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Cooking. A skill integral to cultures and human civilization. Regardless of time period or cultural practice, people ate which meant that people cooked. Dishes and recipes holding not just importance for sustenance but also emotional and cultural value. Homemade meals had become a regular and sometimes expected showing of love and care, which is exactly why Mary decided to prepare a wonderful dinner for Riri and herself. There was only one problem, Mary couldn't cook for shit.
"You are making this entirely more difficult that it actually is" Kira complained. She'd rather begrudgingly agreed to teach Mary how to prepare Riri's favorite meal and she was very quickly regretting it.
"How about I just prepare it and you take the credit, I don't even mind"
"No, absolutely not. I'm going to make my girlfriend a home cooked meal with your help…" Kira rolled her eyes, "…..no matter how long it takes"
"We're gonna be here forever" Kira murmured.
A couple hours, dirtied dishes and burnt pots later and Mary's cooking skills had not increased at all, it might've even regressed. As they left the kitchen in a terrible mess, Kira felt a little bad for the house pet who was gonna clean it all up.
Mary had five days to conjure up culinary skills that seemed to be non existent. In hindsight she probably should've given herself more time to prepare but she had greatly overestimated her abilities. She knew she couldn't cook but she didn't know she was this bad. She seriously considered taking Kira up on her offer but she just couldn't, while it would be easier and save her a lot of stress, she needed to do this herself. Riri deserved it, she was amazing in every sense of the word and she deserved to eat a meal not prepared by her, a meal made with love by someone who loved her. Mary would do anything for Riri, and that included learning how to cook in a relatively short amount of time.
The meal she had chosen was Solyanka, a Russian soup that Riri had raved about to Mary after returning from a trip back home a year prior. She talked about how much she loved the meal and how it was one of the few things that made the trip tolerable. It seemed simple in theory.
All Mary had to do was first make a spice sachet by adding the bay leaves, peppercorns, and allspice in a square of cheesecloth. Tie with a long piece of butcher's twine, then using the ends of the butcher's twine, tie the sachet onto the handle of a large soup pot so that the sachet hangs into the pot. After which she would, add the water and beef base to the soup pot and bring to a boil. Add the shredded cabbage and chopped celery and return to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Then, heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the onions and carrots and sauté until translucent. Add the sausage, chicken, ham, pickles, and tomato paste. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 2 minutes. Transfer to the soup pot. The next step was for her to, add the stewed tomatoes, sliced olives, and capers, and bring it barely to a boil. Add the wine and simmer gently for 20 minutes. Then she would need to, remove the sachet and discard. Adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper if necessary. Final step would be to ladle the soup into hot bowls and garnish with the sour cream and dill and serve hot.
It should've been easy for her to do, which was why it was incredibly infuriating that she couldn't. She wasn't asking to all of a sudden become a Michelin star chef, she just wanted to make one meal, one single meal for her girlfriend. Trials the next day didn't go to plan, neither did it on the day after that or the day after that but to Kira's exasperated surprise, Mary was actually getting better.
She ran it incredibly close but on the day of the date, she finally did it. After getting Kira's seal of approval that it was "ingestible", she left to get ready for the date. Thinking back on how much ingredients they had gone through, she was extremely greatful that Kira decided to cover the cost. The entire experience had felt like a bonding experience for her and Kira, although neither of them would admit that.
Evening arrived and Mary headed to Riri's dorm ahead of their date. She'd used the same room Riri had for their first date on the night of the bet gala. She found it fitting as it was the anniversary of their first date. She figured it would be hard to match the decorations, lights and general ambience that Riri had delivered on that day but she did a pretty good job.
She arrived at Riri's dorm at 7pm sharp, the time she had told Riri she would be there. Riri, ever punctual was ready and waiting for her to be whisked away and whisked away she was just like she did Mary for their first date. She noted the way Riri's eyes widened in mild surprised as they walked into the room.
"You did all this" Riri's soft voice inquired as Mary walked to her to and pull out her seat.
"Of course baby" even after all this time, Riri still struggled to believe that people even Mary could do nice things for her no strings attached. Mary hated that even after his death, Arkadi still had this lingering effect of Riri but she was much better with this than a year ago and they were still working on it. After Riri took her seat, she proceeded to reveal the meal she had prepared.
The smile on Riri's face as she saw the meal was all the gratification that Mary needed. Mary noticed that Riri was waiting for her to take her seat but she wanted Riri to taste the meal first before she did.
"Eat" she implored, almost hesitantly. At that, Riri had a taste.
"This is so good" and at that Mary finally took her seat at the table.
"Did you make this?"
"I had some help but yeah"
"Is this what you and Kira were busy with all week"
"Yeah"
"Well it's amazing, even better than the one I had back home"
"Always with flattery"
Hours later after a wonderful date, Riri and Mary were cuddled up in Riri's dorm,just enjoying being in each other's arms.
"I can't believe it's been a whole year since our first date" Mary broke the silence, "I still remember standing in that hall, with a growing feeling of disappointment that you might have stood me up"
"I would never. Every god in every pantheon couldn't stop me from showing up for you" Riri placed a kiss on the top of her head.
"I know baby, I know" Mary snuggled further into Riri.
"Babe" Mary spoke again after a couple of minutes of silence.
"Hm?"
"I think I'll leave the cooking to you from now" that drew a hearty chuckle from Riri.
"But you did so good today"
"If only you knew how that 'good' came about"
"I think I have an idea"
"Which means you'll understand why I'm leaving it to you"
"It's no problem. I love cooking for you, В конце концов, ты — моя опора"