2019-07-13 - Cooking Class

Cole comes in with Lyric, dressed for success in his jeans, t-shirt, sneakers, and an apron that says, "Oui, oui, cheri, mais avant ca il faut faire la vaisselle" on the front.

Finch is entirely likely to be the one to burn someone's eyebrows off accidentally. Her cooking specialties are Poptarts and Hot Pockets, which is why Ignacio is here, to make sure she actually LEARNS something, and thus doesn't die from some terrible intestinal blockage of terrible instant food. Her hair is blue today, with fuschia button down shirt with an aqua blue front pocket on it, denim shorts which are frayed all along the bottom, pink fishnet tights, and aqua high-top Converse All Stars. Goggles are on her head as usual. She might need their safety glasses properties while cooking!

As people have surely paid their fees and signed their waivers, Julia is waiting at the head of the class, hipshot against the instructor's unit. She's wearing chef's whites with the acronym CASA on the left side of her chest, hair pulled back in a braid crown that on a blonde would make her look like the Swiss Miss Girl, and her signature unrepentantly scarlet lipstick. At the moment her hands are folded across her chest, but she's smiling. "Hi, welcome everyone! My name's Chef Julia, and I'll be your instructor today. If you came with a partner, go ahead and take a station - if you need a partner, raise your hand, and sort yourelves out. If we have an odd man out, I'll be your partner."

Such a class as this? Not something Jonathan wanted to miss. So then it's good that this is one of the good days. Looking around at the others, he offers a smile and a nod, before he nods a bit at Julia's words. When they're told to raise a hand if they need a partner, he raises his hand, looking around at the others present.

August has signed up for the class because he's looking to get a bit better at not needing to ever eat anything he didn't scare up himself. He pauses when he sees Julia at the head of the class, blinking as a memory at Addington house, involving a lantern, comes to mind. He takes a spot, waits to see if Itzhak shows up. If not, someone's going to get him as a partner--lucky them!

Ignacio strolls in with a lean into that limp making it a social statement. Does he have his coat on? Nope! we're good. Julia gets a winning grin and he pauses looking at Cole, "Oh shit, man. Hit me up after this. I was gonna try to find you, dude." To say the least but he leaves off the 'why' Looking to Finch he promises, "Boss lady won't let you take your fingers off and I promise after this you will be at 17% less at risk for starving. And I?" He smiles, "This means I don't have to buy groceries. It'll be fun!" Optimistic and inventive lazy shit at large. he needs an apron that says that or stand back I'm trying Science!. Oy.

Finch smirks at Ignacio and elbows him, then waves to their boss, August. "Hey, Roen is here! Hey Boss!" Oh god he can't escape his employees even here. She digs an apron out of her bag that is CLEARLY her grandmother's, as it's all ruffles and floral print and hideous.

"I feel like I'm in school again." Lyric says to Cole quietly. There's a glance over his apron and her own that's just the little half one around her waist that she wears when waiting tables at The Waffle Shoppe. She smooths her hands over it and glances around at the others present. Noticing Jonathan she offers a friendly wave. And a couple of the faces from the Pourhouse she recognizes. "Eat, drink and be merry. Some of these people I only see when there's food or drinks involved."

Aidan is... probably not going to burn the kitchen down? Probably. His trailer's still standing and he hasn't starved to death, though he may well be on the 'Pop Tarts and Hot Pockets' diet just like Finch. He's wearing bright red jeans, Docs, and a white lace tanktop under an unbuttoned overshirt that starts out green at the shoulders and turns into a solid pile of tomatoes as it goes downward. He glances around, giving people quick and friendly grins, then picks himself a station and starts lightly poking at things with interest, pausing mainly when Julia asks the partner question. Another glance around, and his arm goes up.

Itzhak does in fact show up, late and looking like the other night at the Pourhouse took its toll on him. He slouches over to August, shoulders slumped, everything slumped. "I can't fuggin' believe I let you talk me into this." And let the kvetching begin.

"Tonight we're going to make a simple but fun meal, chicken parmagiana. The course is taught for people to work in pairs, but there's absolutely no reason why each of you couldn't do this on your own. Even as this makes two portions, you can box up your second portion and eat it the next day. Before we begin, does anyone have any questions?" If Julia recognizes August, she gives no indication of it. Perhaps time, darkness, and good ol' denial play a part in that. Those she actually knows get a wider quirk of her grin, but for now, she's continuing to address the whole class.

"If you've got your hand up, look for other people with their hand up and introduce yourself. For those of you without aprons, you'll find two each hanging off the towel bar along the right edge of your table. If we're ready, first thing's first, and that's hygeine and safety. We'll be dealing with raw chicken, so first we're going to wash our hands. Once that's done, if you like you can remove a pair of plastic gloves from the top drawer of your unit. How are we so far, everyone?"

August relaxes when Julia either doesn't recognize him, or chooses not to indicate it. Who cares--he gets to cook without worrying about anything for a change.

...or maybe not, because there's Finch and Ignacio. He smiles at them. "Don't burn anything i wouldn't," he says.

