[PRP] Make Your Own Dinner Date (Mena, Rho, Tirzah)[FIN]

[Menelie]

Mene

Menahem was equal parts excited and nervous about this "date" with all three of them. He was excited to bring Rho and Tirzah into his realm of cooking, and was excited to use some of the herbs he'd planted with Tirzah, but he was used to cooking alone or with coworkers. This would be a new situation for them. What if he snapped at someone? That would just be terrible. He wanted them to see why cooking brought him so much joy, what if he ruined it?

In the days leading up to their date, they'd planned a menu together, and had divided up the tasks of procuring everything they'd need. They had planned a main course of a cheesy grain with a wild mushroom and parsnip ragout over it, which should be hearty enough to satisfy while remaining vegetarian. Mena was particularly excited about the roasted hazelnut garnish on that one. Similarly, they'd planned a side dish of chickpeas and kale in a spicy tomato sauce, a roasted eggplant drizzled with oil and herbs, and for dessert a strawberry rhubarb galette, served with whipped cream.

Mena had taken the task of sourcing the more difficult ingredients, which he had been able to do successfully. Now he was waiting in the kitchen for Rho and Tirzah to come back from dropping the kids with Faelon and Vendimia for the evening. He couldn't seem to be still, so he fussed with the ingredients on the countertops, sorting them so that they were in groups pertaining to the three dishes.

Tirzah, walking back toward their alcove holding hands with Rho, was chatting about this or that. Talking about how excited she was for this, hadn't it been so long since they'd had good time together for the three of them, a cheeky allusion to what might go on after dinner.

After a brief pause, her tone turned slightly more serious, though still happy and casual. "I think it'll be good for Mena to be sort of 'in charge' for this," she said. "He's always sort of going along with whatever. I think it'll be good for him to do some leading."

Dai

Rho had very much been enjoying their transition away from focusing just on the children and back to themselves recently. He was back to lifting regularly (with and without Mena), they were settling into a decent rythmn of one-on-one time, and they'd settled back into their regular shifts at their respective workplaces. Life was pretty good.

As was his current conversation with Tirzah on this and that. He did, however, raise a brow as her mom-voice kicked on. "Hey, you really think I would just take over and--" he stopped himself as her expression said it all, to which he pouted lightly. "C'mon, I don't -always- have to be in charge..."

Mene

Tirzah smiled inwardly. An accidental moment of self-awareness from Rho. She decided, probably wisely, not to call attention to it. "I just know it's sort of your natural state," she responded, giving his arm a little hug. "And I didn't mean to imply anything about you, beloved, just that I'm happy to support our Mena to be a little more assertive." As they arrived at their alcove door, she leaned up and gave him a quick kiss.

Mena straightened up and visibly brightened when Rho and Tirzah came back in. "Oh good! All's well with the kids?"

Tirzah nodded with a cheerful smile. "We should have several hours," she said. "Until nightfall, I think? Anyway, let's get cooking, I've been thinking about this mushroom thing all day." She bounced on her hooves excitedly.

Mena nodded in response. "Yeah, so before we get started I've got a quick, er, note? It's just that in the kitchen it's best if one chef is sort of the 'head chef' that calls most of the shots. Food tends to turn out better that way, and it's safer in a tight space."


Tirzah nodded in agreement. "You know, Rho and I were just talking on the way here about how you ought to take the lead," she said with a little wink at Rho. "You being much more experienced. And I would like our dinner to turn out," she added with a giggle.

Dai

Mmm... She did have a point, per usual, which itself could at times be a bit annoying, but also wasn't something he could argue with. Or, well, be could, but it would be hella dumb and he'd lose the argument.

He raised his free hand with a "Yo!" upon returning with Tirzah, and followed up with, "Mom had some wild idea for some sort of arts and craft session, so be ready for them to bring some stuff of questionable quality back."

At Tirzah's unintentional needling, Rho gave a slight chuckle. "Yeah, yeah, no worries. I'll stay in my lane... Probably." He let go of Tirzah's hand to move on from this particular point and playfully flexed. "So Chef, what's first?"

