Quests & Challenges

[url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=33070705] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/330708/33070705_350.png[/img] [/url] It was already day three, and things were not going Hecate's way. Her forehead was wrinkled from stress, and she was muttering under her breath every step of the way. Listening to Gourmet and seeing bugs on the counter definitely didn't help. Hecate sighed to herself as she slowly pushed herself to the pantry. She wasn't exactly sure what she was looking for, but she began grabbing a few things including: pancetta, a pear, goat cheese, butter, pepper and salt. Hecate looked at everything in her hands, and shrugged her shoulders. She had never tried a recipe like this one, but she was down to try something new. She begun by extracting the honey from the honeycomb, thanks to sci-fi looking machine from the Lightning flight. She then took a bit of that honey, butter, and salt and threw those things into a pan. She then added both bugs, sautéing them for a few minutes before setting those things to the side. She then arranged the pancetta on a baking sheet, and shoved them into the oven for about 10 minutes. While waiting for those to be done, she cored her pears and sliced the vertically before placing them on plates to be served to the judges. She then grabbed the pancetta, and placed one slice on each of the pear pieces. Hecate then topped the pancetta with goat cheese, pepper, honey, and lastly the roasted bugs. Hecate stepped back and looked at her dish. Once again she shrugged, sweet and salty was always good right?

[center][url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=22321846][img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/223219/22321846_350.png[/img][/url][/center] "Hhmmm, bugs are tricky," ButtsPie mused as he looked over the day's ingredients, "there's not a whole lot to work with." His first thought was to do some cookies, but that's what he had done with bugs last year and he didn't think a repeat performance would impress the judges. No, he was better off trying something new. [i]Something new...something new.[/i] What could you do with honey and bugs? [i]Well...the honey and bugs together could make a nice filling.[/i] "Oh! Yes, that's an idea!" He could make some dumplings. [item=honeycomb fragment][item=nymph][item=honeybee][item=sunflower seeds] First things first, he would get his filling together. ButtsPie extracted as much honey from the honeycombs as he could. Then he made sure to remove the stingers from the bees before carefully folding the bugs into the honey, so they would remain whole. When the bugs all looked lovely and amber-trapped he set the filling aside. Once again, making dough was routine at this point. Having some pre-made would shave off some time, he supposed, but that would just as much take the fun out of it. It was mixed before he knew it anyway. He rolled his dough nice and thin and cut little circles out of it. The dog yipped at him from its place under the counter. "Hey." ButtsPie said, ducking his head down. "What did I say?" Toby sat looking up at him, tail wagging and panting. "Good. You keep quiet." He slipped the pup another morsel of ram meat. He carefully spooned his sweet filling into the dumplings one by one. Each one he folded shut and tried to pinch the open edge closed in an artful manner. When his pile of little pockets was complete he set them all in a pot to boil for a few minutes. ButtsPie watched the rising steam thoughtfully. It was a nice dish, but if he could add something else it would be better. He recalled a kind of sunflower seed cake one of his clanmates had helped him make. The Tundra had called it something like "halva". That would pair well with the dumplings, he bet. He grabbed some sunflower seeds, a [i]lot[/i] of sunflower seeds, and set about crushing them into a powder. When he was satisfied with the consistency he added some leftover bug-less honey, water, and let that boil as well. The smell of it was...certainly something, as it cooked. Thankfully it did not take long for the mixture to reach its boiling point, and ButtsPie quickly took it off and poured the liquid into a small pan. His dumplings were done too. Once he got them strained and on a plate he couldn't help sprinkling some chocolate chips on top, watching them melt on the hot surface. ButtsPie had to magic his sunflower seed cake into cooling on time, packing it down with a spatula as he did so. When it was finally done he carefully worked it out of the pan and next to the dumplings. [size=2](thanks to my housemate for inspiring today's foods!)[/size]