He's brought an apron not only for himself, but for Itzhak too. It's not even super embarrassing, it's just a standard kitchen apron in dark blue. (His is black.) He loops it over Itzhak's head, saying, "Come on, learn to feed yourself. Also when you can cook for your date they love it. Who doesn't like to date someone who can cook?"

"Oh, hey.. you're the guy from.." Cole pauses and doesn't finish that thought. He recognized some of the others, though, and gives them a nod in greeting again. "Sure, man. We can meet up and talk after this." He grins over at Lyric's quiet murmur and says, "I know. It feels kind of like Home Ec all over again." But that doesn't mean that he isn't enjoying it.

Finch ties on Granny Dove's apron, because the wee woman has no fear of fashion faux pas. She moves to wash her hands, cocking a brow at Ignacio. "Am I expected to wear gloves at home? I mean, does anyone really do that?" she asks. Yes, she's a listeria outbreak waiting to happen. She grunts and reaches into the apron pocket and pulls out a folded tissue so ancient it crumbles in her fingers. She washes her hands AGAIN. "Hey, Rosencrantz is here too."

Aidan glances around for other raised hands, and spots exactly one, which appears to belong to Jonathan. So he waves his at the guy, and then heads over to the table he was at, instead. Oh hey, aprons, right! He glances at the at the mentioned bar, snagging the nearest one from the table he was at on the way over to the other guy's. "Hey," he greets, giving Jonathan a grin, "I know absolutely no one in this room. Is that even allowed around here? It feels weird."

Hand washing time. Even Lyric knows the twenty second rule for washing them. There were signs everywhere at the Waffle Shoppe. She gets to it, washing, counting, washing, washing. Rinsing. Drying, not on her apron but because food safety, she uses whatever is provided. Once that is done she takes her place again and slips on some gloves. Because raw chicken is slimy. "Yeah kind of like home ec, but I didn't do that well in there. We'll see." She looks curious towards the person who addresses Cole and gives him a half smile, making assumptions of course.

Itzhak groans a long complaint as he's aproned. "May you grow with your head upside down into the ground, like an onion." August gets formally cursed. "That's what falafel carts are for, man. ...not that there's any on this stupid coast." Oh, someone's in full bitching mode today. He washes his hands anyway, and then puts on gloves, struggling with yanking them over his big knuckly hand. He rips the first one and swears. "Yeah, I'm here, whatever," he grouses at Finch and Ignacio.

A salute and a smile is offered in return from Jonathan to Lyric. Still keeping one hand in the air, he looks around to see if anyone else is still looking for a partner. He pulls out his own apron from where he was keeping it, but waits to see who he could partner up with. As Aidan makes his way over, he grins, "Hey. A pleasure to meet you. I'm Jonathan," he offers, before he puts on the apron he brought. From the looks of it, there seem to be a huge glass of Nutella on the front, but something's different, naturally...

Julia takes a quick headcount. Looks like everyone's paired up. Her smile widens as she realizes eveyone's good to go, more or less, and resumes addressing the class. "Okay, guys! So first thing we're gonna do is preheat our ovens to four fifty. Now you'll notice the fridges in the back of the classroom. The two central ones have baskets in them that have been pre-stocked with your ingredients. So let's have someone from each table get a basket and bring it back." With that, she's doing that very thing herself.

"That's not the head of the onion, it's the bulb. The head's the flowers." August scrubs his hands, dries them thoroughly, then pulls on the gloves with the ease of long practice. "Dry your hands better, it's the moisture that makes them stick like that. Stay put." He goes to get the basket of ingrediants.

Ignacio is not trying to make occasional faces at Julia with a waggle of eyebrows and that lopsided grin but at least has the decency to not call her nicknames in her professional setting. He does dig his coat out finally. yeah yeah he brought it and that goes on. Years of growing up in a kitchen does this out of a habit. He gets through washing and using his elbows on a tap and just looks at his lab partner and tries not to laugh. Yeah that's a snicker fail, "AAhhh you'll get the hang of it. Just pretend the whole world is gross and you're in good shape. Also after this you may never eat out again unless you know the people." Pointing to the basket he informs, "This is what food is supposed to look like." Looking up Itzhak gets an upnod with the other boss. He pauses and looks at August... Julia... August again. "I swear if Tobin shows up I fear a very strange custody battle with snapping and a dance number may be nigh."

Finch tugs on the gloves, which are big and bunched up on her little hands, a problem the direct opposite of Itzhak's. She exchanges a glance with Ignacio, trying to decide if it's safer to retrieve the basket or risk her setting the oven to "nuclear explosion" by accident. She opts for the fridge and lets him do the preheat setting. She gives him a haha at the mention of what actual food looks like. "Is that chicken? I don't recognize it without being in cookie cutter shapes and all golden brown with a Mc on the box."

Returning with the basket of his and Itzhak's ingrediants, August says, "No custody battle, de Santos, you're all theirs." He sets it down in front of Itzhak. "If it'll make it easier, you can pretend you're my date and I'm cooking for you." It's hard to tell if this is meant to goad Itzhak into trying to cook, or let him off the hook from having to do so. He looks askance at Finch, winces. "Christ, Celaeno, I had no idea it was that bad."

