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“Come here, come sit.” Peeta says, gesturing towards the kitchen. “You don’t have to do anything; you can just watch.”
He pulls a chair out for Katniss and pats the seat of it, then pushes it in towards the kitchen island once she sits down. Katniss leans forward and places her elbows on the counter, with her chin resting on the palms of her hands.
“Okay, so first you’ll want to get out two medium sized mixing bowls,” Peeta says, using his best cooking show host accent, as he pulls two bowls out of one of their cupboards. Katniss nods and gives a small “uh huh” as she watches him. He places both bowls on the island, and shoves one off to the side. “Now you’ll need two eggs, some butter, some sugar, and some vanilla,” He opens the fridge and pulls out the eggs, then places them on the counter next to the bowl. Once he’s done with that, he grabs a bag of white sugar, a bag of brown sugar, a jar of freshly made butter, and a bottle of vanilla extract out of the pantry and sets them on the counter next to the eggs and butter.
“Alright, we’ll want to measure some of this stuff, right?” he asks, looking at Katniss.
“Well, probably,” She replies lazily.
Peeta nods then opens a drawer and pulls out their measuring cups. He shuffles through them, setting a few different sized measuring cups and a measuring spoon on the counter, then puts the rest back in the drawer. He opens another drawer and pulls out a spoon.
“Okay, we’re going to need one cup of white sugar,” he says as he opens the bag of sugar, scoops some out, then lifts his arm into the air and dramatically dumps the sugar into one of the mixing bowls. Katniss lets out a small chuckle, and Peeta smiles as he continues moving onto the next step. “Next, half a cup of brown sugar,” he grabs a different measuring cup, opens the bag of brown sugar, and sticks the cup into the bag. He pats the cup through the outside of the bag, packing in as much brown sugar as he can, then removes the cup and dumps the brown sugar into the bowl.
“Now, butter,” he opens the jar of butter and dips the spoon in. He taps a few spoonsful of butter into the measuring cup, carefully patting each spoonful into an even layer, until the measuring cup is full. He then uses the spoon to get all of the butter out of the measuring cup and into the bowl with the sugar. He grabs a large wooden spoon out of a utensil holder and begins mixing the butter and the sugar until it’s all mixed together smoothly. He then adds the two eggs and the vanilla extract and continues mixing until everything is well combined.
“We don’t want to overmix it,” he says, setting the spoon down and exchanging the mixing bowl with the other empty mixing bowl. Katniss sticks a fingertip onto the wooden spoon and gets some of the dough on her finger, then licks it off. Peeta feigns shock and picks up the spoon, pointing it at Katniss and waving it around as if she’s done something wrong. They both laugh, and Peeta sneaks a bit of the dough off the spoon to taste it himself.
“Peeta!” Katniss exclaims, and now it’s her turn to act shocked and wave the spoon.
“Okay, calm down everyone, I’m trying to teach here,” Peeta says, smiling as he does a “calm down” gesture with his hands. He walks over to the sink with the dirty measuring cups, washes them, dries them off, then walks back to the island. “Now we need flour, baking soda, and salt,” he heads back into the pantry and returns with the ingredients. “Two and a half cups of flour,” He says, Katniss nodding along, as he opens the bag of flour, then scoops two cups out, one at a time, and dumps the flour into the bowl. He grabs the other measuring cup and finishes scooping the last of the needed flour.
He takes the two measuring cups and leaves them in the sink, then grabs the measuring spoon. “One teaspoon of baking soda,” he opens the box of powder, sticks in the spoon, then adds the powder to the bowl. “And last but not least, two teaspoons of salt!” he exclaims, sighing as if this has been the most challenging task of his life. He measures out the two teaspoons of salt, adds it into the bowl, then grabs a whisk and mixes everything together.
“Then, we add the dry ingredients,” he points to Katniss with a smirk, “in with the wet ingredients,” then points to himself. Katniss puts a hand on her chest and opens her mouth in disbelief.
“What does that mean!?” she asks, offended.
“Oh, nothing.” Peeta says in a singsong voice. Although much better now, Katniss can still be closed off and cold towards people some days. She pretends to be hurt, but they both know it wasn’t a jab at her and quickly end up giggling.
Peeta pours the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ingredients and sets the now empty bowl aside. He grabs the wooden spoon again and mixes everything together, then wipes his hands on his apron once he’s done. “I think that’s everything, then,” Peeta says.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Katniss asks, looking at Peeta expectantly.
Peeta puts a hand on his chin and looks around. “Hmm, I don’t think so... Flour, eggs, sugar..,” he continues listing off the ingredients, “Nope, that’s everything!” he says, then begins cleaning up a bit, acting oblivious. Katniss stands up and walks into the pantry, then returns with a small bag in her hands.
“Oh, the chocolate chips! Of course, how could I forget the chocolate chips in my chocolate chip cookies?” He holds back a laugh, continuing to act serious. He cuts the bag open and dumps the chocolate chips into the bowl, then begins mixing them in with the dough. He lets out an exaggerated “phew” every few stirs, occasionally wiping non-existent sweat off of his forehead with the inside of his arm, and Katniss smiles and rolls her eyes at his dramatics. Once the chocolate chips are well incorporated, he pulls out a large baking sheet and lines it with parchment paper.
“Okay, we’re almost done folks!” he says, bringing back his host voice and holding the bowl of dough up to a camera that isn’t there. He grabs a tablespoon and gets a heaping spoonful of dough, then places it onto the baking sheet. He does so until the sheet is full, then puts the sheet in the oven. He sets their kitchen timer to 8 minutes, then sits down on the chair next to Katniss.
“Are you feeling better now?” he asks, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
“A little bit, I think I’ll be all better once I get one of those cookies in my hands.” she replies, smiling and leaning into him. He laughs then plants a few small kisses on the top of her head. Katniss closes her eyes and nearly falls asleep in the 8 minutes the cookies take to bake. She startles when the timer rings out, but quickly settles down when Peeta shushes her and gives her one more kiss before getting up to pull the cookies out of the oven.
Peeta lets the cookies rest on the sheet for a minute, then transfers them to a cooling rack on the counter. Katniss waits impatiently, then after a couple of minutes leans over and grabs a, now cooled but still warm, cookie off the rack. She takes a bite and closes her eyes as she hums in contentment.
“Are they good?” Peeta asks as he finishes putting balls of dough onto the cookie sheet.
“The best, thank you.” Katniss replies, then grabs another cookie off the rack as Peeta joins her in tasting the cookies.