((Heads up: Today was a pretty long and not so great day at work, so responses might have a tendency to skew pretty short, especialy as the evening goes on. I'm hoping it was just a one day thing and everything will be back to normal tomorrow after a good night's rest)) [center][url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=13027766] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/130278/13027766_350.png[/img] [/url][/center] @LiveSky Meringue picks up a spoon and goes to dive in...only to have the metal stop suddenly against the ice cream. Frowning she raps the utensil against it...only to find it rock solid. "....Too frozen," she says, wondering how this managed to happen in a rather short length of time. While this did dock a lot of points, Meringue picked the bowl up to carry over to a neighboring dragon's stove and held it over the hot burner for a short period of time. Thsi allowed a little bit of the ice cream to thaw enough she could get a spoonful and sample it. The flavors at least were spot on. @Lonefox Mora's clan just wasn't faring well with the contest and seemed to be attracting freak accidents to them. This time, meringue was getting ready to serve herself an offered slice of pie, when a several round objects fell from the sky, smashing into the pie and sending both pie filling and colored dust splattering everywhere. High above them in the Cloudsong, a competitor in the Cloudsong Color rush curses under his breath as he looses another one of his color fruits as it goes falling off the edge of the platform. Back on the ground, Gourmet hurries over to the now sticky, dusty and stunned dragons and offers towels to them both. "We'll...we'll send you home some snacks," she promises Mora, "Lets just get you cleaned up first." @argylion Unfortunately for Ville, he was Mora's neighbor and suffered from the accidental missile as well. While he avoided the jam, the dust cloud from the color fruit was large enough that it enveloped his muffins, rendering them inedible. @browncoatparadox Not only were Lup's macarons delicious, but they were also the first meringue based entry that had been perfectly cooked! [i]"That is a baller cookie."[/i] She had to pause for a second and blink at what she'd just hummed, as she was pretty sure she'd never used the phrase 'baller' in her life, but it just seemed to fit the macarons that well. [i]"If I had one complaint, it's that they're a little flat. The egg whites could have done with some more beating before adding in the sugar."[/i] ((Excuse me while I just sit here stunned at how the RNG gods seem to really dislike most of the day 2 entries...THEN FREAKING TAAKO'S RECIPE (even if Lup was the one making it) GETS THE HIGHEST SCORE IN THE GAME SO FAR!)) @riseandshine Calore's choice to borrow Rubato's alchemical tools for cooking didn't turn out to be the best ideas. While Meringue wasn't poisoned, there apparentaly had still been a bit of previous experiments left on one of them, and the ice cream had half turned to muck by the time Meringue got around to sampling. "Tea good," she said eagerly, finishing her beaker, "but that...is...?" She felt there were no words in either common or coatl that could describe the former ice cream. It was edible at least, but the taste and texture were all kinds of screwy. ((I have had soda floats of all sorts and cider floats both alcoholic and non...but never a tea float! I have no idea if this is a real thing but thanks to your post I now want to try experimenting to see if it could work)) @ArtemisAgrotera Philophrosyne and Soteria's fell victim to yet another unexpected 'gift' straight from the Cloudsong. Yet another color fruit lost by a competitor of the Color Run squashes the Turkish Delight flat in addition to coating it all in colored dust, disappointing Meringue as she was eager to see if these were as good as the ones from earlier in the day. With a sigh she signals to Gourmet, who's already hurrying over with more packed lunches and towels after seeing the puff of dust pop up from the crowd. @queenmedusozoa ((This isn't a judging post for you but I just wanted to say thank you for providing me with 'ammo' so to speak for low scoring entries this year with the Color Run XD))

@Eialyne
LOL your welcome ;) And thank you for the free advertisements haha

(I'm glad someone shares my love of tea eggs ;) but i gagged at the thought of floral/sweet flavored eggs lol) After Meringue's appraisal of Trey's dish, he strutted over with leftovers to Aretha. "I'm [i]good[/i]," He smirked, smugly lifting his chin. "Bet you didn't see that coming." "Yeah, yeah, whatever." Aretha stated while scarfing down the rose tea eggs and blueberry-rose jam. "You still made me food, so." "You're just jealous because you can't cook as good as me," Trey said condescendingly, but Aretha just barked out a laugh. "Yeah right! You got a good score because you chose the easiest recipe to cook! Anyone can boil [i]eggs[/i]." Aretha shot back, swinging her pearl in the air for dramatic effect. "Like you can do any better." "Watch me." [url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=32484240] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/324843/32484240_350.png[/img] [/url] Honeycomb