On Earth, Draden hadn’t been some prodigal cook or chef. Truthfully, he was maybe a few steps ahead of the typical single male, since he did cook for himself. He also spent a decent amount of time on the internet looking through recipes that he believed he had the ability to cook.

  Some stuck in his mind, most hadn’t, but qi had a way of sharpening the mind and his memory was always better after eating or drinking something from Earth.

  It wasn’t a perfect method, as proven by the issues he had with the pudding, but it did help him remember nearly everything he needed for the recipe.

  In this case, working on the pudding and constantly taste-testing it helped him to remember a snack his mother used to make when he was a kid. They were infinitely simple to make as he had watched her make them dozens, if not hundreds, of times as a child. The lack of complicated ingredients would also allow him to swap things out and add items to it as needed.

  It was the perfect snack.

  He couldn’t believe he had forgotten about it for so long. Then again, the snack and memories associated with it were heavily associated with his mother. Maybe it wasn’t too surprising. She had always been the one who understood him best, who kept his autism bearable. When they learned about her cancer, everything changed.

  Draden had a lot of regrets from those days. He hadn’t been able to control himself or his actions. That is something a lot of people just didn’t seem to understand. People with autism couldn’t always control themselves. When they acted out or said certain things, it wasn’t necessarily them who were doing those things. To say they were possessed wouldn’t be far from the truth, because that is what it felt like looking back. As though someone else had taken over his body and his mouth.

  It didn’t happen often, and it got better as he got older and gained more control of himself, but by then the damage had been done. His mother had died due to the cancer, and he had said things that he could never take back.

  Yeah, it was no surprise that he had forgotten about this snack. The memories it brought back were a little on the dark side.

  His hands stilled as he found himself dwelling on the dark memories. He had thought he had made peace with everything years ago, the benefit of memories dulling with time. Maybe he even had, but having the memories brought back in full like this undid any progress he had made.

  All he could do for the next few minutes was stand there while tears flowed down his cheeks in self-recrimination. It was far too late for anything to be done, and he was even in a different world now, but it didn’t make it hurt any less. His mother had been so nice and understanding, and when she needed him most, he hadn’t even been able to control himself.

  The lack of control didn’t matter to him, only the fact that he had hurt her during her final days. His own pain overriding his mouth and actions.

  With a slightly wet cough, Draden wiped his tears away, clearing his cheeks and leaving the only remnants being his red eyes.

  He wrote down the few ingredients and set about gathering them from what he had available. Until he had everything right, he wouldn’t use all Earthly items. Though he didn’t expect the process to be very hard either. From what he could remember, his mother had never followed a recipe.

  That meant the recipe was somewhat forgiving. Some recipes were like that, where slight changes in the amount of different ingredients wouldn’t affect the taste or texture overly much. Other recipes, on the other hand, could be absolutely ruined by the slightest deviation.

  The recipe required two items he didn’t have but could easily make. Almond flour and almond butter. The recipe also needed dates and vanilla extract, or some other form of vanilla.

  From there, he just needed to blend everything together and roll the resulting mixture into balls. Once that was done, they could be stuck in the refrigerator to harden. It really was an easy recipe.

  Making almond flour was slightly annoying, since he needed to use a mortar and pestle instead of a simple blender. Still, even that step wasn’t too bad.

  A few minutes later, the snack was done, and ready to be refrigerated.

  He set it to the side and grabbed the pudding. It had been cooling for a few minutes now and he wanted to see which version was closest to proper pudding. He had made nearly a dozen tiny batches, changing the amount of an ingredient each time.

  There were certain things he was sure he had gotten correct, such as the amount of butter and number of egg yolks, among other things. That made the number of modifications he needed to perform far less than it would have otherwise been.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Number eight was perfect in his opinion and was the version that he would be using going forward. He carefully increased the ratio of ingredients to what was needed for a full recipe and then made it again.

  In separate saucepans, he made a few different fruit syrups, one with a little bit of sugar added to it for fun. It probably wasn’t needed, but he wanted to see if it made any difference. When his mother used to make the strawberry mixture for strawberry shortcake, this was how she did it. Lots of whole strawberries, some cut, some crushed, and then some sugar to mix with the juices they let out.

  It might just make everything sweeter or do something else, he didn’t know, so he did it.

  While those were cooling, he began working on the ingredients for the chicken wraps and chicken gyros with tzatziki sauce. He would be introducing those two items that night, and it was also what their little group would be eating.

  Many of the ingredients were similar and could be used for both recipes.

  The biggest difference was that the chicken in the wraps was supposed to be breaded, crispy chicken tenders, which he would not be doing that night. It was something he might do in the future, in limited quantities. They weren’t hard to make. It was just several more steps and time, which he was trying to avoid.