Mene

Mena, somehow, had expected some pushback on this, something about them all being on equal footing, so he was rather pleased at their easy(ish) acceptance of this principle, which really was a real thing in the kitchen. "Great!" he practically chirped. "First thing's to wash up, and then..." he pulled out a small stack of folded fabric with a flourish. "I, er, called in a favor. They're aprons! An investment toward dinner dates of the future." He turned a bit pink, clearly pleased with himself. He set them down and unfolded them, revealing thick fabric aprons which had been embroidered on the front pocket with each of their names and a little motif. Leaves for Tirzah, wings for Rho, and cooking implements like spoons and knives for Mena. He put his on and modeled it. "It's important to keep stuff off your fur, and does offer some protection from heat, for example."

Tirzah, who had already made it to the sink and started washing her hands, could hardly contain her delight. "Mena!" she squealed. "This is so fun and thoughtful!" She put hers over her head, but then turned her back to Rho to tie it for her while she finished washing up, which she figured he'd enjoy~

Mena was practically beaming by this point, and offered Rho's apron to him.

Dai

Geh... He had to wash his hands for -this-? But they weren't even dirty... He'd opened his mouth to say as such, but caught a well-timed look from Tirzah and just shut up to do what he was told... even if it -was- rewashing perfectly-clean hands like a moron.

Oh by Earthmother's... Rho could feel himself dying of cringe from looking at the matching apron set. Even if he knew Mena's heart was in the right place, it was just so absolutely embarrassing. He could just die right here. Right now. He'd opened his mouth to ask if they were -really- necessary, but caught another well-timed look from Tirzah as she turned for him to tie hers on. Ugh. UGH. FINE. He bit his lip and tried his damndest to push down his thoughts as he got hers nice and snug (it did look cute on her, especially with those gainz of hers).

He placed his best attempt at a natural smile as he took the apron from Mena with as enthusiastic of a, "Thanks bro..." as he could muster before sliding it on and reaching to loosely tie it behind himself.

Moving on. The faster they got to cooking, the faster he could take this wonderfully kind gift off and place it in a cupboard. "Okay, they're on. So cooking..."

 

[Menelie]

Mene

Mena wasn't an idiot, he could see that Rho hated the apron, but it was still a piece of protective equipment so he was holding the line on that one, even though he was hurt that Rho didn't like the gift. Who was he even embarrassed to be seen by? Besides, it looked amazing on him. Mena indulged himself a little fantasy of tightening Rho's apron strings the way Rho had done for Tirzah.

"Right, yes," he said, turning to the counter. "The dessert actually takes longest to cook so we're going to start there. There's a recipe here with the proportions of everything and I've gotten all the ingredients out." He looked around. "Right, yes. Tirzah, why don't you start getting the dough together?" He trusted her most to actually follow a recipe.

"Yes, chef," said Tirzah with a little giggle.

"Uh, and Rho, you can get started on the tomato sauce. Take those tomatoes and put them in the pot there, then use that sort of squiggly tool to squish them until they're, like, saucy."

As for himself? "I'll do anything that requires slicing, starting with the strawberries and rhubarb." He pulled a knife out of the air with a little flourish.

Dai

See, at least Rho was putting up with it without complaining - that took a lot of self-restraint!

"Sounds good to me."

He offered Mena a small round of applause with the knife trick - it was actually always kind of cool to see it in action - before picking up the lot of tomatos and quite literally dropping them in the pot. Now where was that tool... Oh, this one? How weird. Couldn't he just like, squish them with his extra clean hands? No. No. Mena said use the tool, Rho needed to use the tool. So he started mashing, a little juice squirting and hitting his cheek at this point, but nothing dramatic.

Mene

Mena looked properly chuffed at Rho's applause--it almost made up for the lukewarm reaction to the aprons. He set to work slicing strawberries and rhubarb for Tirzah, and when he was finished he set them in a small pile near where she was working.

Tirzah, meanwhile, had run into a problem. Earth runes were....definitely still a work in progress for her. So most of the ingredients in this recipe she could read--flour, butter, sugar, water--but as far as the amounts, or what she was to do with them? Total mystery. She blushed and kept staring at the bit of parchment, not super thrilled to admit to not being able to read the recipe. Children could do this. She tried to catch Rho's eye without saying anything.