Fragment / Nymph / Honeybee Strangely, cooking was just as unpredictable as practical jokes were for Aretha. This befuddled the young clairvoyant, since it's so formulaic most of the time, but with all the accidents that befell many contestants before her, Aretha could almost understand why. Fortunately, Aretha was able to push back her visions of the possible future and focus on the present. She spotted Trey sitting in the sidelines looking absolutely bored, and rolled her eyes. Aretha could really only cook one complicated dish, but she liked to think that it was a good one. It seemed like fate was on her side when it was revealed that honey was one of the required ingredients, and she quickly got to work. On the other side of the stone slab, she found a great salmon, and rushed back to her work space and laid it out on a cutting board. Aretha found a sharp knife and started to carefully fillet the fish. When she was done, she had two large pieces of salmon. She looked around for salt, and found an entire bag. Filling up a deep pot with water (possibly the one that Trey used the previous day), Aretha added in the salt until the water was completely saturated. She then dunked the two salmon pieces into the pot, and let them sit for a while to cure. Next, Aretha went to find some mustard. She went around the slab about five times before she discovered it right next to her station. Trey's laugh carried through the air. Gritting her teeth in annoyance, Aretha remained on task, and mixed a large portion of the mustard with equal amounts of honey from the [b]Honeycombs[/b], and added in chopped dill and roughly grinded [b]Honeybees[/b] to add more flavour and texture to the sauce. She covered the bowl and placed it to the side. Aretha went back to her salmon and pulled the pieces out before transferring them onto a plate. She then went to a firepit- [i]Not the closer one, that one might explode soon. The third one to the left is safe.[/i] -and placed her pieces of salmon onto a flat wire rack, close to the flame but not close enough for the fire to touch the fish. Aretha then added a couple of fresh leaves to the fire, which caused the fire to smoke even more. Smoked salmon was best if left to dry for a day before smoking, but Aretha had less than a day. She will have to make do. Aretha also gathered up the [b]Nymphs[/b] and tossed them into a small skillet. She added a very minuscule amount of butter onto the pan until placing it onto the same rack her salmon were on. As the Pearlcatcher was roasting her Nymphs, a strong wind blew again, and sent smoke directly into her eyes. Aretha stumbled back, holding her claws over her face. Her eyes watered, and she shut them open and closed in an attempt to soothe them. She hobbled over as best as she could with her foggy vision to a faucet and put her entire head under it to wash out her eyes as best as she could. After she could properly see again, Aretha headed back to her fire pit, though this time she stayed about a wing beat away, and poked her dish with a large spatula probably built for an Imperial. Her Nymphs were finished roasting so Aretha brought them off the fire, but flipped over her salmon pieces for them to smoke evenly. She then went back to her workbench, and dumped her Nymphs into a bowl. Aretha then took a portion of her honey mustard mix and poured it into the bowl with the Nymphs, and tossed the roasted pupae in the mixture. She then went back to her salmon and decided they were smoked for long enough, and took them off the fire. Aretha brought her salmon back to her work station and placed them onto a clean cutting board. She cut an opening down the side of the salmon, but not all the way, and stuffed the smoked salmon with the honey mustard-covered Nymphs. She did the same thing with the other fillet, and placed them both artfully on a plate. She then drizzled the remaining honey mustard onto the salmon, and topped it off with more dill. Her work done, Aretha looked around for the judge of the day. She hoped that the Tundra would appreciate a specialty from the Southern Icefields, even if he was form the Viridian Labyrinth. She saw him approach and quickly brushed her cooking utensils to the side, making her work bench look presentable. Aretha wasn't too worried about her chances, from what she could see she would do moderately well, though there was an ominous future of a round object sailing from the sky and onto her dish, splattering colored powder everywhere. Aretha frowned and shook that vision from her mind. The judge had reached her table and Aretha smiled and presented her dish. "Hi! This is my dish, smoked salmon stuffed with honey mustard-covered nymphs, topped with more honey mustard,"Aretha stood up proudly. "A little modified recipe from my old home in the Southern Icefields."

