Quests & Challenges

[b]Monday[/b] [center][url=https://www1.flightrising.com/dragon/221120][img]https://www1.flightrising.com/rendern/350/2212/221120_350.png[/img][/url][/center] Sweets so soon in the competition? That means the clan's baker is up, and Chess gets a day off already! Time for him to do some shopping for specialty items to take back with them to the Southern Icefields. The deals may not be as good this early on, but the selection will likely be better than he normally sees. Over in the tents, Glacier is representing Clan Diamond Dust! Chess had been the clan's representative in the tournament-style competitions, but since the original format was back, the Imperial was willing to give Glacier the chance to return and show off her baking skills. Glacier looked over the required ingredients. Although she turned up her nose a bit at the corn syrup-soaked winter rations, it was still a better option for her than the ruby-throated hummingbird. Hmm... honeybees... sugar... honey... honeycomb. What about a nice toffee mixture? The biggest challenge would be from making it [i]too[/i] sweet. A few extra ingredients would probably help... [b]Entry: Honeycomb Toffee Crunch[/b] [b]Required Ingredients:[/b] [item=Honeybee] [item=Fishy Cotton Candy] [item=Longneck winter rations] [b]Additional Ingredients:[/b] [item=blue honeycomb] [item=centaur nut mix] [item=Cinnamon] To start, Glacier broke the winter rations into smaller pieces (much smaller, almost smashed). She added the nut mix to the bowl and quickly mixed together the ingredients, spreading them on a cookie sheet. This would serve as her base layer that she would pour the honeycomb toffee mixture on. Before she set it aside, she grated some fresh cinnamon stick over it, to give the flavor an extra kick while staying in the right flavor profile. Next up was some multi-tasking: she began by melting the fishy cotton candy on the stove and straining it to remove the fish bits (no one said they had to use [i]every[/i] part of the required ingredients). While this was going, Glacier put a pan of honeybees, lightly salted with some oil, to roast in the oven. This should make them nice and crunchy. To the melted cotton candy, she added blue honeycomb (and other pantry ingredients). This was a bit of a risk, but using the blue as opposed to the regular would help it set faster, which was a bonus in the competition. Also, it was festive and unexpected and added a bit of fun to the plate. She quickly poured the sugar-honey-toffee mixture over the oats and nuts. Since the blue honeycomb set so quickly, she didn't have much time for her final step: sprinkling the roasted honeybee and some sea salt flakes on top. Once everything cooled, the happy Tundra would cut the crunchy honeycomb toffee into pieces. Hmm... now how would she plate the finished dish? Winterbelles could make a lovely edible flower garnish that would go well with the toffee. ([i]If you are thinking that the clan's baker didn't actually bake much, well... shhhh....[/i]) Although the plate wasn't officially being "judged" this year, the judges, other contestants, and festival goers were still dropping by to check out the entries, and Glacier wanted to make sure it tasted AND looked good for them!

[center][b]Day 2[/b] [b]Dish:[/b] Sweet Dessert Salad [img]https://www1.flightrising.com/rendern/avatars/498870/49886956.png[/img][img]https://www1.flightrising.com/rendern/avatars/456979/45697842.png[/img] [item=ruby-throated hummingbird][item=honeybee][item=longneck winter rations] [item=granny smith apple][item=potash peach][item=strawberry][/center] Delta and Anaconda stare curiously at their next array of items as they walk into the tent for their challenge of the day. Delta frowns slightly. It's clear what theme the judges were going for- sweetness. But Delta is far better at making savory dishes than any desserts. The last time she tried to make a cake for her matriarch's birthday, she nearly set the kitchen on fire! Which, by the way, is exceedingly difficult for an underwater lair. Anaconda seems to be having similar thoughts. "I wonder if they're expecting us to make a pie or something..." she muses. "But the meat would be tricky to make work," Delta reasons. She absent-mindedly opens up the cupboards and refrigerator, looking for inspiration, and then her eyes light up. She found it! She closes fridge door and wields a glass jar of whipping cream triumphantly. "I got an idea!" For the next half-hour, the two Wildclaws set out chopping up various fruits and coating the hummingbirds and honeybees with brown sugar until they are beautifully candied and just crunchy enough. Delta turns on a mixer and pours the whipping cream in, testing it every few seconds until she gets the stiff peaks she was looking for. She plops the now-whipped-cream into a large glass bowl and Anaconda dumps the fruits inside, sprinkling some crushed up sweet granola from the longneck rations. Delta mixes all of the items together with a spatula until everything is nicely coated. They both eagerly dip a claw into the mixture and come back grinning. "Voila!" Delta exclaims. "One beautiful and sufficiently sweet dessert salad!"