Aidan gets his apron on and his hands washed. "Aidan," he replies to Jonathan, "Nice meetin' you! I like the apron." Sartorial compliments from him may have historically received mixed reactions. It's sincere, though! "I'll get the stuff," he offers, and starts off to do so, which leaves Jonathan in charge of the magic of preheating. He passes by Finch on the way, and gives her a bright grin for the apron, or possibly the outfit as a whole? "Nice," is the main comment, then, "Hey, I've got some goggles kinda like that." Ignacio gets a grin too, since he's there. And has an actual chef coat! That's clearly cool too. It doesn't slow him down much on getting the ingredients back to his table, at least.

"That's NOT the POINT," Itzhak says, seriously aggrieved, to August. "Don't rain on my cursing, Roen." He dries his hands more thoroughly and manages to wedge them into the gloves, cussing steadily while he does. When August says he can just pretend they're on a date, he blushes sudden and hot, and glares at him.

Cole grins at Lyric and then heads back to grab their basket and bring it over to their table, after all the requisite hand-washing and food safety. He catches the look from Lyric toward Ignacio and back and tells her, "I'll tell you later." Once the basket is in front of them, he asks "Do you want to get the oven started, or do you want me to?" He doesn't want to hog all the doing of the things, after all.

On her way back to the teacher's table with the basket hanging from the crook of her arm, Julia catches a look at Jon's apron and lets out a laugh. "Hockey thug." she teases, before noting to Finch, "If the gloves make you uncomfortable, you don't have to wear them. Some people feel better about handling food with them, though." Ignacio, who is totally not making faces at her, gets her tongue stuck out at him, and as she passes by August, there's a small double take, but it goes by so quickly, maybe it didn't happen at all. At least, she's still smiling when she gets to the front again. "In your basket, you're going to find your chicken breast, some tomatoes as well as some eggs, Italian breadcrumbs, two cans, one of crushed and one of paste, some onions, some garlic, some herbs and spices, and two different kinds of cheeses. You'll notice you have your blender, your utensils, everything you need at your tabletop. If it turns out something's missing, please let me know. Feel free to talk to each other as we learn. This is meant to be fun!"

August doesn't notice the glare and blush from Itzhak or Julia's double-take, he's too busy taking stock of the basket's contents. "If you're going to curse a botanist with a botanical curse it should be botanitcally correct." He takes up the paring knife, pits one of the olives, slices it in half, offers part to Itzhak. This is how he notices the death glare. He pauses to consider Itzhak. "You're glaring at me, and you're--ah." Well, he doesn't say Itzhak's blushing but he might as well have. He studies Itzhak another handful of second. "So is that a yes or a no?"

"I can do it." Squatting down a little, Lyric finds the 450 degree mark and sets it before standing again. Peering into the basket, she looks at the ingredients curiously. When she notices the cheese, she laughs, "Make sure to unwrap that." Teasing him from something they'd discussed before. She helps start unloading things and spreading it out between them so they can find things easier and work together on it. "We'll be gourmet chef's yet. I'll play the part of Gordon Ramsay though, and pound the chicken with my fist."

Jonathan nods at Aidan. "Will do," he replies, offering the man a grin. Moving to preheat the oven, he offers a grin at Julia's words. "And proud of it too," he replies, rather lightly. He looks to the blender and the utensils, making sure all of that is there. There's a grin offered to Aidan when he returns as well. "So, ready to make some food?" he asks, lightly.

Ignacio replies evenly in that casual tone, "Careful. Don't oversalt the chicken." The deadpan is something else but he curls a lopsided grin waiting to preheat anything pointing out the dial with mention of gas vs. electric differences. Okay important note noted, snark back on. He gives Julia the side eye shaking his head,, and gestures with pointing of fingers to let her know, /I see you absolutely not makig faces you know.'/ He poitns one, "That's the breadcrumbs. Think of it as glitter for meat. Meat glitter."

"The first thing we're going to do is start putting together our sauce." Julia explains, the grin settling on her lips with ease. "If this were formal training, we'd be working from scratch. But this is just for yourself, maybe a date night, and your own accomplishment. Also, I'd be cussing more and looming over you and criticizing your work, while your fellow apprentices would be trying to sabotage you." She's kidding, right?

"Go ahead and combine the tomato paste and crushed tomatos into the blender, but don't start mixing just yet. When that's done, it's time do some chopping! Whoever has the best knife skills should go ahead and manage the garlic, while the other can slice the tomatoes. Don't rush, take it slowly and easily, and if you don't feel comfortable, feel free to come up here and observe while I do my own knife work before returning to yours. I'll do it slowly and explain as I work, so you'l know what to do, how to hold your fingers, and the right knife to use."

Itzhak, still red, rolls his eyes. "My mistake. How about this one: All your teeth should fall out, except one, and in that one, you should have a toothache." Itzhak turns the oven's dial to the prescribed number. Hey, he's good at dials. "It's a 'shut up and do the thing, Roen.'" He happens to glance over at Cole, and it gives him pause. He knows that guy from somewhere. Where? Not a good place, he's sure about that much. And Lyric's with Cole, and she got to watch him get plastered and flirt with Joey Lee Kelly. Great. Fantastic. Itzhak starts opening cans with a vengeance.