((Addendum to my previous OOC coments regarding shorter responses tonight [s]which is turning out less true than I suspected[/s]: I'm apparently also being quite lazy with the low score responses ">> Once again I'm hoping I'll be able to bounce back to some more varied ideas after tonight)) [center][url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=23198461] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/231985/23198461_350.png[/img] [/url][/center] @Shougoney ((Don't worry Diesel! I can't tell you when it's coming but rest assured all four food groups are represented to some extent this week :3 )) Listening to the judge's critique from yesterday apparent was just what Diesel needed to up his score (or it was just flat out a tastier dish anyways) as Ursus was all over the dish, munching on honeycomb by the pawful. "I admit, it's a little unnerving since with the way you prepared the nymphs it almost seems like I'm just eating slabs straight out of my hives that are occupied by larvae," he remarked (though he certainly wasn't showing any sort of discomfort), but this is delicious. You must really know your honey to not only know that there's different varieties depending on where the hive is located, but to pick two varieties that compliment each other perfectly." @Daemonengrau While the Cloudsong isn't directly above them today, the wind is still gusty enough that stray color fruits still keep finding their way near the Mistral Meals clearing. Never-the-less, Gourmet is still now primed thanks to yesterday with cleaning supplies and new and improved "We-are-sorry-your-dish-is-now-covered-in-multicolored-dust-we've-never-had-this-problem-before-and-clearly-didn't-think-things-through-despite-knowing-about-the-other-event" apology lunchboxes, so when one ball manages to actually land in a dish this time she's there in an instant to pass them out to Cadie and Marcie (due to her size, the Imperial wasn't quite as bad off as the Wildclaw who'd found herself practically enveloped by the resulting dustcloud). "Is this another reason you went with that outfit?" Gourmet asked Ursus while the contestants were wiping themselves down. "....Yes. Yes it is," the tundra lied, pretending that had been part of his plan all along. @Deladria Ursus had noticed the look Caramelloth had given the supplied honeycomb and grinned, making a note to bring it up when he went back to sample her dish (a literal note on a notepad...he had a better memory than the average Tundra, but small and unimportant details tended to slip away from him pretty easily). "You work with honey, don't you?" He grinned at the guardian the moment she presented her dish. "I didn't expect anyone else to notice the quality at first glance, but with the quantity of ingredients we have to stockpile for this event sometimes quality has to be sacrificed a bit for the sake of the almighty budget." Realizing he probably shouldn't get sucked into a way too in-depth discussion of honey varieties and their taste vs. price this early in the day he quickly sampled some of Caramelloth's stir-fry to get on with the judging. "Not bad," he said, mulling it over, "I wouldn't have thought shirmp would have worked well with the other ingredients but it does. Your seasoning's a bit too all over the place though." @IngeniousSpark Fun fact about Tundras: Due to their origins in the Southern Icefields, a fair number of them were immune to the head pains typically known as "brain freeze" when eating cold foods. Despite growing up, quite literally, on the other side of the continent from his ancestral home, Ursus had thought all his life that he was one of these. At least until he encountered Dia's ice cream. Whether because it was too cold, he ate it too fast, or something else entirely, Ursus found himself incapable of issuing a verdict as he leaned against the counter, head in his paws and groaning as he waited for the pain to subside. ((You and LiveSky might end up competing for who has the longest bad luck streak)) @SilverQuark "I love the way you