Aaah, now this is closer to my experience. While I cook seafood for my family most often, our Fae neighbors enjoy my insect-based trail mix!

Time is precious, and saving it is good, and the Longnecks have nailed packing energy in a small area. Take the Longneck Winter Rations and cut it into small cubes. They're going to bring a lot of the sweetness.

Scoop out some of your Honeybees, because they're apparently delicious honey roasted. Coat them in honey, then toss them in sugar and a little salt. If you want other spices you want to add them here, but I'm keeping it simple.

Now, a good trail mix has protein, and while we've colored that with the honeybees I think we can add some extra. Take your Fishy Cotton Candy and strip it down, we're going to turn it into jerky. Keep the cotton candy attached! It'll give the fish jerky sweet.

Ruby-Throated Hummingbird / Honeybee / Fishy Cotton Candy / Longneck winter rations

Pancetta took one look at the theme and spread her wings. "Nope, we're out." She flew off.

Quartz looked at Petra. "This looks right up your alley. You wanna take over?"

"Sure." The Snapper was already separating chunks of fish from the fishy cotton candy. "Honeybee-glazed fish, with oatmeal cookie chunks for dessert."

"Lemon-thyme glazed hummingbird," Charcuterie nodded, "and--could we SMOKE them?"

Everyone glanced at him. "Ooh, grilled hummingbird and fish, with smoked cookies. I like it!" Petra immediately handed out assignments and the crew set to work.

[center][b]Mistral Meals - DAY 2 MONDAY [/b][/center] Oh no! Oh dear we are late so very late! Nothing Moonfrost could do about it now. She scurried on over to the competition tents to find her partner for this years competition. Winona should have been here already. She said she would meet me here. In looking over the ingredient table, Moonfrost took all of the ingredients and spied some mire chestnuts that needed to be prepped and roasted, Winona would want to use them, if they made Winona's own recipe. [quote]Use at least THREE of the following ingredients in your entry: [item=Ruby-Throated Hummingbird][item=honeybee][item= Fishy Cotton Candy][item=Longneck Winter Rations] Ruby-Throated Hummingbird / Fishy Cotton Candy / Longneck Winter Rations[/quote] Additional ingredients: [item=mire chestnut] [item=forest doily][item=bamboo dried tea] [img]https://www1.flightrising.com/rendern/350/3499/349820_350.png[/img] Moonfrost placed all the ingredients on the work table while she started up the grill and began working. At least it was for something sweet day and she was a pastry chef after all, although it didn't mean they were already at dessert. About then a frantic Wildclaw showed up grumbling something about her mate not setting the alarm clock and apologized for being late. "No matter" said Moonfrost. We have these specific ingredients we have to use three, but I figured on using all of them, and needing some chestnuts too? *In what sounded like an almost sing song voice.* They talked it over and both knew Winona's recipe would be a great choice! Moonfrost also found some mushrooms Winona liked to use as well. As they started preparing the ingredients mortars came out and the grinding began on the winter rations. Winona liked to use winter rations for crunchy texture and general sweetness and with the roasted chestnuts, aah, perfection! Winona was working on the hummingbirds as she started preparing them for cooking. The ones Moonfrost had picked up for her were smaller in size than some of the others. The smaller the size the tastier the meat. Winona loved hummingbirds! These are perfect for her recipe [b]Honeyed Hummingbird Kabobs[/b]. It was almost a foregone conclusion they would present this recipe for their entry! Although Winona usually didn't use fishy cotton candy, it would be a nice addition. She took the cuts of hummingbird placing them on the kabob skewer alternating with the fishy cotton candy and mushrooms. On the grill they went, while the rest of the ingredients were prepared. The chestnuts had to be roasted, which would take a little longer, but they had plenty of time before the entry was due, since they were too late for the first day. Once done the honey would be drizzled over the kabob and the winter rations would make a nice crunchy nutty flavor once Moonfrost roasted the chestnuts and bound them together with the winter rations (and a little more honey) The kabobs are done, the honey glaze drizzled over the golden brown meat. Next the chestnuts and winter rations are bound together with honey and a slight roll over the end piece with a chestnut for garnish. Moonfrost and Winona made sure they took photos this year before they took the tray over to the judging table along with a pitcher of sweetened bamboo dried tea, a crowd favorite. [right][img]https://www1.flightrising.com/rendern/350/592341/59234084_350.png[/img][/right]