Finch gives Aidan a little goggle salute, then gives Julia a strained smile, clearly way out of her element here. She keeps the gloves on for now, though. She's trying! Then Iggy is talking about meat glitter and she gives him a look. "Meat glitter? Really? That's the best you can come up with? You're supposed to make me WANT to eat this stuff, Ig. Not puke on it." Opening cans? That she can do. She opens the tomato paste and the crushed tomatoes and dumps the contents into the blender. But at the prospect of slicing, she looks a little concerned. She waits for Ignacio to tell her what to do more clearly.

"See?" August says to Itzhak, nodding at Julia, "Date night. It's fine, it can be a platonic date." He pauses, noting Cole, then Lyric. He gives Itzhak a symnpathetic look, passes him a knife for the tomatoes and gets to work on the garlic. "That's a much better curse. Also it makes my dentist rich, so I'm sure he'll thank you for it in free cleanings."

"We're gonna make the hell out of this food," Aidan replies to Jonathan, offering him a fistbump from the side, and he starts unpacking things from the basket. The two different cans of tomatoes get a quizzical look, but surely All Will Be Explained! And then, promptly, it is. He snags a can opener and gets to work on one of them. "Okay, so, how're your knife skills?" he asks the hockey player. "I cut a bunch of vegetables and stuff up last week and didn't lose any fingers, so there's that at least."

"If anyone's interested in slicing technique..." And then Julia proceeds with a demonstration, first with the garlic bulbs (how to dice!) then with the tomatoes (how to slice!). The proper knives to use, how to place your fingers, all that jazz. She does it slowly for demonstration, but when people work on their own, she goes at professional pace. Which is a show unto itself.

Definitely Lyric had noticed Itzhak over there. He was very distinctive in appearance and even now she overhears about his onions and tooth aches. With an amused look to Cole, she bumps his shoulder gently, "Do you know who that is?" Using her head to sort of indicate the man without exactly drawing attention her way. Hopefully. Reaching for the canned tomato stuffs she contemplates those and the can opener before realizing they were peel tops. She leaves the garlic to Cole and opens the cans herself then reaches for a knife. "I'll slice tomatoes if that's good with you?"

Ignacio looks up to Julia and offers in earnest, "If you neeeeed me to sabotage people I'd do it. For you. To make you super happy and make this realistic. While also sneaking marshmallows into people's pockets. Because that's fun in front of a stove." The rebuttal of glitter gets a blink from him. "Glitter's awesome. You'll learn to love it." Looking over to Itzhak and August he adds to his partner, "Also don't cop angry. You'll get bitch of board and uneven chunks. Totally make it cook funny. Won't heat evenly." That said he starts pulling things out and starting prep bits and letting Finch finish it so she can get her hands dirty with it.

Jonathan grins momentarily. "I think I'm fairly good with a knife, at least for things like this," he replies to Aidan, before he smiles. "And not losing any fingers is a good thing. Besides, blood and fingers doesn't quite taste good, right?" A brief pause, as he looks to the ingredients. "I can take the garlic?" he offers.

Cole can't help but laugh at the wrapped up cheese and grins at Lyric. "It would be supreme irony if I didn't." He does start to get out the ingredients and begins to get them out. He then gives her a sidelong grin and says "You can swear at me all you like, but remember that I know where you sleep." He can't help but laugh at overhearing Ignacio call the breadcrumbs meat glitter. "Now there's a term ..." He glances over at Itzhak for a moment, and gives him a smile and a dip of his head in greeting. Catching August looking at them and talking about date night, he looks over at Lyric and asks, "Is this date night?" But then he's being shoulder-bumped and he says, "Yeah.. we ran into each other the other night at the place, with the stuff, that we were talking about earlier." Subtle. "Slice away," he says when she slices the tomatoes, and takes up peeling and mincing the garlic.

Finch is slow as molasses in January with both the dice and the slice, but she manages them. She's got some agility to her at least, so this part isn't as horrible as she anticipated. She's likely also done a pile of dissections in her ornithology labs, so work with a blade isn't completely foreign to her. It's just the whole 'turning raw food into edible stuff' she's stumped at.

"Don't start, de Santos." Itzhak sets to slicing the tomatoes, which he's not bad at, actually. Not fast, but neat. Not that they need to be neat, they're going in the blender. He flashes a glance over at Cole, upnods back to him. Now he remembers. That's the guy who put holes in the dead thing at Murray House. Itzhak stops slicing, knuckles going white around the knife handle.

"Glitter is pretty awesome though," Aidan shamelessly interjects into Finch and Ignacio's conversation as he dumps that can of tomatoes into the pot, "I vote for the meat glitter." He gives Jonathan a quick finger-gun at the offer. "Deal, I'll stick to the tomato path," he replies, moving on to can two and then corralling the fresh ones. "I kinda feel like some kind of tomato cannibal murderer though. Maybe I should've worn a different shirt."

August watches how Julia chops, focuses on doing that the same way slowly, getting comfortable with the rhythm. He sees Itzhak stop slicing and grip the knife, stops what he's doing. Whatever he says, it's pitched low to not carry beyond the two of them.

