politeness into her tone, although it didn't quite work. However, she'd attempted it, and that was what counted, right? Anyway, it made no sense to put one in before the other, so she couldn't just push in front of the other girl.

OOC;: Bacon, firstly, sorry for Blythe. Secondly, feel free to have them putting them in together, or not, as you prefer.