[center][b]Day 2[/b] [url=https://www1.flightrising.com/dragon/21795898][img]https://www1.flightrising.com/rendern/350/217959/21795898_350.png[/img][/url] [url=https://www1.flightrising.com/dragon/23026578][img]https://www1.flightrising.com/rendern/350/230266/23026578_350.png[/img][/url][/center] Monarch stared balefully at Halos as the Skydancer hems and haws over the spread of ingredients. This was not how she envisioned spending the [i]only[/i] day off they had together. Cooking was low on her activities-to-do-with-your-mate list, but then again, it was his turn to choose and he looked like an adorable fool inspecting the food. So she kept her mouth shut and let him drag her to this…meal competition thing. [center][item=honeybee][item=fishy cotton candy][item=longneck winter rations][/center] Halos turned suddenly, arms full of ingredients and eyes sparkling with joy. “My dear, I just had the most wonderful of ideas!” The Nocturne raised a brow before inclining with her head. “And that is…?” “Let us make the bread we used to eat!” Images of a blocky loaf of bread and their children staring at it with varying degrees of apprehension flashed in her head. “You can’t be serious.” He looked serious-determined even. “Do you want the judges to break their teeth eating that thing?” His face fell a bit. “Your words tear at my very being, my dear. I assure you it will be different this time, we won’t be using expired ingredients-I mean look at the color of these, they’re beautiful!” Monarch eyed the fish as its head flops in its cotton candy prison. “…Riiiiight.” Halos draws closer to her and gods above, are his eyes sparkling more? “Will you soothe your poor mate’s soul by lending me your aid?” She sighed as she rubbed her temple. “Alright, but only because I don’t want the judges to sue us for damages.” The pair made a beeline towards the nearest oven and set to work. Halos busied himself by mixing together the dry ingredients for the dough while Monarch started separating the cotton candy from the fish, muttering curses about the sheer stickiness of it all. Once removed, she added it to the wet ingredients bowl along with the honey the bees (and snacked on the bees itself because she deserved the treat). They then combined the two mixtures into one, kneading it into dough. They set it aside to rest and started crushing up the rations into small pieces. Halos smiled as he broke apart a ration. “Doesn’t this remind you of the good old days when we had to move at the drop of a hat? We could only carry so much, but we always had bread to eat.” Monarch smashed the bars in front of her. “They were rations before you had the bright idea to turn it into bread. I don’t know what you did, but it was harder than the actual rations. I’m honestly shocked you were able to digest that thing. I personally used mine as a weapon.” “You wound me, my dear. “ Halos gasped, dramatically placing his hand over his heart. He brought the now crushed rations to the dough and started kneading them into it. “I promise this one will turn out better, you’ll see once it’s ready.” In the oven it went, allowing the pair to rest and reminisce while the dough baked. Once it was ready, they carefully took it out (i.e. Monarch stuck her hand in the oven and pulled it out) and set it on a cutting board for the judges to try. Halos beamed at their creation: [b]Honey bread with longneck winter rations[/b] baked inside. Monarch quietly sighed in relief. [i]Thank goodness, it looks edible.[/i]