  The entire point of shared ingredients was to make preparation and cooking time faster.

  Towards that end, he would be using the chicken he prepared for the gyros for the wraps as well. The chicken was meant to be marinated for up to twenty-four hours, but for at least two or three hours. Less than that and the flavor wouldn’t have time to penetrate.

  The marinade was made up of eight ingredients. Garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, Greek yogurt, oregano, salt, pepper, and then a vinegar of his choice. Unlike other recipes, this one he had fully memorized as he loved making gyros. They were one of his favorite foods back on Earth and weren’t terribly difficult to make.

  After putting together a massive batch of the marinade, he grabbed several dozen chicken thighs and breasts. The original recipe called only for chicken thighs, but honestly, with the marinade, a little extra oil, and just plain not overcooking it, he had always thought that chicken breasts were fine as well. Most people thought that had less flavor or were drier than thighs, in his humble experience that was only true if you sucked… Or maybe his tongue had just been bad on Earth.

  Who knew?

  Either way, he proceeded to butterfly all the pieces, cutting them width-wise so that when they were opened, they looked like a butterfly. Then he pounded them with a meat mallet, tenderizing and flattening the meat a little more. It was a step that wasn’t strictly needed, but he still did because he wanted to.

  After dropping everything into the marinade, he grabbed the almond snack balls and carried them over to the restaurant along with the chicken. He hadn’t wanted to disturb the lesson earlier, so he had held off on walking through the little classroom and just kept working in the house kitchen.

  He stored the marinating meat on the counter and the snack in the refrigerator and quickly headed back over to the house.

  It was time for some more pudding.

  Not a lot. He didn’t want to ruin everyone’s appetites, but he did want their opinion on what he considered the final version of the recipe.

  He carried small bowls of the pudding out to his daughter and the two mages, along with several bowls of fruit and syrup.

  “More, not snot?” Leah asked with a grin as she took her bowl from him.

  Draden rolled his eyes and lightly poked her nose. “Yes sweetie, and this time I got the recipe right, so it’s even less snot-like.”

  Seeing her react like this made him want to recreate Jello, just for her reaction to the jiggly stuff. He could still remember the old commercials for the treat. It was an idea, but he didn’t know the process of getting natural pectin. He DID know you could get it from certain fruits like apples, but that was it. Regardless, he would write the idea down for later.

  He would likely be able to get that ingredient from Earth, but if he was going to use it in the restaurant, then he wanted to be able to recreate it himself as well.

  Leah held her spoon above the bowls of fruit, frozen by indecision. “They all look good. Which one will make the snot less snotty though?” She asked herself.

  The adults were all watching her in amusement.

  Marcus, meanwhile, went for blueberry, and Coradine spooned a soft green fruit that hadn’t been there during the first time around.

  “Is this ‘Kweelack’?” She asked, holding her spoon up to the light.

  Draden nodded. Kiwi, or as it was known in this world, kweelack, was almost exactly the same as on Earth. The outside was slightly hairier, and there weren’t as many varieties, but those were the only differences that he had found thus far.

  “A little mix of sweetness, and tartness sounds good right now,” Coradine said as she dumped the spoonful into her bowl and went back for more, making sure to get some of the syrup that time.

  Leah eventually followed her example and went for the kweelack, her father having to stop her from adding too much to her bowl.

  “Mix it first and then take a small bite. You can always add more later. It’s impossible to take some back out if you make the taste too strong though.” He explained, though her eyes made it clear she didn’t understand.

  “Why wouldn’t I want it strong? More taste… flavor is a good thing, right?” She asked slowly, her large eyes staring up at him uncomprehendingly.

  He pulled back his hand and sighed. “Just… be careful and give it a try before you keep adding more.”

  Leah blinked at him and then shrugged. “Okay,” She agreed happily, stirring the mixture together happily.

  Marcus and Coradine, who had been watching the father and daughter duo with slight grins, turned to their own puddings and in sync spooned some into their mouths. The odd texture from before was gone, leaving them with a treat that was unlike anything they had ever tried before. It was sweet and savory, while the fruit syrup clung to their tongues even after they had swallowed.

  It was delicious, and a completely different experience from the dish they had earlier. Moreover, there was a distinct lack of energy inside the dish, so they could actually concentrate on simply eating and enjoying it instead of constantly taking breaks.

  “Hrmn snrt uddng ook butter,” Leah said, her voice incomprehensible to everyone there due to the spoon still in her mouth.

  Draden pulled it out. “Want to try saying that again?”

  She swallowed. “I said, this not snot pudding is much better. It’s super good!” She retrieved her spoon from her father and dug back into her bowl.

  (The recipe I use in this chapter can be found on my Patreon for free.)

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