"There's nothing wrong with irony though. And I'd eat it anyway." Lyric starts slicing but hesitates and tilts her head to regard him with mock consternation. "I only swear when I mean it. I can't swear for no reason. It just doesn't make sense. I did when I was in my last home though." Foster home. "Just cause I thought I was so big and bad." There's a self deprecating look as she rolls her eyes. "That feels like it was so long ago. Time flies once you're on your own." The mention of date night has her laughing. "I don't know. I guess I don't really date enough to know the difference." Her expression sobers a little and she looks back over to Itzhak after the vague explantion from Cole. "Oh. Oh yeah. That." But she refuses to let it take the joy out of the event and smiles back at Cole, tentatively. "You're good at garlic. What is all that stuff around them?"

"Stop trying to be teacher's pet, Ignacio." Julia mock-chides, adding something in Spanish as she chuckles. She decides to take a mosey around the room, offering compliments or gentle criticisms, showing people the techniques close up as needed, and gently providing a guiding hand and voice. "Very good." she remarks to Finch as she passes by. "Good, guys, good." As she continues, "Go ahead and add your tomatoes and garlic into the blender, and then youre going to cap it off and puree for about twenty seconds. Give it a look, and if it's too clumpy, let it have another go for about ten seconds, and it should be good to go. If it is, go ahead and pour it into your pot, and if it's not, let me know and I'll come have a look." To Aiden, she intones mock-solemnly, "These are your killing fields."

Finch beams as she is complimented by the teacher, and she elbows Ignacio happily. "I did good!" she declares, like she just won a marathon rather than chopped up some damned veggies. "Can we uber blend it? I know you're like, uber cook or whatever, Ig, but I don't like chunky things in my sauce." Of course not, Chef Boyardee doesn't make his sauce that way!

"Nah, the shirt tells the tomatoes who's the boss," Jonathan offers lightly to Aidan, as he works on getting the garlic ready. Taking a few extra moments to do so, he moves to add them to the blender. Nodding a bit at the instructions, he glances around the room very briefly.

Ignacio is in absolutely no hurry and if Julia has to move forward it's nothing they can't catch up with though there's pause when she speaks so all the information is delivered. He flashes a grin to Cole, "Meat glitter, man. It's all the rage in a very small part of Canada, but it's catchin on. Get in on the ground floor early!" He grins to Aidan and says to Finch arching his eyebrows mouthing /Meat glit-ter/. He's so dying on this hill if he has to...covered in breadcrumbs. On both sides. Looking up to Julia he chuckles and responds in rapid Spanish back looking too innocent that he's certainly guilty of something. It's to Finch he offers, "Yeah don't let people rush you. Take your time with it. Just remember if your guests start starving it'll only make the food taste better. I'm dead certain that's the technique my pops used." Really though he sems content taking all the damn time.

"They have displeased me, and must be made examples of to teach the others," Aidan replies to Julia in much the same tone before the grin comes back. "Off with their heads!" he declares with the next slice of tomato. He's still got all his fingers at the end of it, too, and wipes his hands off on his apron as Jonathan handles the whole blending situation. "If we put in ice we could totally make a savoury smoothie. I wonder if that'd actually taste good? I mean, people drink V8." Sure, that's totally the same thing.

"You really don't want to eat melted plastic," Cole says to Lyric with a headshake. "The end result is bad news." Not that he'd know, but can only imagine. He then grins and says "What, you're not big and bad?" He nods when she seems to get what he was talking about and says, "Uh.. like the skin of an onion, except it's around each of the little cloves in the bulb, so you gotta separate them and then get the peels off." He watches as their sauce becomes saucy rather than clumpy, and then helps pour it into the pot, handing Lyric the spoon for the stirrings. He glances over at Aidan and laughs a little bit as the tomato decapitation continues over at the other station. To Ignacio he says, "Tell me where to invest, and I'm in."

Itzhak shakes his head to whatever August says to him. His mouth is a tight line. He lops a mostly-whole tomato in half and dunks it into the blender.

With Ignacio's ok, Finch is blending the bejeesus out of the tomato stuff, until there is nothing remotely resembling a chunk in that concoction. Then she dumps it into the pot. "Voila! It's like magic!" No, not it's not. She gives him a dirty look for the Meat Glitter thing, again.

"Remember, your tomato sauce base shouldn't be lumpy, but it shouldn't be too thin, either." Julia reminds, indicating it's time to pour the sauce into the pot. "At this point you can go ahead and turn on your heat, start with a medium to high, and you can add some initial seasoning. I recommend..." she proceeds with a litany of seasonings of her choice, noting pinches and dashes more than teaspoons and tablespoons, but ultimately points out, "It's really to your taste. And speaking of, don't be afraid to, while you're cooking. Take a spoon, taste your sauce, but be careful while it's cooking, you obviously don't want to burn yourself. Taste frequently, and get it just the way you like it. Once everyone feels like they're ready to let their sauce cook without further seasoning, we're going to move on to the chicken breasts. This time we're going to use a boning knife. Fun for everyone!"

August watches Itzhak for several seconds, nods at him. He lets Itzhak handle the blending and sauce-simmering so he can work on the chicken. "Fun for everyone," he asides to Itzhak, just barely managing to keep his voice deadpan.