@Sylvandyr too tired to RP but Felnyr's "dish" is absolutely horrifying, thank you for that imagery (sincere, lol)

[center][b]MONDAY'S TREAT - DAY 2[/b] [url=https://www1.flightrising.com/dragon/93079027][img]https://www1.flightrising.com/rendern/350/930791/93079027_350.png[/img][/url] [url=https://www1.flightrising.com/dragon/92954058][img]https://www1.flightrising.com/rendern/350/929541/92954058_350.png[/img][/url][/center] Truffle's eyes lit up at the sights and smells of sweet ingredients on the table before them. "Oh boy, here we go," Mossfeld chuckled. "I guess I'm taking a backseat this time!" "No way, you can help me separate the meats. I'm making [b]oat treats, decorated with these critters' feathers and wings[/b] to go with this year's Jamboree theme!" the Pearlcatcher exclaimed. [center] [item=Ruby-Throated Hummingbird] [item=Honeybee] [item=Fishy Cotton Candy] [item=Longneck Winter Rations][/center] Moss nodded along, then got to work plucking iridescent feathers from the hummingbird's tail and cutting the wings off of the bee; he could handle insects when he didn't feel as if the ingredients would explode in his claws in a gory mess like with the blue bloodflies. When he turned back towards the cotton candy fish, he looked at his kitchen partner with a puzzled look. "Erm, Truff, fish don't have wings." "The fins, smart-tail," Truffle rolled her eyes playfully, removing the fish from the cotton candy and handing it back to him. "Ohh, that makes sense." While he chopped up the remaining critter, Truffle dissolved the sugary portion into small bowl of water, putting the nectar aside for use in her recipe. "I wonder if the hosts will let us take the leftover meats for the inn later? It would be a waste of good ingredients not to, just pop the rest in the fridge for now." Moss obliged, then turned back to see Truffle already working on melting down the syrupy bars over a low-heat stove. "This will roast the oats, too," she explained. "Extra flavor." When the oats had separated from the sweet liquid and became a lovely crisp color, she transferred the entire pan into a mixing bowl and made a snapping gesture at Mossfeld, who was standing out of her way. "I need butter, egg, baking soda, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg. You got all that? Quickly, before you forget!" Moss huffed to himself. His friend always tended to take over projects, but he couldn't deny that her creations were always worth the sass, so he fell into the role of errand boy without any complaints, barring the ones in his thoughts. [i]She could have at least said please![/i] He returned with all the ingredients (only having to go back for one forgotten item, yay!), watched as his partner combined them all until a dough had formed, then set her bowl into the fridge to chill. "Now we prep for the oven!" Truffle cheered, sliding over to preheat while the batter cooled. Before long the dough was ready to be scooped by the clawful onto a baking sheet, and the oven was filled with sugary cookies to rise. While the cookies baked, Moss delicately seared the edges of the fish fins and bee wings to make them safer to eat and add some flavor, finishing up just as the cookies' time in the oven ended. Truffle placed them on a counter to cool and poured cotton candy juice over the top, then perfectly placed feathers, flappers, and fins atop the treats. They looked as if they'd fly away at any moment, and if the smell was any indication, this would be a big hit with the hosts!

