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Cooking Miss Daisy

Posted on Wed Apr 6th, 2016 @ 5:55am by Aewia Larani & Miril Sa'Vvn & Commander Angelica Fairchild

Mission: Talosian Perversions
Location: Mess Hall

Angel didn't usually eat in the mess hall, but she'd gone through her office replicator's menu three times and found nothing appealing. In hopes of finding something that her stomach didn't find objectionable, she wandered into the mess hall and looked around. Immediately assaulted by the aggressive smell of someone's lunch, she nearly turned around and left, but she wandered farther in anyway. Eventually she gave up on finding anything among the items already set out for the lunch service and poked her head into the kitchen to see if Miril was in there. She didn't want to be a burden on their already busy chef, but Miril could at least give her ideas of what to mix and match in the replicator.

Miril was busy dicing some fresh vegetables when she caught sight of Angel. "Oh, hey! Is there something special I can whip up for you?" she asked, setting her knife aside and wiping her hands on a towel.

"Only if you have time. I don't want to create more work for you." At least inside the kitchen all Angel could smell was the fresh vegetables that Miril was working with. "I'm not normally so picky, but I've had a rough week."

"Not at all," Miril replied with a smile. "Just name it and it's yours."

"I really need something that's easy on my stomach, but none of the soups in the replicator look good." Angel leaned on the counter, sighing lightly. "It's going to be shipwide news any time now, so I may as well tell you. I'm pregnant, and apparently food aversions start before morning sickness."

"Congratulations then. Who is the lucky father?" As soon as she had heard the word 'pregnant' Miril was moving, throwing together a plomeek and vegetable soup she knew was normally satisfying to most Vulcan women. She added some human ingredients too, though it was still all vegetarian. Thankfully she already had a nice broth already reduced.

"Who do you think?" Angel laughed just a little. "Sinek. Who else would it be?"

"Just wanted to make sure. You never know with some people. For example, Ensign Alvanaz has three lovers that I know about." Putting the finishing touches on the large soup bowl, Miril set it in front of Angel.

"Three is too many. I'd lose track." The plomeek soup was the first thing Angel had seen that actually looked like it might taste good... and it smelled good too. She tried the broth first to see how it would sit in her stomach, finding it more than agreeable. "This is perfect. Thanks."

"Any time. And I mean that. One more person with special dietary needs is no problem for me. Tonight is pizza night if you're up to trying a few slices of my more interesting creations." Miril said, her grin widening.

Angel cringed slightly. "Normally I'd love to but cheese makes me gag right now. Which sucks, by the way, because I like cheese..."

"I have a few without cheese planned." Miril challenged. "The movie is an old Earth animated affair when holography was in its infancy about animals. Might be interesting."

"I guess... I'll think about it. I mean, I don't know what everyone's eating for lunch out there, but the smell of it hit me like a brick." Eating some more of her soup, Angel wondered when she'd become such a wuss. She'd been fine before the away mission, but now it was like she couldn't handle much of anything.

"Lots of animal protein." Miril replied, her grin fading slightly. "It won't be nearly as bad tonight."

"...animal protein. Well that explains it." Angel giggled a little. "I haven't eaten much meat since I started dating Sinek and with the baby being half Vulcan... it kind of makes sense." After all she'd had very few problems with plant based foods. "I might stop by and see how I feel."

"Either way, I'll expect to see you in here at least once a day, ok?" Miril insisted. "I'll also send you a list of replicator recommendations."

Angel wasn't sure what to say for a moment. Miril was volunteering to make sure she ate, but at the same time it felt like she'd be creating a lot of work. "I appreciate the gesture, but making a special meal for me everyday is a lot of extra work..."

Miril laughed out loud. "Seriously? Compared to the nearly two hundred special meals I prepare daily, this is nothing."

"Okay fine, you win. I'll come have lunch with you." Angel smiled a little weakly. "I already miss being able to eat whatever I want and I'm not even a month into this yet."

"Excellent. The herbivore vs carnivore dining rotation is in the computer. I know it won't always work out, but I do recommend trying to get in here with the vegetarians if you can." Miril said as she resumed chopping veggies.

"I... didn't know that was a thing." How could she be first officer of a ship and not even know basic things like that? Angel was starting to wonder if she'd not been paying any attention to anything at all. "I'll take a look at it, thanks." Even if she couldn't always make it to the vegetarian dining slot, it would at least be an option.