After finishing the fruit, Mena made a quick note of the next things to be done. Needed to get the polenta going, Rho needed the next set of things for the chickpeas, Tirzah....looked like she was doing fine. He went over to Rho. "Looks great, bro," he said with a nod. "Next is to basically put all the other ingredients in, except for the kale, it'll get slimy if we cook it with the rest." He gestured to the other ingredients on the counter. There was garlic, chickpeas of course, some other spices, a leafy bunch of kale, and salt.

Dai

Ah yes... The tomatoes were properly mashed, and he'd received praise over it. Good job him - he was practically a chef already. He returned Mena's comments with a thumbs up and a, "Got it," before walking over to go grab the rest of the things to toss in the bowl.

He did pause as he passed Tirzah's and caught her look, then noticed that she hadn't actually started doing anything. That was weird, and certainly not like her... "Yo babe, everything good?"

Mene

Tirzah held up the bit of parchment and made a pursed-lips expression. Her cheeks turned red and she looked extremely frustrated. "I can't read it," she whispered, glancing nervously at Mena to make sure he hadn't heard. She didn't want him to feel bad for forgetting.

Mena had busied himself on the other side of the kitchen, getting the things together for the main dish and starting the polenta cooking.

Dai

"Ahhh.... That's right." Rho mused, having also forgotten himself. He quickly followed up with a "Sorry, you're just always hella competent... And it doesn't usually matter..." before shutting up with due haste.

Keeping his voice low, he point to the first line. "This says ...." and continued down for the entirety of the steps. "Need me to repeat anything?"

 

[Menelie]

Mene

"Nope, I'm good, thanks so much love." She leaned up for a quick kiss before getting to work. The good thing about not being great at reading is she was good at remembering. She began to combine the ingredients in their specified amounts and order Rho had read. Tirzah made a mental note to remind Mena later that next time they did this she ought not be given a job with a recipe attached. Soon she had what appeared to be a lovely dough. She smiled, satisfied with her handiwork. "Okay, Mena, what now?"

Mena paused from what he was doing to come over. "This looks great! So now we're going to roll it out flat." He handed her a rolling pin and demonstrated with two fingers how thick the dough should be. "Once that's done, take the fruit here and mix it with some sugar and just a little flour and spread it on the crust, but leave like a border about like this," he demonstrated again with two fingers. "When that's done I'll show you how to fold the pastry part over without it breaking."

Mena returned back over to Rho. "Great, this looks ready to put on the stove." He took the pot, gave Rho a kiss on the cheek, and put it on the stove to begin to simmer. He was clearly having a great time with all this. "Want to sautee some onions? Take this pan," he said, handing it to Rho, "and put like a little bloop of oil in the bottom. Just like a..." he pantomimed pouring from the bottle to produce sort of a dollop. "You can't really ******** it up. While it heats up I'll dice the onion for you and then you wanna just like move them around in the pan until they're sort of clear."

Dai

Rho offered a nod and a thumbs up for encouragement as Tirzah sent him away, but not before he added in a, "Just lemme know if you need help," before continuing to his quest to get the remainder of the items and to dump them in with the tomato broth-sauce-whatever-it-was that was oh-so-slowly coming together. When he dropped them in, he at least had enough sense to do so close to the liquid to reduce the splatter. Perfect.

And Mena seemed to agree, what with the affection and all - It seemed he was in a particularly good mood today completely in his element. Maybe Tirzah was right... Maybe they really ought to encourage him to speak out and take charge more often.

He gave a thumbs up after receiving his next task - seemed he was full of them today. "Too easy."

---

Mene

After a time, their dinner was finished. Everything came out mostly at the same time and nothing burned! Everything looked a little more "rustic" than it might have if Mena had made it himself, but that obviously hadn't been the point. The three put everything on their table, along with a brew they'd brought up from Mojo's to go with the meal. Aprons hung up, it was time to eat.