Jonathan hmms a little. "I think it should have less garlic, if you'd want a smoothie," he replies, reaching for some of the spices that would work well in seasoning the sauce. "I think some of this would work..." He nods at the part about the chicken breasts, looking for the boning knife, a bit slowly.

"Oh I don't know I've heard that the tubs of margarine are like an ingredient away from being plastic. Or something like that. Maybe. I could be wrong." Very likely. Lyric reaches for the spoon and stirs, leaning over to give it a sniff. "It smells good. Do you like garlic?" And in sotto voce adds, "We will find out who all in here are vampires before the night is through." Giving him a playful smile after offering the teasing remark. "We could place bets and all." Then it's time to add seasonings and she salts and peppers the sauce, leaving any other things for Cole. At Jonathans words she snaps and points in his direction. "Suspect number one for vampire. Less garlic he says."

Finch can't help it, then mention of breasts, then a 'boning' knife gets a muffled snerk from her, a preempted giggle into her forearm.

Half a dozen blenders going off unpredictably really takes a toll on Itzhak. He'd managed to tough it out through the blending stage, so it might seem odd that he picks the simmering-and-boning-chicken stage to abandon August and flee the room. But that's what happens.

Aidan pauses a moment to stare at the available blades at their station. "Didn't know there were special knives for that," he murmurs, just dryly enough to suggest his brain is probably hanging out with Finch's behind the bike shed. He's all in for helping get that sauce seasoned, though, so hopefully they have similar tastes in that. Frequent tasting is also on the menu, and he actually even listens to that part about being careful when it starts getting hot! "...I dunno," he says as though there hadn't been a pause, "I'd think the garlic'd be what gave it some kick. Though maybe it should have other stuff in it too."

"He is definitely not a vampire." Julia says, but her defense of this statement remains a mystery. "We're going to get our bowls and our eggs, let's go ahead and crack 'em into the bowl. For those of you who don't know the secret of doing so, don't just use your thumbs to push into the egg. Give it a firm but not forceful tap on the edge of your counter, and then with the egg held over the bowl, press against the shell, but don't push into the egg. Like so. You've got four large eggs, so have at. If you get shell into the bowl, use a fork to fish it out. Then you'll want to take an area of your counter space, dust it with a bit of flour, and pour out your breadcrumbs. Also, you've all got dirty dirty minds, which make you my favorite students."

Also tasting the sauce at some times, it would seem that Jonathan likes it. Nodding a bit at Aidan's words, he offers a grin. "Perhaps. Maybe this is something that should be tested at some point..." Lyric's words, and the point in his direction, makes him offer her a grin. "Wait... now you suspect me of being a Vampire?" It's asked rather lightly.

Cole manages to make it through the egg stage with minimal problems. Thus far, things seem to be going well. It's then, however, that he bumps something with his elbow and the knife falls, and reflexively he reaches out to catch it, forgetting entirely that one does not reach out to try and catch a falling blade.. and grabs it by the blade. "Ow, fuck.." he hisses as he manages to slice open his hand, grasping it tightly.

Ignacio grins wide and eyebrow waggles perpetuating more snickers and absolutely encouraging the bad mental humor from there. If there was a job open for immaturity enabler he'd apply. The snicker follows. "Man I won't lie, Chef Julia, this is a great fuckin class. We should totes do this again at some point because it's fun aaaaand I hate grocery shopping." Looking to Finch he applauds, "Great job kicking the shit out of those tomatoes. Super proud of ya."

"Eggs. Cracking eggs. Oh boy, this should be interesting," Finch mutters, hip-checking Ignacio for his applauding. She picks up an egg and her tongue pokes out from the side of her mouth as she tries to follow the directions. Yeah, there is a piece of shell in the bowl by the time she's finished cracking the first one into it. "Wait, wait I saw something about this on youtube." She uses half of the egg shell to scoop out the errant bit. "Woot!"

"He did," Aidan says in Lyric's direction, "but he keeps tasting it and he hasn't done that," he does the hiss-and-swing-imaginary-cloak-up-in-front-of-face thing old school vampire movies like, "thing, so I'm pretty sure he's not a childe of the night." QED. And now: eggs! Jonathan can do two of them if he wants, but Aidan is definitely going to try this proper-egg-cracking thing. Okay, the first time he has to use a fork to get a flake of shell out, and that takes some chasing around the bowl, but the second one comes out perfectly! He gives it a pleased look. "Okay! Time for meat glitter," he says, but gets distracted by Cole's hissed curse, looking his way and wincing in sympathy when he catches on to the general problem. "...do we have bandaids and stuff here too?"

Lyric eyes the chicken with bones despondently. That was certainly not her forte. "I like boneless chicken. Where do I get th..?" She stops then and watches wide eyed as Itzhak flees. Confused, she looks towards August, then Cole then back the way he left and almost misses what Cole does. "Oh no!" Immediately she reaches for a cloth or something and for his hand to shove the cloth against the wound, catching Jonathan's response as she does. Heat flames in her cheeks and she really attempts to just keep her head down for now.