prepared the nymphs," Ursus praised Perenelle, helping himself to another mouthful of the pancakes, "I wasn't aware you could get them to this sort of consistency, let alone using them as a butter substitute." He could think of a fair number of dragons back home who'd be interested in bug butter with their meals if either he or one of his co-workers could develop the knack for making it. "But the pancakes themselves a bit inconsistant," he pointed out, "Still perfectly edible, but some seem to have still slightly gooey centers compared to the rest. You weren't distracted while multi-tasking were you?" @Skyfire7 One of the perks to the beekeepers outfit was that it was pretty difficult to see Ursus' face unless you were right up close to him. As a result he was pretty sure the spiral hadn't noticed that he had spotted her nicking supplies. [i]Hmmm...[/i] But all sorts passed through Wayfarer's Rest (and the permanent members were a rather eclectic bunch as well), so he started to form a hunch about her. The Tundra wouldn't know if he was right until he got around for the judging, but if he was wrong...[i]Well it wouldn't be the firs time silly ol' Ursus misplaced some supplies.[/i] Her...gruel? Faux mashed potatoes? Babyfood? wasn't terribly impressive. It wasn't all that bad though and Ursus did help himself to a second spoonful, but rather then commenting to her about flavor or techniques he instead told her "I think you want to make trail mix." He held up a paw before she could respond and lowered his voice just slightly. Enough that he couldn't be easily overheard, but still loud enough that it didn't look like he was being suspicious if someone did get too close. "Something that quite a few contestants don't realize about this event is that they're allowed to make as much of their dish as they can carry to share with their friends and families if they want to. Which is why I think you want to take a shot at [i]raw ingredient[/i] trail mix since you haven't submitted a dish for judging yet." He subtly shoved the mush into a bin next to the counter...he hadn't commented on it so it hadn't been judged and therefor didn't count towards the "one dish per day" rule. "By the way, your clan dropped these off for you," he said, dropping a couple extra satchels on the counter, one of which had a name embroidered on it but the stitches had been half ripped off only leaving behind '-r--s.' "I mean I don't know why they didn't wait until after you were done with your trail mix but who am I to judge the ways of someone else's family?" ((*hopes it's obvious what the plan Ursus is hinting at is* ^^;; Hitting the right balance of being clear but also secritive was tricky))

[center][url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=13278138] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/132782/13278138_350.png[/img] [/url][/center] Ezekiel flutters down to the competition area, muttering something to himself about [i]reckless sons[/i]. He brightens noticeably as he notices the day's ingredients. "Well, I suppose it couldn't hurt...won't take long...I [i]am[/i] a bit peckish..." He continues to mutter excuses as he gathers ingredients. Eggs, flour, water, minced garlic, mustard seeds, and bacon, plus the three ingredients themselves. He plucks out the stingers and removes the wings, testing a few of the [b]honeybees[/b] raw for crunch. The [b]nymphs[/b] are carefully cleaned and tasted, and he finds them juicy and giving--great complimentary textures, if he can get the fry time right. He renders the bacon fat and shamelessly gorges on the finished strips, saving only a few to be ground down to something almost like dust. This is mixed with the flour, water, eggs, and garlic, plus a bit of salt and pepper. The result is a light tempeh batter. He dunks the insects in and fries them up, then grinds the mustard seed and mixes it with [b]honey[/b] to make a dipping sauce. Most of the sauce and insects both are gone before they reach the judging plate. He looks a bit embarrassed about the whole thing.

