Assignment #3
Hoch looked for a way out of the kitchen but none could be seen at first. He opened up one of the cabinets. It was a dark, damp, and rather smelly room with cooking ingredients as far as Hoch could see. The next cabinet was a an entire library of cook books. It looked like the previous room but with books instead of ingredients. He walked around quickly but found no exit door. Behind the third door he found a large red door at the end of a candlelit hallway. He opened the door and saw a bustling hallway of people. He heard the chattering from speaking that is only noise but no distinct words could be made out.
"Wait!" yelped something behind Hoch and the door slammed shut. It wasn't Carols' voice. Carol's voice was lower. If a bat could talk, this would be its voice.
The assassin turned around and asked, "Who's there?"
A little ghost floated down from the ceiling. "I'm a Domerii, the assistant to your teacher," it said happily.
"My teacher?" asked the confused mercenary.
"You don't know? This is The Dome! A place warriors, magicians, archers, and all other manner of fighters seek to train under the best teachers in the universe."
"I suppose that explains it... Why can't I leave though?" the bounty hunter asked impatiently.
"Imagine what would happen if someone else got to Carol," he replied sounding like a smart aleck.
A brief image of melted corpses being stewed in a large copper pot floated through Hoch's mind. He also heard a twisted laugh. "Fine, I'll help. What can I do?"
"You have to make an Anti-Batty Brownie! It's in one of Carol's cook books."
"An Anti-Batty Brownie?" the swordsman asked sceptically.
"Yes. It's right above the Crazy Cake. It's in one of Carol's cook books."
"I feel like you're mocking me," the new chef said grumpily. He'd never been good at baking. He preferred hunting something down to cooking it over a log fire. Much easier and less fatty.
"This is a very serious matter!"
"Fine then, I'll get to work," he said as he searched a cabinet for the book. I know I saw some in one of the cabinets. It was either when I was looking for the rope or the door out.
"Good," said the ghost as it floated toward the ceiling slowly.
"Wait! Aren't you going to help me?"
"Hmmmmm," pondered the Domerii. "Nah, I'll let you do it yourself," and quickly flew through the ceiling.
Carol had managed to get the rope on her mouth loose enough so she could speak. The chef started talking as soon as the ghost left. "You'll never make that brownie. It's the most difficult thing to make. Besides, I don't even have some of the ingredients for it."
She's trying to throw me off, he thought as he searched for the cook book in the book room he had come across when looking for the exit. "Gotcha!" he said happily as he pulled out a large green book. He went back in the kitchen because there was better lighting there. He blew the dust off and flipped through the worn, brown pages until he found what he wanted.
Well I'll be damned. There it is: 'Anti-Batty Brownie' right above 'Crazy Cake'. Just like that ghost thing said. The recipe read something like this:
INGREDIENTS:
---Brownies---
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup coffee, strongly brewed
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
---Frosting---
1/2 cup butter
2 tablespoons cocoa
1/4 cup milk
1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
COOKING INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees and lightly grease an 11 X 17 inch baking pan. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour and sugar. In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, combine butter, shortening, coffee and cocoa. Stir constantly until heated to a boil. Pour boiling mixture over flour and sugar. Add buttermilk, eggs, baking soda and vanilla. Mix well, using a wooden spoon or high speed mixer. Pour batter into baking pan. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until done in the center.
Meanwhile, prepare the frosting by combining butter, cocoa and milk in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir frequently until heated to a boil. Mix in powdered sugar and vanilla and stir until smooth. Pour warm frosting over brownies as soon as they come out of the oven. Cool and cut into square pieces.
Hoch walked to the oven and set it for 400 degrees. He'd found the grease in the room of ingredients he came across when he was looking for the exit. He went into that room and found it on the fifth shelf from the door. He searched for a pan and found a nice copper one in a drawer. He greased it then set it aside. Hoch looked around for a mixing bowl. He glanced up and saw an average sized silver one hanging on the ceiling with the pots. He retrieved it and set it on the table.
"You'll never guess what I've cooked in that pan. You would be scared of it just by its name," Carol said eerily.
"That doesn't bother me. This brownie is for you," the annoyed baker replied as he searched for an apron. Hoch found the aprons in the largest cabinet. When he had combined the flour and sugar, he'd managed to get a good bit of flour dust on himself. It looked like he'd just come out of a blizzard. He set that bowl aside and got a heavy bronza saucepan from the ceiling. He set the saucepan on the burner and put the burner on medium heat.
"I wouldn't use that one if I were you," said Carol. "The one beside it is better. The one you're using will only go half the heat of what you want."
She's playing mind games. She tells me to use the other one which makes me keep on using this one. So the right answer is the other one. Hoch switched burners. But what if she knew I'd do that and this one is the bad burner? No, it's safer for her to just tell me the right thing.
Carol didn't interrupt again until Hoch got out the eggs.
"Don't use those. They're rotten."
"You're making this reallll hard for me, Carol," said Hoch as he set aside the eggs and retrieved the other carton of eggs from the fridge. "My uncle taught me a trick to see if the egg's rotten or not. When an egg is rotten and you shake it by your ear you can hear it moving. When it's a good egg you don't hear it," Hoch shook two of the eggs by his ear. He couldn't hear any noise. Just to be safe, he cracked them into a small bowl first. But mainly because he wanted to show off that he could crack each egg with only one hand.
No shells in the bowl. I'm kinda surprised at myself. he thought as he threw the shells behind his back at Carol. The expert egg cracker put in the rest of the ingredients and proceeded with the instructions. When he finally poured the batter in the greased pan, he thought it looked like hot sticky tar. He stuck it in the oven and shut the oven door.
"You have to make the frosting but there's no powdered sugar!" said Carol delightedly.
Hoch pulled out his sword, pointing it at Carol's throat.
"I'm getting tired of hearing you talk," the swordsman said as he kicked her over and picked up the canister of powdered sugar she had been concealing.
"Anything else you'd like to say before I go back to cooking?" he snarled.
She simply shook her head.
"Good," said the still aggravated fighter.
The frosting was just starting to boil now. The baker mixed in the powdered sugar and vanilla. It was nice and smooth. He turned the heat to low so it would simmer. There were still a few minutes left before the brownies were done. The cook walked over to the oven and peered in. The brownies were now definitely solid but still too doughy in the middle. They smelled great and he couldn't help but want to eat one. However, he decided against it in case they had a reverse effect on a sane person.
"I'll never let you feed one of those to me," Carol said.
As fast as he could the skilled marksman took the crossbow off his back and shot a bolt right at Carol's left palm.
"AHHH!" the fat woman screamed as bled fell from the wound. "What was that for?!"
"I told you to shut up. You didn't. That was your warning shot. I don't care how good a chef you are when you're sane, the next one goes in your head," he replied testily.
DING!
The bleeding chef jumped at the sound but said,"Brownies are done," hoping she didn't get hit for speaking out of turn.
I hadn't noticed. Hoch thought as he took out the brownies and poured the frosting on them. They looked beautiful and smelled great. He could smell some of the coffee in it. He cut them into small squares and set one on a plate for Carol.
OoC: This one was hard for me to but that was just because of the word minimum. I also didn't think I had Carol talk much. I could also clearly tell in some places where I was short on ideas for the name thing. XD