Today’s my monthly cooking class! Yeah! I get to see Maggie.
Sure, I know I should be focusing on my witch training, but being alone with Selina in those deep woods does get lonely sometimes.
The only thing is, Maggie has to mind the shop while I learn to cook from the store lady.
It’s a shame we can’t play together, but at least we get to eat the food I make!
Besides, Maggie’s training to take over the general store, so I guess it can’t be helped.
Last time, I brought some of those potatoes and onions I accidentally made grow too fast, plus a bit of Big Boar meat, and learned how to make potato galettes.
And Big Boar stew, too! Sautéing onions in butter really brings out the flavor, but Merry only gives a little milk, and I can’t make butter.
Some of the farmers in Lang Village keep cows, so they have butter and cheese.
“Even without butter, if you fry the onions well in oil, the flavor improves,” Selina had told me.
The store lady knows Selina only buys the bare minimum when it comes to food, so she’s been teaching me how to make substitutions, too.
“I want to buy milk and butter and cheese! I’ll bring medicinal herbs and pelts, so please let me,” I’d said.
I’m getting tired of nothing but porridge and grilled meat.
I really, really want to eat delicious stew.
I get it… during the winter I can’t come to Lang Village. But still.
“In that case, next month let’s try a simple pie. We’ll buy the flour and butter here, but bring onions, carrots, potatoes, and some kind of meat.”
So today, it’s pie! Pyrebird meat should work, right? I’ve already harvested the carrots, onions, and potatoes.
I planted another round of seeds in my little garden. This time, I’ll try not to mess up.
Wait… was making them grow fast actually a mistake?
Well, Selina doesn’t know anything about farming, so she hasn’t noticed my mistake.
She probably thinks the sprouts coming up now are from the seeds I planted first, right? Maybe she just doesn’t look inside the fence.
I’m planning to pay for the flour and butter with a second Pyrebird.
Though if the pie turns out tasty, I have a feeling Selina’s gonna order me to “Go hunt some more!”
Lately, she hardly goes hunting. She gathers herbs sometimes and makes healing potions.
When she went to get my textbooks, she brought back a whole stack of books from her family home, too. They’re in my Storage, so I have no idea how many.
Hey, wait… couldn’t I just keep the novels I’m not supposed to read in Storage too?
Anyway, it looks like she won’t need to go to the royal capital for books anytime soon.
Some of the ones she’s reading look brand new, though… She’s not a thief, is she? I wanna believe she got permission from the head of her family home.
Anyway. I load the ingredients into my basket and head for the Lang Village Waymark!
“The forest really is spreading... This is bad, isn’t it? The village folks must be worried too.”
It hasn’t reached the fields yet, but I can’t help feeling uneasy.
What if the Great Forest swallows the village entirely?
I heard the cabin where Selina and I live used to be a pioneer settlement. The thought stays in my mind as I walk to Lang Village.
In summer, I basically go barefoot. I only have one pair of leather shoes. I’d love to buy summer sandals in Carlton.
But walking barefoot on grass feels nice in the summer.
If my feet get dirty, I can just cast Purification.
“Hm? The grass is withered. And there’s so much dust.”
A month ago, when I came after the summer festival, it wasn’t like this.
Is it just the heat now that real summer’s arrived? I didn’t come to Lang Village last summer, so I don’t know if this is normal or not.
Walking barefoot on grass is fine, but sunbaked earth is hot.
I take my shoes out of Storage and cast Purification on my feet before slipping them on.
I’d been in such a good mood about cooking class, but now, for some reason, Old Inga’s unpleasant words bubble up in my mind.
“That old woman isn’t a witch! She’s just a cranky granny who says mean things.”
I shake my head, pull myself together, and run the rest of the way to Lang Village.
“Good morning!”
Maggie’s at the counter, minding the shop. I greet her and start heading toward the kitchen in back, but she grabs my hand.
“Zoe, I need to talk to you later.” She leans in and whispers so the store lady in the kitchen won’t hear.
“Okay,” I whisper back.
I wonder what it is?
If it’s about Matthew and romance stuff, I really don’t want to hear it... but if we’re friends, I guess listening to romance talk is part of the deal?
I mull it over a bit, but the store lady’s cooking class is hands-on, and she’s strict.
We start by making pie crust from scratch. Since it’s summer, it’s not the layered kind where you fold in butter like in the pies from my past life.
It’s more like pastry dough? A tart? Anyway, it’s made by kneading butter and flour together.
“You can use oil if you don’t have butter! Dairy products are expensive this year.”
Apparently, there’s been so little rain that the cows are eating fodder instead of grass...
Could Old Inga’s prediction actually be coming true? But she’s not a witch. Right?
While the pie crust rests in the cool, semi-basement pantry, we cook the Pyrebird filling.
I make the portion I’ll bring home, and the store lady makes the one we’ll eat at the general store.
You can tell at a glance whose is whose. I boiled the leftover potatoes and carrots to serve on the side.
“Yours looks delicious too, Zoe!”
Maggie’s so kind! But the boss lady is strict.
“You didn’t poke enough holes in the crust, so it burst. And if you don’t seal the edges properly, it doesn’t look nice!”
My cooking teacher’s Pyrebird pie has pretty leaf-pattern vents and looks absolutely scrumptious.
I thought I’d made enough holes with the knife, but I guess not… Filling is bubbling out of my pie in several places.
“Well, it all tastes the same once you eat it!” Maggie’s father is kind. Maggie takes after him.
“What are you saying? Food that looks good tastes better!”
Do I have bad luck with teachers? No, that’s not true. Hannah at the tailor shop wasn’t mean.
At lunchtime, they close the shop, so Maggie eats with us, too.
I get to try a bit of the store lady’s pie and compare it to mine.
“My crust really didn’t turn out right.”
The store lady offers me a bit of comfort.
“For your first time making it, you did very well! Even I failed when I was your age.”
I take it back—I don’t have bad luck with teachers after all.
I’ll keep working hard to learn how to cook!