(closed) teen borscht squad

[catsudon]

WHO: Anya, Dave, Jade, and that kid Yuri
WHERE: Yuri's nice, small, cramped apartment
WHEN: Early evening 2/4
WHAT: Yuri makes one of his Grandfather's recipes; Dave and Anya (and Jade!!!) are invited over to eat and movie marathon The Fast & the Infuriated. All seven films.
WARNINGS: junk food hell

( Yuri's been grating onions, carrots, and beets for what feels like forever by the time anyone's arriving; his hands are artfully red from the juice of the beets, but he's pleased with himself for having gotten near all this done. Largely because no one needed to see the way onions even run under water still make him tear up.

Either way, when he hears someone at the door, he calls out: )

Door's open!

( While he continues grating the last of the beets, hair pulled back into a messy bun. He scoots over to check on the beef chuck boiling in a pot on the range. When is this supposed to be done? He thinks it's close, but then what. Right, nevermind: the potatoes. )

Comments

[constellates]

[Second day in a row of a lot of food that she probably shouldn't be eating? Sure, sign Anya up!!

- or well, she might have been a little bit more hesitant since she's worried she'll end up spoiled rotten but then Yuri had to go and mention that this was his grandfather's recipe. And Anya will do absolutely anything in the name of family.

So once she and Jade woke up after probably getting barely any sleep at all, the two of them went to head over to Yuri's apartment. Anya's brought all the spare snacks in a little bag from their sleepover adventure because they absolutely got way too many snacks for just two small girls.]

Oh, it smells good! [she's so excited, she's so excited] Is there anything left to help with?

[she's? a pretty decent cook? surprisingly not that bad of an idea to leave teenagers at a stove in this case (maybe)]

[parodeity]

[ meanwhile dave will arrive near to the same time as the girls, but separate. he's dressed in jeans and plain black t-shirt for the occasion (i.e.: casual as fuck clothes he threw on for a friend meet-up) and kicks off his sneakers at the door. ]

I can also play cooking mama assistant - lay it on me.

[ he's a mama's boy, he knows how to vanna white in a kitchen? ]

[rhapsodeity]

[ guys. guys, no. jade is the odd man out here, and probably burns her cereal. she is strictly a eat out-atarian. regardless, she's here, and she's wearing an awful space themed sweatshirt. it's not a nice one with the nasa logo on it. it's disaster of a top. she didn't really expect to go out the next day, so uh. ]

Anya and I brought some stuff if you'd want it!

[ but also, she's just polite. ] I have no idea how to cook! But I can help set the table? Thank you for letting me, um.... in?

[ she knows her limits. ]

[catsudon]

( Anya and Dave both get an unfettered grin; Yuri even laughs a little, though when his eyes slide to Jade he seems to freeze up, looking down at the grated beets. He's not great at relaxing around people he hasn't decided on trusting, and he's slow to trust. it has nothing to do with Jade. (it has everything to do with Yuri.) he lifts the cutting board he's been using up to slide the rest of his beets into the bowl holding the rest. )

Tsk, like I'd tell you to stand in the hall. You can set up the coffee table. ( he doesn't have any proper table big enough; just the counter, here. ) The bowls are in the cupboard, the spoons are in the drawer under — Anya, you can show her.

( because that way he doesn't have to, instead angling back to the sink and glancing to Dave. )

If you brought the potatoes, we need six of them out, washed, peeled, and chunked down to bite sized.

( assigning tasks by naming what needs to happen; he waits until he hears Anya showing Jade where the mismatched collection of bowls, glasses, and cutlery resides. )

Anya, can you get the colander out from here?

( to demonstrate the lower cupboard he means, he balances on one foot and (gently) kicks out with the other, tapping the door of another cabinet. )

We need to strain the beef.

( ... apologies to any vegetarians present, this soup is definitely not vegetarian. Jade will find the living room small but clean, partly by habit, partly because Yuri hauled everything that could be clutter back to his bedroom earlier. the couch has seen better days, but it's likewise clean and has newer throw pillows and a tigerprint throw blanket; there's the long coffee table, and then the stand with the flatscreen he'd picked up from a neighbor who moved a few months back. before then, he'd just watched things on his laptop, leaving a giant poster of a tiger pinned up next to the various show posters that still occupy the space behind the television screen. )

[constellates]

[yuri let yourself have friends

Meanwhile Anya is humming happily, always ready to help and follow directions.]

