How Green Becomes Wood

"It depends on how much egg you want on your hands," Daizi told him, "Some people think the best way to separate them are by using the egg shell, but I've found best results by just getting in their with your hands, and it is cold, slimy, and miserable, but if we have any yolk at all, it'll ruin everything."
 
"No egg separator?" Xander asked. It was one of the few useless utensils he remembered his mother having. It was fun to play with. "I think I'll try the eggshell first. If that doesn't work, hands it is."
 
"What's the point when you can do it by hand just as easily?" Daizi asked, going to the counter and taking out some bowls, "I don't have the recipe, can you help gather the ingredients? I know we'll need sugar, I presume flower, vanilla... If it's meringue, cream of tartar..."
 
"Because the idea of digging my hands into a bunch of egg just seems weird and slimy," Xander said promptly as he went to fetch a few things. Most of the big stuff - like flour - he'd already gotten out while checking that they had everything, but in case Daizi had said no, he hadn't bothered to pull out everything. In no time at all, he had it neatly lined up on the counter. "Got it all!"
 
"I guess," Daizi said, washing her hands quickly, "I guess. I think I'd probably have a better chance at breaking the yolk that way, because I wouldn't know where to aim." Then she picked up the first egg and cracked it one-handed into the bowl.
 
"You've got surprisingly good aim, but I can see the problem there. I'll do it shell-style. I've gotten pretty good at it with other recipes, so I think I'll be okay," Xander said. He took half of the eggs and left Daizi the other half. "Let's see how this turns out." He did it his way with the shells, and to his pleasure (and relief) he did not break a single yolk.
 
Daizi was significantly slower at it, and did mess up a few, but this had always been a fairly difficult task for her, since she couldn't see what she was doing. But, she only swore once during it, made a point to dump the safe egg-whites into a different container after every go, so when she did make a mistake it didn't contaminate the entire batch, and when she was finished she washed her hands a second time, and sighed from relief, "Well. I'm glad that's over. What's next?"
 
(I dunno, I never made one. I shall find a random recipe.)

"Um, looks like it's suggested we use a food processor for the sugar to get it extra fine," Xander said, reading the recipe, "and then we mix the flour, salt, and part of the sugar. Then we start beating up the meringue with the sugar and egg whites. That'll take some time."
 
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"Oh, great," Daizi said, going into the cabinet for the food processor, not plugging it in yet. But even though setting it up wasn't typically a big issue, this time, as she tried to get the pieces where they belonged for it to operate, this time she just... could not get the pieces where they fit. There were so many, which needed to fit together just so, and not being able to see how they went, needing to do it all by feel without touching the blade was a hindrance. That day, she was struggling with it, and she felt like a toddler trying to get the square block to go into the triangle hole.
 
Xander scowled at the pieces of the processor. He'd used it before, but not often, and the pieces could be finicky. "Wait, try going left with the bowl," he offered. "I think that's how it clicks into place."
 
"No, I know," Daizi said in a tone she worked hard to keep quiet, but she couldn't help but feel frustrated. It wasn't something she wanted to put out onto anyone else, so she took a deep breath as she tried to assemble the contraption, "My left or yours?"
 
Xander glanced at her, sensing her frustration, and chose not to comment that they were facing the same direction. "Your left. You look close. Maybe a random spin will settle it."
 
Daizi twisted it slightly and it finally clicked into place, but she couldn't quite say she felt good about it. It wasn't an accomplishment, it was an incredibly basic task. The blades gave her a bit of trouble too, although not as severely, and probably just because she was already frustrated. "Great." She said flatly, once everything was together, "Thank you."
 
"You're welcome," Xander said cautiously, taken aback by her attitude and not sure how to handle it. "Anyway, now we do some sugar and then the flour and stuff. Here, here's the sugar." He handed her the sugar he'd already measured and then made sure the lid was on properly before pulsing it briefly. Then he took out the right amount of sugar and flour and salt and repeated the pulsing. That didn't take long. Next up was the whipping.
 
She took a deep breath again before adding the sugar to the processor. Aftet it was ready and they were preparing to whip the egg whites she said, "I'm sorry. It's just. It's really frustrating when I just... can't...It's something I should've been able to put together."
 
"Why? Do you have a special communication with machines?" Xander asked, leaning against the counter as he worked. "It's not like you use a food processor every single day and should have every twist and turn memorized. Bonus points for not slicing your fingers on the blades."
 
"No, but we've had it for years, and I use it enough. So it's frustrating to struggle with my own appliance, and it's frustrating to not know what I'm doing wrong, so I don't know what I should do differently." Daizi replied, adding the egg whites to the bowl of the stand mixer, "It's frustrating when ordinary things are a struggle."
 
Xander stopped himself before he said something about how everyone felt like that. Instead, he said, "Yeah, I can imagine it's real rough and worse than anything I can imagine."
 
"Most things aren't made with people like me in mind, and we bought that processor because it's simpler than a lot of other ones, but it still... And there's so much out there that's a struggle, it's hard when it is in here, too. I should be able to just use the things in my home." She gripped lightly onto the counter, facing her back away from Xander. It might've been easier, had so many other emotions not been rubbed raw over the past little bit, but not being able to just assemble the damn processor made her feel so small. "Do you have the cream of tartar measured? We need to add it."
 
"Yeah, I got it," Xander said, handing it over. "Here you go." He didn't know what else to say. It was all so sensitive and complicated. He wanted away from this conversation.
 
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