"Most of the crew don't and it's not often advertised." Miril said as she tossed most of the diced veggies into a big pot of broth. "Today's vegetarian specialty is stew filled buns if you want to hang around until then and take a couple home."

"Stew filled buns? Like... a soup dumpling?" Angel perked up a bit at the idea of portable stew. "That sounds like it would make for a really awesome snack later. With some green tea..."

"Mmhmm, it's a favorite of a few people. The trick is to make the dough rubbery enough to contain the stew but still fluffy. And the stew needs to be thicker than usual. Then once the raw bread bowls are made, you fill them, seal them up, and steam them in bamboo boxes. The ones I'm making today will be both spicy and not." Miril explained as she finished prepping the stew.

"I haven't tried to eat anything spicy since I was discharged from sickbay... well. Anything spicier than a gingersnap anyway. I'm not sure how my stomach would handle it." She liked spicy foods, but Angel had been playing it safe, considering both the baby's influence and her recent surgery.

"Stick around and you'll know once I start the second stew." Miril said with a grin as she pulled a pan of pre-made bread bowl looking things out of a proofer. She then started spraying the inner sides with an olive oil mix while the stew finished cooking.

"Okay. Just... don't get mad at me if I have to leave. I don't know if it's because of that concussion I had or the baby, but once I get queasy I pretty much have to run to a bathroom." Angel gave her a bit of a crooked grin, not sure she should have said anything at all. Finishing her soup, she slid the empty bowl to the side.

"That's perfectly fine." Miril said as she finished prepping the buns and started filling them, sealing them up and transferring them to bamboo boxes. Soon she had made at least fifty of these buns.

"You're going to have to teach me how to do that someday. When I can actually stand up at a counter long enough to make anything." Even with the medications Tallara had gotten for her, Angel had a hard time just sitting comfortably on a stool to watch.

"The ship's last chef used to give cooking classes every couple weeks, but I've found that past the emergency stuff of how to make rations edible, there's normally no interest. I'm here if you want to learn though." Miril winked at Angel, whom she knew was perfectly aware that she was the prior ship's cook with a new ID to protect her.

"I didn't realize T'Pel offered classes." They were alone, but Angel knew you could never trust that there were no spies listening. "I'd like to learn at least a little. I wouldn't be a very good mom if all I could make was sandwiches."

"Sandwiches can be hard to make if you don't know your ingredients." Miril replied. "Any time you're ready, I'm here. You can even help me out in the kitchen now and then, if you feel up to it."

"Really?" It was rare that something piqued Angel's interest as much as her beloved firing range, but the light in her eyes was readily apparent. "It might be a week or two, but I'd love to, actually."

"When you feel up to it, let me know." Miril said as she poured some prepared spices and peppers into the rest of the stew in the pot, stirring them in.

"Sure thing. I can't wait." Watching as Miril prepared the second stew, Angel caught a whiff of some sort of hot pepper. She couldn't tell what sort of pepper it was, beyond knowing it was something she liked. "I'm supposedly fit for duty, but I can't even pull a full shift in my office. I'm not getting any work done, official business or hobbies."

"Not surprising from the rumors floating around the ship. They say you single handedly fought off a pair of dragons." Miril said with a soft chuckle.

"I had help," Angel protested, though she couldn't help being amused by the rumor. "I can't argue about the dragons though. They were damn close enough to that... anything that breathes fire at me fits the description, far as I'm concerned."

Miril chuckled a bit more as she stirred the stew some more. "Well, I think you've become a legend by now."

"I never asked to be one. I just do my job." Angel didn't think she deserved being a legend with how many people she'd gotten killed in their fairly recent past, but she'd long since given up on changing anyone's mind on the matter.

"As do we all. You just survive every suicide mission our demented Captainesse sends people on." Miril said as she pulled a second tray of the prepared bun bread out of the proofer. These buns were colored a bright red and smelled faintly of cayenne.

First she was mildly shocked to hear Enalia described that way. And then Angel giggled as she realized just how appropriate that nickname was. "Don't ask me how because I have no clue."

"If you figure it out, let me know and I'll spread the word." Miril said as she started scooping the spicy stew into the buns and sealing them up.

"I think most people would tell you I'm just lucky." Angel wasn't sure she believed in that sort of luck, but she had no other way to describe how she kept coming home from missions that should have killed her off.