This way, Jade.

[Putting the bag of snacks that she'd brought aside to somewhere that they won't be in the way, she'll go ahead and wander over to where she recalls all the dishware and cutlery being. Then she's pointing out all the things that Yuri asked for, followed by retrieving the colander and at the mention of beef, she turns back to Jade with a smile.]

I will eat your beef if you would like, so we don't waste.

[Hopefully it won't be too bad? They have snacks if Jade's still hungry later, she thinks!

(And if Anya laughs a little bit at all the tiger print and tiger decoration, it's brief and negligible ok.)]

[parodeity]

[ dave isn't worried by yuri's freezing up; jade will wear him down easy, especially with anya gelling things along. and dave, of course. dave will help? but he has no illusions about anya and jade being a formidable tag team of friendliness. they barely need him for that and he will not have to do any heavy lifting at all.

he slides into the kitchen and favors yuri with one of his easy smiles that friends always tend to get. ]

'Course I brought 'em, you said to, right? And snackage of the unhealthy variety. Ish. And you're in luck, because my skill with a blade is basically unparalleled.

[ he may be bragging and it may be false but actually he is pretty deft with his hands? he'll drop one of his bags (snacks) on the counter and take the other (potatoes) to the sink, washing his hands first before he starts in on the potatoes.

HE'S GOT THIS SHIT ON LOCKDOWN. ]

Cooking mama would be jealous of my mad skillz here. That's skillz with a z for all y'all tunin' in to Dave-Stri radio, 'cause that z is pretty fuckin' important. Couldn't have you thinkin' my skillz were just skills.

[ shut up dave? ]

[rhapsodeity]

[ jade is the vegetarian. yuri has found her out. she's gathering things in her arms, trying to carry too much at once (jade always, always, always takes too much onto herself, it is the natural way of things for her). with bowls and spoons clattering in her arms, jade turns away from the trio in the kitchen just in time to hear anya offer to eat her share of meat. thank god yuri can't watch jade wince. ]

It's fine, I can eat meat for the day. I had it yesterday too.

[ there were tofu dogs, but the sausages were too enticing.

she leaves as dave explains its "skillz" not "skills." honestly, she's heard this assertion before and it's always terrible, so she's glad to escape. the decor is noted, and jade thinks it's pretty cute; she'd gotten the inkling that yuri's an animal lover from their encounter the previous day, but this is a surprise.

she'll ask when she sees yuri next. for now, she busies herself with setting the table, making sure every setting is as perfect as it can get. she's humming to herself, too, more than happy to help in any way she can. ]

[catsudon]

Ess or zee, as long as those skills involve chunked potatoes, it works for me.

( Yuri says, laughing in spite of himself. it's such a ridiculous point to make, and he appreciates it, even as he manhandles the pot over to the sink, nodding his head toward it in case Anya hasn't set the colander up. pouring out the contents of his pot into it entirely, he's left with scummy chunks of chuck that he seems to be satisfied with; all this is in pretty close quarters with Dave by now, but there's enough room in the split sink for them both to be working there.

actually, he glances to Anya: )

Did you want to get a start on chopping the cabbage head? I cored it already, it needs to be sliced thin, whatever that means. Quartered and sliced? The recipe's on my phone on the counter.

( transcribed into a memo from his skype conversation with his grandfather. calling out to the main room, which is... immediately connected to the kitchen, the tall counter looking right into the open shared space, he shouts for Jade's sake: )

The meat helps the flavour, but there's more than meat in borscht to eat!

( not that he hears any answer right off, since he takes the faucet and runs it to clean out the pot, moving on to rinsing the meat right after. cleaned pieces are tossed back into the clean pot; he works fast, rinsing off the scum from the cooking beef and having it all back in pot before long. from there, it's a matter of filling with water up to a certain level, then bringing it all back to the range. )

Potatoes can go in anytime now.