"Ah yes, eggs..." Jonathan takes one of the eggs, tossing it lightly up into the air, then catching it again, hands following the downwards movement of the egg to avoid breaking it. "You know, as a kid, our coach brought eggs out onto the ice, to teach us how to recieve passes properly. If we kept the stick in one place, they would break, if we pulled the stick backwards, they would stay in one piece..." Cracking the eggs he got, he nods a little, before he pauses as he sees Lyric's reaction. Opening his mouth to make a comment, he closes it without saying anything. See? Well behaved here.

"Okay," Julia makes her way over to Cole. "Everyone can go ahead and do a bit of whisking with a fork to get their eggs mixed. Turn down your stoves to low heat for a moment." Grabbing Cole's wrist, she turns on the faucet and stucks his hand under the water and gently tugs the piece of cloth away so it can get cleaned out while she pulls a first aid kit out of the drawer. "It's a shallow cut. Bleeds a lot, but just needs some antiseptic and a bandaid. Still, it's best if at this point you sit it out. Your partner can join me up front. You feel okay to sit, or should we call for an ambulance?" It might be joking...but then again, she might not. No one can say she hasn't done due dilligence.

Ignacio holds up both index fingers in the air cheering Aidan on "Meat glitter!!!" Oh yeah he's getting that one to go as far as possible. And then he's hip nudged and says with a snicker, "Careful I might fall on you." Which could be hilariously true if not also humiliating, but eh. "Hey, see, good thinking and you didn't stick your fingers in there." The celebration is cut short when there's an accident. Yeah that happens. He frowns and keeps an eye on the Chef. in case she needs help. "Looks like he's gonna live." Still he looks and looks to August with his eyebrow going up a titch and then back to Cole with sympathy. "Man that is no fun, but you cook long enough you start naming small burns after meals. It's like a crazy right of passage almost."

"I still can't believe you're trusting me with knives and fire," Finch mutters at Ignacio, glancing over at Cole with concern. And then she notices Itzhak is missing. "Where did Rosencrantz go?" she whispers to Ig.

Cole is grabbed by the wrist and his hand is stuck under water. He doesn't resist all this grabbing of his limbs and jostling them about, first by Lyric and then by Julia. He just blinks a little bit in surprise, but doesn't fight it. He nods to Julia when she proclaims that he will likely survive the cut. It really isn't a terrible one, just enough that he should probably wrap it up. He laughs a little bit and says, "I think I can find a chair under my own power. Thanks. Sorry about that. Clumsy." He's usually not so clumsy. Those sleepless nights must be doing a number on his reactions. He moves over a chair and sits down, smiling apologetically at Lyric. "Sorry."

Once Cole is sorted, Julia resumes class. They get to filet the breast meat, bread it, and add the cheeses with a bit of butter. During the initial cooking time, she introduces them to two wines, a chianti and a rose, both of which she suggests as options to go with the parmagiana. And then sauce and chicken are combined for another few minutes in the oven, and voila! They have chicken parm. Boxes are provided for take home, or folks are welcome to enjoy the food right there and then. With the formal aspects of the class out of the way, Julia sticks around for clean up and questions.

Aidan watches a moment, but Julia's got it in hand, so he gets back to taking a turn with egg-whisking, and then preparing their area to glitter up some meat. Lots of flour and breadcrumbs. This is kind of the 'more is better' school of cookery he's following. "So your coach had you on the ice hitting eggs back and forth to each other?" That's the sort of intrigued that suggests Vague Ideas that may or may not be wise to allow to fruition. "I would've thought they'd break when you hit them." Fileting is tricky; the one he does is pretty ragged, sadly. But the breading and cheesing he's got, at least!

Meat. Glitter. Finch is never going to get Ignacio to quit saying that, is she? Very well, the meat gets all kind of glittered, and baked and sauced, and cheesed, and at the end of it, it looks edible, which is more than the blue-haired woman had expected. She huhs quietly. "I think we did it. We did it right? This is right?" she asks Ig.

Ignacio answers his lab partner, "I saw em step out for a moment. he's not in the chicken. So let's talk about knowing when stuff is done and how people who like kill steak are criminals who shouldn't be let near food." And there's the quick rundown on what to look for WHILE the chicken is cooking separating foods that are okay to be pink and foods that are not okay to be pink. "Remember if you're cooking a meat and the lyrics to Tougher Than Leather start going through your head? Ya killed it." But all in all he spends all the prep doing demo and letting Finch do everything. He's mastered being lazy and helpful today! woo! Double win. "See this one's not so bad and I know you have all this stuff at your house." He looks it over and tests the sauce holding the spoon out for her. "You tell me." And after, nods. "Ya did a fine job, birdie. No starving if there's an apocalypse and a run on hot pockets anymore. I told ya you had this."

"I.." Lyric looks between Cole and Julia before offering a shrug and deserting her station, "It's okay Cole. I'm just sorry you got hurt." Walking to the front of the class she cheeses a smile towards the remainder of the class that is left cooking. She follows directions precisely and with exaggerated thoroughness, like she's one of the instructors also. The demonstrator. But she does take it seriously. Soon enough, she has the meal made and beautiful. Well, edible, not beautiful at all. "We managed it Cole!" Telling Julia, "I will share with my roomie if that's ok?":

Julia looks gently amused at Lyric. "It's your food to do with as you like. Please enjoy it."