[url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=36605656] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/366057/36605656_350.png[/img] [/url] Lup pumped her fist at Meringue's comments, filing the comment about the egg whites for later. Just because she was probably one of the most baller chefs on this whole plane of existence didn't mean she wasn't open to constructive criticism. The next day, she looked over the bugs with mild disgust. Plants and meat she could deal with, especially if they were prepared properly, but bugs? She shook her head. She would go simple for this round- a nice spinach salad with honey and roasted bugs. She didn't want to wear herself out before the end of the festival. To start, she strained out one of her pieces of honeycomb, putting the sweet liquid to the side for later use. She drizzled a little bit of it over her nymphs and honeybees, throwing some finely ground golden peppers on top of it for flavor. She placed them in the oven to roast for fifteen minutes. Once they were done, she took them out and put a tray of sliced almonds in to toast. She then moved onto the salad itself, now that her toppings had been completed. Lup started off with a bed of spinach, then added in her almonds and some sliced strawberries. The cheese came next, along with several small pieces of honeycomb. Finally, she added the roasted nymphs and honeybees. Lup paused, then turned back to the leftover honey. She needed to put together her dressing. She mixed together balsamic vinegar, mustard, pepper, garlic, and the honey together in a bowl, and then poured it over the salad. Feeling confident, she used her magic to levitate the salad up and down to toss it together. She plated the dish in a small glass bowl, but it seemed too plain. Frowning, she looked around until she found a small wooden platter. She placed her salad bowl on top of that, but she still felt like she needed a side dish for it. Looking around, she found some tea leaves and decided to brew iced tea to go with the dish. She placed the leaves in her water, steeped them until it was slightly overdone, and then left it to cool. Once it was at room temperature, she added water and ice, placing the jug and a full glass garnished with a golden strawberry on the platter next to the salad, a small bowl holding what was left over of her honey to be added as needed. Lup sat back, satisfied with her entry. It wasn't the same level as Taako's Baller Macarons (TM), but she was sure that this dish was going to wow the judge again.

[url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=39664591] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/396646/39664591_350.png[/img] [/url] Xylocopa couldn't help it; her nose leaf wrinkled disdainfully at the sight of the golden-yellow honeycomb. [i]Blue is so much easier to work with...and has a much more refined aftertaste, at that.[/i] At least it seemed fresh-- it was still oozing nectar onto the plate. What could she possibly do with this? She took a moment to consider her options. Given the bowl of insects provided, it was certainly going to be a protein-heavy meal...why not play up that aspect of it? Some olive oil, some salt...Oh, yes, that would do just fine. With a quiet grin, she tightened her apron and began to work. She set a small pot of water to boil, adding in the dearly departed bug cadavers bit by bit as it heated. She then scooped quite a bit of honey out from beneath the honeycomb and allowed it to drip into the pot, other claw pouring in a not insignificant amount of salt, minuscule claws gripping the shaker with perhaps a bit too much determination. Throwing the shaker haphazardly to the side, she snatched a wooden spoon from the counter and stirred until the salt had fully dissolved, allowing the hapless arthropods to brine. She then strained the bugs and tossed them with more honey-- perhaps a smidge too much, she hadn't deigned to measure it-- and in the pot, combined them with a healthy dose of vinegar (wine red, of course), more honey (as if there hadn't been enough included already! Even if she personally found it distasteful, she had an inkling that the judge might enjoy it,) olive oil, and a plethora of herbs, spices, garlic, and diced onions. The picture of her, stirring the pot and pouring in ingredient after ingredient, was just a bit too reminiscent of a certain intelligent, gleeful, and utterly mad Bogsneak. With one hand she motioned for her assistant, a particularly small yellow Skydancer, to bring forth the grill, whose coals were already lit and causing a thin layer of thick black smoke to gather against the ceiling. Taking care to ensure the little bugs wouldn't fall through, she arranged them atop the grate and allowed them to char lightly. It didn't take long-- they're only insects, after all-- and she set them in a moderately sized glass bowl, sprinkling it with vinegar and tossing well. With a satisfied grin, she topped it all off with thoroughly diced Fresno chile, and sat back to admire her work. If this didn't impress the judge, well, she'd eat her hat. (She wasn't wearing one, of course, which made the bet a significantly safer one.) (I'm not used to writing at all, so I hope it turned out okay!!! It seems a bit dry, if I participate again in the coming days I'll try to make it a bit less....matter-of-fact, lol. Sorry!) [img]http://www1.flightrising.com/static/cms/food/2413.png[/img][img]http://www1.flightrising.com/static/cms/food/91.png[/img][img]http://www1.flightrising.com/static/cms/food/105.png[/img][img]http://www1.flightrising.com/static/cms/food/1129.png[/img][img]http://www1.flightrising.com/static/cms/trinket/180.png[/img][img]http://www1.flightrising.com/static/cms/trinket/1044.png[/img]