"I don't know about you two," said Mena as he sat down, "but I had so much fun doing this." He was practically glowing, and already the wheels were turning for next time. "Everything came out great and I think we really worked like, as a team."

Tirzah, who was still thrilled that she hadn't had to make a fuss about reading the recipe, smiled and nodded. "I had a lot of fun too," she agreed. "I think I better appreciate what goes into just making a meal, now," she added with a tone of admiration.

Dai

Rho had followed directions well-enough, and as fun as it all was, he was glad they'd gotten to his favorite part of the whole process. Hard work made for good eating. Still, while he wouldn't be jumping at the bit trying to encourage Mena to do one of these things again... seeing that smile of his would likewise keep him from shying away if asked.

He smiled over and gave a nod before looking down at the food, eyes practically sparkling in anticipation. "And now, for the best part..." He reached for a glass and raised it upwards and to the middle of the table in a 'cheers' motion.

Mene

The other two followed suit, making appropriate "hear, hear" sort of noises as they did.

"Goddess, how long has it been since we had a meal just the three of us?" said Tirzah appreciatively. "I love them so, but it sure is nice to be able to eat without juggling toddlers." She began with the mushroom and polenta dish, which she'd been eyeing with anticipation the whole time. She loved mushrooms; they were always so satisfying however they were prepared, and they felt like little gifts from the Earth.

Mena chuckled a response and nodded his agreement. The four little ones certainly made meals chaotic. "We'll have to do this more often. I mean, maybe not cook every time," he said, scratching the back of his neck. "I mean, I'd love to, but I want you both to pick a thing too, right? But this date thing....it's been pretty nice."

"You're welcome," said Tirzah with a self-satisfied smile. She'd been the one to mastermind this whole idea anyway.

Dai

Rho glanced over at Tirzah and nodded at her statement. "And hella calmer too - I swear, I take me eyes off them for a moment and suddenly there's food just everywhere." Cleanup today was gonna be a simple affair. "I'm sure my mom would be happy to look at the kids whenever we ask - I swear these days she seems more excited when they visit than even Alba."

 

[Menelie]

Mene

"Alba has other things to occupy her mind these days," chuckled Tirzah. "Wedding to plan and all that." She was happy for Rho's sister, and curious to attend a Faun wedding. Alba and her intended seemed incredibly well-matched and happy together. And while at this point she had no real desire to mess around with the idea of a wedding for the three of them, it did give her fuzzy feelings all the same.

---

Mene

The three of them enjoyed their meal together, and managed to talk about something other than work or the kids, a minor miracle. After they finished, they efficiently cleaned up by instituting a three-person assembly line: Mena cleared the table and put the left over food away, Tirzah washed dishes, and Rho dried.

After that was finished, Tirzah peeked out the window at the sun. "Seems like we still have a couple hours until we've got to pick up the kids..." she trailed off and raised her eyebrows meaningfully.

Mena laughed at Tirzah's eyebrow raise, but he'd been thinking the same thing. He glanced at Rho with an inquisitive expression.

Dai

"Truuuuuuuue," Rho mused back at Tirzah's apt assessment of the situation - Alba was practically over the sun these days. He might have had mixed opinions on Sven and his family, but if his sister was happy... well... it couldn't be all bad.

---

Rho raised his own eyebrow at Tirzah's before smirking and rolling one of his shoulders. "Don't worry babe, Mena and I can handle picking up the kids on our own." He imagined the implication wasn't lost on them.

Mene

Mena snorted with laughter despite his best effort not to.

Tirzah flushed pink and drew her lips together tightly. She raised her eyebrows and got real close to Rho. "I may make you regret that remark," she threatened.

Mena, wisely, shut the hell up.

Dai

Rho continued smirking. "Sure hope that's a promise." And at that, he deftly reached down to swoop her into a princess carry and promptly head over to the bedroom. He only paused to look over his shoulder at Mena with a wink before continuing in, the door left open.

Mene

Tirzah started to protest but wound up giggling instead. "Dammit, Rho, put me down!" She shrieked.

Mena chuckled and scooted after them, nudging the door closed after him with his hoof.