Gunther

Firefly - Second 'Verse

That song pops up on my playlist almost daily now. I played it so often when you were posting about the McSorley.

Post a random fact about yourself.

I watched The Shining and a football game on Halloween. We had about 50 kids at our door.

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Arthur

Firefly - Second 'Verse

Hook the Pastry Chef

“Cooking is like painting or writing a song. Just as there are only so many notes or colors, there are only so many flavors—it’s how you combine them that sets you apart.”
– Wolfgang Puck

The shower and change of clothing had been exactly what Joe Hooker was looking for. They corrected anything that was wrong with him for the moment. ‘Damn, ah need a drink,’ Joe thought to himself. He considered asking the captain if he had anything, then remembered he left a bottle of whiskey in the pantry.

Once he was dressed, he grabbed his heavy dark brown corduroy jacket, wool knit cap and gloves knowing it would be a cold day in the China Doll. He was aware the Skye’s would be held up in their shuttle and considered dropping in on them. ‘Maybe after ah conjure up some goodies as Abby would put it,’ Joe chuckled to himself.

He got to the galley and checked on the coffee pot. It was one of those large silver containers that uses a few gallons of water and cups of coffee grounds instead of just a few tablespoons. He rinsed the vessel out and filled it with water. Then grabbed the percolator basket and rinsed that out as well. Next, he placed a filter in the basket and filled it with coffee grounds. He plugged it back in and set it to brew.

Joe found himself in the pantry searching for flour. He saw the opened bottle of brown liquid high on a shelf. ‘There you are,’ Joe smiled. He reached up for the bottle uncapped it and took a long swig. The rich liquid burned smoothly as it slowly cascaded down his throat. Joe let out a lip-smacking sigh of relief. “That sure does hit tha spot,” he said to himself then returned the bottle to its spot on the shelf.

He picked up a ten-pound bag of flour, some sugar, and various baskets of fruit. Several trips later, he had them all laid out on the galley table. He wanted to get to work on the pies but figured a hearty beef stew would be a good meal for the day. Then people could come get a bowl as they needed.

He peeled the potatoes, cubed them and dropped them into a stew pot after rinsing them off. He chopped up some carrots and celery which were also added to the pot. Then he added corn, peas, and green beans. Finally, he added some beef broth stock and a little water. Inside a spice ball, he filled with Rosemary and Thyme. This was chained to the handle of the pot and allowed to rest submerged in the liquid. Then the pot was placed over a low heat.

In a shallow, but wide skillet, he dripped some extra virgin olive oil which he allowed to warm up a bit as he tipped the skillet to spread it around. He had chopped up some garlic and added that to the skillet with chopped onion. The onion and garlic were allowed to soften up, to weep in the olive oil. Then he cut the stewing beef into small chunks on a cutting board. Next, he poured about a cup of flour into the onion and garlic creating a roux. Then added a little more olive oil. Once the oil and the roux spread across the skillet, he added the small chunks of stewing beef and began to spread them around to insure they were browned on all sides and thoroughly soaking up the onion and garlic flavor. Once the meat was browned, he dumped the contents of the skillet into the stew pot to allow the ingredients to blend. He put a lid on the pot and turned up the heat allowing it to come to a boil.

It was time to take off the jacket. He left on the knit hat, but the galley was warming up with the beef stew on the stove. Now it was time to bake some pies. ‘Wait one minute!’ Joe thought. ‘Ah need one more snort from that bottle.’ He re-entered the pantry and ingested the warm brown liquid again. So satisfying. Smiling.

Joe returned to the galley, spread out a new tablecloth over the table and began work on the pie crusts. These would need to be ready first. While mixing the flour, salt, butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, someone entered the galley.

“Don’t conjure what that is,” Abby sniffed the air as she joined Hook, “but I’ma want a bowl of it.”

“Beef Stew, Miss Abby,” Joe responded. “Rich and thick enough to take the chill off. Hearty and warm beef stew.” Joe smiled at her as he continued to mix the pie crust ingredients. He began with the rolling pin and spread them out. Then when the crusts were ready, spread across the galley table, he retrieved several pie tins from a cupboard and laid them out on the table. Then he draped a crust over the pie dish and formed it with his fingers. He cut the edges off and returned the bits to the mixing bowl.

He grabbed the first bag of apples, the cortlands and began to peel and chop them up. He deposited the apple slices into a mixing bowl. Then he added sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg to the bowl and mixed them all up so the apple slices were covered in the flavored spices. Once the apples were ready, then he poured an ample amount into each of two pie dishes. With the filling in the dishes, he covered each one with crust and cut off the extra to return to the bowl of crust. He continued the process again with spencers and again with peaches and finally for blueberries. By the end of the day, he would have four apple pies, two with cortlands and two with spencers. He would also have two peach cobblers and one blueberry pie. He would leave these out on the galley table to cool. He had whipped topping in cold storage.

The stew had been simmering for at least an hour. He then added a few cups of flour to thicken up the broth. “This will help the stew to stick to their ribs.” He allowed himself a taste. It was perfection.

Once he completed the pies, he then began working on making chocolate chip cookies, then some oatmeal raisin cookies and finally sugar cookies. Plates of cookie would be mixed with the pies on the table. He planned to grab a little of each to bring as samplers to the Skye’s shuttle.

With the temperature of the ovens keeping the galley warm, he forgot about the temperature of the ship outside the door.

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