Arrivederci stares down at their ingredients. They were no stranger to eating whatever foods they could rustle up in the Mire- any exalt trainer worth their salt could do the same- but turning these items into a full meal would be a whole other challenge. [center][url=https://www1.flightrising.com/dragon/7078537][img]https://www1.flightrising.com/rendern/350/70786/7078537_350.png[/img][/url][/center] Luckily, Ari's mind is as nimble as their feet, and they waste no time preparing their dish: a simple yet fulfilling array of empanadas. The dough comes first; they decide to crumble the Longneck winter rations into the pastry, kneading well to incorporate the grains. Once it's time to cool the dough, they chop some garlic, onions, potatoes, and carrots. These sauté in one big batch along with some raisins, followed by the hummingbird, honeybees, and fish in their own separate pans. The dough finishes cooling just in time for Ari to fill each piece. They mix the sautéed vegetables with one of the three given meats, spoon the mixture into a circle of dough, and crimp the sides thoroughly. A quick egg wash ensures that they bake to a golden brown color, then into the oven they go. Surely these would satisfy all of the judges.

[center][b]Day 2 [s]Sunday[/s] I mean Monday lol[/b] [url=https://www1.flightrising.com/dragon/75573821][img]https://www1.flightrising.com/rendern/avatars/755739/75573821.png[/img][/url][url=https://www1.flightrising.com/dragon/85074958][img]https://www1.flightrising.com/rendern/avatars/850750/85074958.png[/img][/url][url=https://www1.flightrising.com/dragon/85672154][img]https://www1.flightrising.com/rendern/avatars/856722/85672154.png[/img][/url] [/center] “Hold it please!” A bright Coatl sprinted into the kitchen station, “You can’t cook with these bees, bees are friends!” She took the jar containing the bees and opened it. A quick burst of light and any dead bees around were revived. The Honeybees, sensing an act of grace, flew out of the jar in an orderly fashion and joined the swarm of bees already surrounding Limelight. Satisfied, Limelight left, leaving Mochi with the remaining three ingredients. [quote=Day 2] Use at least [b]THREE[/b] of the following ingredients in your entry: [center] [item= Ruby-Throated Hummingbird][item=][item= Fishy Cotton Candy][item= Longneck winter rations] Ruby-Throated Hummingbird / [s]Honeybee[/s] / Fishy Cotton Candy / Longneck winter rations [/center] [/quote] “Welp. Sorry about that Mochi. You know how she can be: gathering bees and bringing dead things back life.” Limelight’s father, Reishi approached the kitchen station. “So! I guess I’ll be helping you out today! Only if you need it of course. What do you want to do? There sure are a lot of [i]sweeeeet[/i] ingredients.” Mochi thought about it. The purple Imperial with big wings had mentioned cakes, cupcakes and ice cream. Maybe that’s what she wants? Mochi already baked a pie yesterday, so ice cream perhaps. And ice cream is yummy… ice cream it is! Mochi bravely watched as Reishi made tiny stripes of Hummingbird meat. She then topped it with cotton candy and put it in the oven to make candied ‘bacon’. As it baked and cooled, they worked on the base for the ice cream. Once again [gamedb item=51956] were used, mixed with a simple custard that she had learned from watching Stroh make ice cream one summer day. When that too was ready, they folded all the ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. (Should be good for one Imperial, like a sample of ice cream.) Butter ice cream with fish candy, candied Hummingbird, crumbled Longneck Winter Rations and a good amount of salt, much to the delight of Reishi and the other clan members watching. [center]To think Mochi would understand that salt is important in ice cream! [/center] [right]”I’m so proud of you, Mochi!!” Uncle Nighti yelled in the spectator stand.[/right] With some assistance, they put it in the fridge to set and decided to wander around, seeing what the other contestants were making. (Just before presenting, a smirking Reishi sprinkled some Honeycomb Fragment at the top.) [center]-———-———-[/center] “Saaaay,[url=https://www1.flightrising.com/forums/qnc/3218251/7#post_53786632] that team looks familiar[/url]. Team Gible? Gabite? Gar- Ah!! Team Gilded Giblets!! They kicked our butts last year.” Reishi smiled fondly and gave them a big wave. “HOW YOU DOING?! IT’S BEEN A WHILE!!” [right]@Jeevas - [url=https://www1.flightrising.com/forums/qnc/3322493/5#post_56455511]Clove is so fascinating![/url] I love reading about Amber Eaters and Weavers. Gotta keep Limelight’s bees away from her haha. [/right]