Kitchen of the Midnight Manor Boarding House, Wednesday morning

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden had been given homework and that homework was to bring in barbeque and by, god, she may be up here in the hinterlands of the north, but she still intended to deliver.

Which had meant going to T&C's yesterday to get a slow cooker as well as ingredients, because she didn't have access to a proper barbeque and she didn't care about her grade enough to actually stand outside with a grill, hickory chips to smoke or not. Last night, she'd given the pork shoulder a nice dry rub of kosher salt, pepper, brown sugar, smoked paprika, and some red chili flakes to give it a kick, and left it in the slow cooker overnight. It had smelled like heaven when she'd pulled it out this morning to debone and shred, and then she'd put it back into the slow cooker along with the cider vinegar sauce she'd made (no ketchup! She was an East Carolina girl, thank you!) and continued to let it cook. A container of chicken thighs given the same rub was waiting for the pork to come out and rest; they'd cook in about an hour and if she really found herself pressed for time, she could finish prepping them in class.

Now she was making some coleslaw (because how were you supposed to eat a pulled pork sandwich without coleslaw? Ha! Trick question, you couldn't), and dubiously following a recipe on her phone to try to cook up some jackfruit, which the internet agreed made an excellent plant-based substitute for meat - the texture allowed for pulling, the same way the pork and chicken did. She didn't know enough about dairy replacement to make a proper vegan coleslaw, but she figured that there were enough options offered that whether people were vegan, vegetarian, didn't eat pork, or were even gluten-free, they should still be able to enjoy her barbeque.

Well, okay. The cast iron pan of sweet cornbread baking in the oven right now had both wheat flour and buttermilk in it. But Arden couldn't make barbeque and not make cornbread. That was, quite probably, illegal. For good reason!

[Open for phone calls, residents, potential guests...feel free to assume Arden texted you a picture if you want]

Comments

[professionalweirdo]

"Oh wow, something in here smells great!" Gonzo enthused as he wandered in. "Reminds me of roadtripping with my ex in my youth."

Had he actually had a youth? He seemed to have been born 40 -- save for the times he was randomly a toddler. Ah well. Right now it made sense for him to have had a youth, so he'd had a youth!

[hasaknightjob]

Steven had to run some errands later for his and Watts's date night. But mornings were rarely Steven's time of day, which meant it was a Marc who was awake and checking on the state of things in the boarding house.

Hearing noises in the kitchen, he went to see who was there. "Hey."