"Lucky, blessed, damned, made a deal with a Q... I've even heard the theory that you're secretly a god in disguise." Miril commented as she worked.

Angel snorted at her. "Gods don't break half the bones in their body on one away mission. Or scream like little girls when they see a Gorn that sprays liquid nitrogen out of its mouth."

Chuckling, Miril finished up the buns and moved them into the steamer. ""No, but who knows what the daughter of a warrior god can do?"

"My parents are human, but I suppose that's a nice way of looking at it." As far as Angel knew, her parents didn't even have any combat training. While she might have been a 'spoiled princess' growing up, she certainly hadn't been a 'warrior princess'. No, those skills had come from her training with Section 31.

Miril shrugged and leaned against the counter for a moment. "Rumors abound and I hear most of them."

"And every rumor has some basis in truth, no matter how wild it might appear to be on its surface." It was something Angel remembered being constantly reminded of, as well as persistent prodding to make sure any rumors that might surface about Section 31 were made even wilder and crazier, so that they would be dismissed more easily. "But a god in disguise, now that's a stretch."

Miril was about to reply when her first timer went off. Pulling the first stacks of steamed buns from the steamer, she cracked one of the bamboo boxes open and immediately packaged one up for Angel in a rice paper wrapper. The rest she wrapped similarly and arrayed on a tray which she slid out into the serving area. "Is it a stretch?" Miril asked, finally taking a moment.

"I'm as human as any other human on this ship. I don't have any special powers or abilities. I'm not immortal. I don't know where people get these ideas about me."

"They get them from your survival of suicide missions. You and Nexi both have quite the fan following." Miril explained. "Can you do me a favor and get out two of those paper bags next to you and line the bottoms with a few of these wrappers?" As she spoke, she pulled the spiced stew buns out and started wrapping them up. "Aewia will be by soon to pick up half a dozen of these."

"Nexi will be so thrilled to hear she's being worshiped." Angel snickered a bit, retrieving two of the bags and opening them. She wasn't as nimble or as quick as Miril, but she carefully lined the bottom of each bag with the wrappers. "I get that people think we're bigger than life and all that, but gods? I mean, sure. There are advanced beings out there that might fit the definition, but I'm not one of them." At least, she was pretty sure she wasn't.

"Even a dead fish can become a god if enough people believe in it." Miril simply replied as she wrapped buns. The biggest six she set aside for Aewia and the rest went out to the serving area.

"Okay you might have a point there." But that didn't mean Angel had to like being such a symbol. It was so weird to her.

Packing the six steamed buns into the bag, Miril slid a seventh one over to Angel. Then she glanced out to the serving area. All the buns she had put out were already gone. "Good thing I save some for Aewia. Poor girl would never get any."

"She's shy and too soft now to fight anyone off. If she did get her hands on one, she'd offer it to the first hungry soul she met." Angel smiled a little. She liked Aewia, despite the crazy things the woman sometimes said.

"Hence why she gets six of them every week after therapy." Miril said.

Just then there was a knock on the kitchen entryway and Aewia came bouncing in. "Hey! It's two of my favorite people! How's the avoidance of death going?"

"Well I'm still alive for the moment, so pretty good I guess." Angel didn't know how Aewia could bounce around so much, but it was fun to watch at least. "How's Nexi's hand?"

"She seemed to be healing well before she left again. Something about a resupply run for a double wedding. Enalia is going to try and get... Oh right, that's a secret." Aewia rattled as Miril handed the bag of buns to her.

"I know about the double wedding idea. I'm supposed to be in it." Angel laughed a little, wondering what Enalia was trying to get for the occasion. "But don't tell any more secrets, okay? I want to be surprised."

"Ok," Aewia said happily. "Thank you for the buns!" she called as she left as quickly as she had come.

Angel watched Aewia leave, grinning a bit at how joyful the other woman was getting to be. "I should probably go back to work, but I really don't want to."

"I can't blame you. Let me know what you think of the buns, either way." Miril said as she opened the meat cooler and pulling a tray of sushi quality prepared fish meat out.

"I will." Gathering what Miril had given her, Angel made a hasty retreat out of the kitchen the moment the fish appeared. It wasn't as aggressive a smell as other animal proteins, but she wasn't taking chances on it.

 

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