FInch gives it a taste and seems genuinely delighted. "Shit, we actually made that. Awesome. We have to make it for Gran when she gets home in a few days." Oh the messes she shall make. "Come on, let's go eat this."

Cole grins broadly at Lyric and gives her a double thumbs-up when she declares that they did it. He does look a little embarassed for having cut himself in the process, but he seems super proud of Lyric for her efforts. He also gives a quiet "Thank you," to Julia once the class is over for rescuing him.

"It's just a war wound. I have plenty." Julia says reassuringly to Cole. "If I teach another class, I hope you'll consider coming back."

"I will come back if you have another one. This was a lot of fun. Maybe teach me how to make paella or lasagna or something. It sounds good." Lyric makes sure Cole can get out alright. She's got the food wrapped to go and cleaned up the stations already.

As people are departing, Julia begins to take care of stacking the giant dishwasher. She's happy to accept help, but doesn't seem to expect it!

Ignacio tells Finch, "I'd high five you but we'd get sauce all over. "I'm gonna help with teardown. Beeeecause it's never done until the kitchen looks like ya found it which is like... hopefully not a public haazard." Looking to Cole he asks, "Glad you're okay man. Uhh as everyone's kinda busy and that's cool, can I get your igits so we can talk at some point. Had some info for ya and for the life of me I had no way to figure out how to contact ya." NOW That class is over he gives Julia a bow of his head, "Yoooou explain things far better than I do. That was fun. Also I never thought to use a blender for that before."

Cole can help out loading the dishwasher with one hand, and so he sets to doing that, bringing pots and pans over, and utensils to slip inside. Forgive him if he leaves the knives for someone else to handle -- but blunt objects, he seems fine with. He tips his head to Ignacio and says, "Yeah sure." He fishes out his phone and hands it over to him. "Just send yourself a text." He then says to Lyric "Oh, we're definitely doing this again so I can redeem myself for that fumble."

Aidan tries his, and looks pretty pleased with it, but boxes most of it up to take along. And then helps out with the general tidying and dishwasher loading, mostly sticking to 'bringing stuff over' on the latter. Partly to stay out of the way, and partly because he has very little idea what's supposed to go where in there, really. "Thanks," he says brightly to Julia, "I think that's the first thing I made in an oven and didn't burn even a little. So, you know, progress!" When someone who knows what they're doing is in charge of the timing. "Are you gonna go more classes?" Cole gets a fleetingly sympathetic look, but no attention brought any more directly to his injury. The others remaining just get a smile.

Ignacio absolutely has the brass to take Cole's phone and send himself a text from it that reads: Ignacio, thanks for being the tallest, coolest dude I know. He busses the pots and brings them over for easier loading. He pauses and frowns telling Julia, "Ya know, I honestly do miss workin with my dad. This was fun. Kinda reminded me why I enjoy this stuff, ya know?"

"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself." says Julia, moving to continue to stack dishes. "It's a nice break for me to do something that isn't in front of the fryer, you now?" She adds, "Also, on the off chance that you remember it, sorry about things getting awkward the other day over texts. I didn't know." She's quick and efficient with the dishwasher stacking, but apparently her cleanup obligations end with stacking the dishes and utensils, and once that's done she starts to unbutton her chef's jacket.

Aidan will just keep an eye out for any other flyers. "Thanks!" he says again once it's clear things are as tidy as they're expected to get right now, and he wanders off to scoop up his to-go box while it's still warm and bring it along as he goes to.

Ignacio pauses and turns to Julia giving her his total attention from putting things away, "Hey, we're good, bonita. I am the Earl of Awkward, there are better at it, but I got land and a fancy title." He nods seriously. "I called dibs. I was there. But serious? That thing you were hpothetically talking about?" One eyebrow goes up and he starts taking the blenders apart in teh sink to get the parts all separated for proper cleaning. "You want help or support, or a lime margerita big enough to crawl into and absorb like a frog, or someone to cover things while you're taki care of whatever?" Somehow he's run out of words and offers her the few bullshit free ones he has. "Lemme know. I'll help you."

Turning To Aidan, "Dude, remember, Meat Glitter is a lifestyle choice. Use it responsibly. Alsotomorrow a few folks are havin drinks at the Pourhouse. You should swing by. Bring your people, man." He can't not be the consummate host apparently.

Julia folds up her jacket and goes to one of the side cabinets to pull out her bag. It goes over her shoulder and the jacket gets draped over her arm. "Only thing I want right now is a beer. We could talk over it, or we can save it for another time."

Things people were hypothetically talking about! That's always an interesting phrase. Aidan is not quite impolite enough to ask, even if for just a fleeting moment the glance across the pair of them is almost wary. It's gone as soon as it was there, though, and he laughs at the meat glitter remark. "I didn't choose the meat glitter life, man. The meat glitter life chose me. And thanks! I think some of my people's kinda avoiding bars right now, but that sounds cool." It could sound like a demurral, with that phrasing, but it doesn't. Probably a decent chance of him showing up! Maybe it'll even occur to him to introduce himself, then. For now, there's another grin and a, "Later!" and then he and his chicken are out the door.