How Green Becomes Wood

"No, I do not need help," Dark told Xander, "I was under the impression you had agreed to keep your foot elevated for as long as possible. Yalla, Alec," He said, gesturing for his slightly-younger son to follow him.
 
Alec wrinkled his nose but nodded. "That, I can do!" He fetched an onion, a knife, and a cutting board. He glared at the onion for a moment as if sizing up an enemy. Then he took his knife and started chopping.
 
"Slices it is," Alec assured him, squinting even though his eyes hadn't started to burn yet. He was prepared for the burning! He hadn't gotten too far into the onion, yet, so it was an easy thing to adjust to slices. He was soon crying because of the onion, but he managed to finish it off without hurting himself. "Done!" he announced and went to wash his face quickly. "What's next?"
 
"Next is more slicing," Dark told him. By this point, the eggplant had been fully sliced and arranged on a tray, and he had peeled potatoes, half of which he gave to Alec, "Slice them to resemble the aubergine. You can put the onions in this pan for the time being."
 
After the potatoes were sliced and arranged on the tray, Dark drizzled them with oil, sprinkled them with salt, and set them in the oven to roast. Then, he began preparing the meat (he had managed to find, to his absolute delight, the best looking lamb he had seen in ages at the butcher's) and as he did he alerted Alec of excellent news: he got to do more slicing. This time of a red pepper, which should go in with the onion after he finished.

Then, after the lamb was seared and he was boiling it with enough spices to make an Englishman blush, he talked Alec through how to cook the onion and pepper, but stayed hands-off with it so his son could learn how to actually cook it.
 
Alec moaned and groaned exaggeratedly when he was told it was time for more chopping, but it was all in good fun. He was quick to settle down to slicing the red pepper and putting it in with the onion. He was slightly distracted by the lamb being seared and boiled, but he turned his attention to cooking the onions and peppers when Dark directed him. He almost dropped a few things a couple of times, and there were definitely a couple of onion and pepper pieces on the floor, but he was doing very well for someone who used to make a complete mess of the kitchen just by attempting to make breakfast. He was quite proud of his efforts when the onions and peppers were done.
 
"Alright," Alec agreed. "Since it is the last one, this one will be the best of all!" It was not the best of all, but it wasn't bad, either. While washing the rice, he dropped the pot and splashed water all over himself, but he didn't lose the rice! Water was easy enough to wipe up.
 
Dark shook his head in amusement, and after explaining to Alec how to use the rice cooker, he took the meat off the stove and carefully strained it, keeping all of the liquid. After setting the meat aside, he added more seasonings and spices to the liquid he had saved, and then once the rice was finished, he gestured Alec over so they could assemble all the disparate ingredients into a pot, being careful to explain to Alec what order they went into.

Then, finally, the whole meal back onto the stovetop, and setting about cleaning up the kitchen, Dark said, "Now we just need to wait about forty minutes."
 
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"I like knowing I will be able to feed my family," Dark said, rising the dishes which needed it before putting them into the dishwasher, "and I enjoy all the scents coming together, and the effort of it. Very little in life is more important than a good meal. You can do nothing if you are starving."
 
"I enjoyed it," Dark said, stopping his work tidying up to check inside the pot to make sure it was all coming together nicely, "The recipes were fine, nothing particularly unusual or challenging, but I enjoyed learning different techniques."
 
"That is very cool," Alec smiled. He leaned over to look when Dark did. "This didn't seem too horrendously hard to do, but it sure is tedious. I guess it's a good meal to bring out to prove to your lady that you can, in fact, cook something, even if it's only one thing!"
 
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