The dessert he had in mind wasn’t hard to make, though it was delicious. In fact, most versions of the recipe were readily accessible. However, the two most popular versions would likely cause an uproar among the people in the area.

  He was making pudding.

  Draden would have liked to make vanilla pudding, his personal favorite. Unfortunately, he hadn’t seen any vanilla beans in the marketplace, which meant that they were likely as rare here, as they had once been in his world.

  Instead of using vanilla or chocolate, he would be using fruits to flavor the pudding. The only thing he didn’t know was how much of each to use. The original recipe that he was familiar with used vanilla concentrate for flavoring. However, he had a different style of pudding recipe that used fresh lemon juice, which he could somewhat use as a basis. That version was more akin to flan than actual pudding.

  Inside the house, Draden set his daughter down and gently pushed her towards the bathroom. “Go get cleaned up and changed. I don’t want you staying in those wet clothes longer than needed.”

  She hurried off, and he led the two elders to his kitchen. Once there, they stayed to the edge of the small space, giving him as much room as possible in which to work.

  Draden had split all the ingredients he could between the two kitchens. The bulk of them were of course stored inside the restaurant kitchen, while a lesser amount was inside the house so he could make his and Leah’s meals.

  In this case, most of the fruit he wanted to use was sitting on the counter of the house kitchen. So, it was just easier to make the pudding there.

  For this first time around, he would create a large double serving of the recipe he had written down. He needed sugar, salt, milk, egg yolks, butter, the fruit for flavoring and something to thicken it all. Traditionally, cornstarch was used, but egg yolks or tapioca starch could also be used.

  Unfortunately, this was a recipe that he was less familiar with than some of the others he had taken to writing down as he had only made it once. He remembered the ingredients, but not the specific amounts.

  Draden did have a general idea based on his past recollection, so he wouldn’t be adding twenty egg yolks to the mix when two or three would do.

  The page with the recipe had estimates listed next to each item.

  He turned to the two guests. “I haven’t finished this recipe just yet, so if it comes out a little weird this time, that’s why.”

  Marcus shrugged in understanding, while Coradine looked a little more concerned.

  Draden grabbed a large saucepan and stuck it on the stovetop before he began adding ingredients and slowly heating it all together.

  In a few of the smaller saucepans, he added the fruits from the counter, keeping each kind separate. He used the heat from the stovetop to break down the fruit and thicken the juice they released into a syrup.

  Behind them, a freshly changed, and dry Leah twirled into the kitchen and climbed onto the counter where she could watch her father work.

  On the stovetop, in the large saucepan, the pudding was just beginning to bubble. Draden turned off the heat and added the butter to the mixture. He grabbed a spoon from a nearby drawer and dipped it into the mixture, taking a careful taste of the hot pudding. It was plain, to be expected considering it had no flavoring. That said, he thought the amount of sugar and milk was off and needed more of both.

  He added more of both to the mixture and continued to stir, making sure to not be too vigorous.

  Draden took another taste test, and this time nodded in approval. With that completed, he poured a portion of the pudding into each of the saucepans with the fruits and their syrups.

  Now they just needed to cool.

  “Can I get your help in carrying these over to the refrigerator in the restaurant? They need to cool down for a while.” Draden asked the two adults who had been watching him work.

  Coradine reached out and touched the side of the nearest saucepan. A thin layer of frost formed on the metal pan that vanished almost immediately due to the ambient heat of the room.

  “Is that good enough, or do you need it cooler?” She asked, clearly eager to try the sweet treat.

  Draden was impressed at the casual display of her magic. He stirred the mixture a couple of times and then used a spoon to taste it.

  Strawberry wasn’t his favorite flavor of pudding, but it had been made from fresh strawberries. It was good though, not perfect, the recipe still needed a few tweaks, but better than he had been expecting.

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  He nodded. “Yeah, that’s good. If you can do the same thing to each of the others, that would be great.” He paused, watching her work. “I don’t suppose you can create ice, can you?”

  Marcus snorted.

  Coradine smirked. “Dear, what I just did is advanced ice magic. The amount of control required to simply pull the heat out of something instead of freezing it solid is beyond most mages. Making a simple block of ice is as easy as breathing for me.”

  Draden gave her a small grin. “In that case, I might be able to make another dessert later with your help.”

  “I’ll be looking forward to,” She replied with a grin of her own.

  Leah nudged her father. “Is it ready now?”

  “Almost, I just need to stir each of them.” Which he promptly did. “Now, who wants what flavor?”

  “I want all of them?” Leah cried out, standing atop the counter eagerly.

  Draden rolled his eyes. “Of course you do, sweetie. How about you two?”

  “I’ll have some blueberry,” Marcus said after a moment.

  “I’ll take the banana, if you please,” Coradine replied hesitantly, going for a lighter flavor in hopes that if it was terrible, it still wouldn’t be too bad.

  He went for raspberries.

  “All right, tell me your thoughts on it. I already know I need to tweak the recipe some more, but I’m more interested in the fruit here. Should I serve it beside the pudding and let the customer mix it themselves? It would allow them to control how strong they want the taste to be and be one less item that I need to do.” He bobbled his head. “Just think about it, while you eat.”

  With that final request, he began divvying up the different portions for everyone.

  Leah made a shortly lived though valiant attempt to be polite and wait for the others to receive their puddings. Honestly, it was her father’s fault for giving it to her first.

  Marcus was enjoying the conflicting looks of want and need versus her desire to be a good girl. What he didn’t account for was that her hand had a mind of its own. It forcibly shoved the spoon into her mouth while she was still undergoing her crisis. Just like that, all fight left her little body, and she gave into temptation.

  The small girl didn’t say anything as she ate. There were no moans of delight, or weird little dances, instead, she became oddly serious as she went through each flavor in turn.

  Draden eyed his daughter as she silently ate. He knew the recipe wasn’t perfect, but he hadn’t expected her to react like this.

  Finally, she looked up at him and pulled the spoon from her mouth. “Can I have some more please, daddy?” She requested softly, pushing her bowl across the counter closer to him.

  That… was not what he had been expecting. For a few moments there, he hadn’t been sure if she even liked it.

  “Do you like it, Leah?” He asked as he gave her a little more of each flavor.

  She nodded slowly, her expression complicated. “Is good. I like the taste, especially the raspberry, and blueberry ones. Is just…” She tentatively licked the spoon. “It feels like snot.”

  Marcus and Coradine quickly turned away and snorted in amusement, barely managing to cover their faces before pudding erupted from their noses.

  That wasn’t something that Draden had even considered before that moment. Pudding was so common that its somewhat odd texture had long since been disregarded. The same couldn’t be said for the people of this world though. Here it would be something new, where the only thing they would have to compare it to would be slime or a bodily excretion.

  “Hmm, what about you two? What do you think? Is the texture off-putting?” He asked the adults.

  He didn’t think it felt like snot, at least not normally. However, Draden had also not gotten the recipe exactly right, and it had thrown off the texture a little.

  Coradine took a spoonful of the banana pudding, tilting her head as she did so. “The texture is indeed a little odd… the fruit improves it though. Is this how it is supposed to be? You mentioned before that you hadn’t quite gotten the recipe right.”

  “I did, and you’re right. The texture and taste aren’t quite right.” He turned to Marcus, who merely shrugged.

  “It tastes fine to me and goes down easily enough. Maybe the blueberries just work with it better.”

  It was possible, he hadn’t thought the raspberry pudding was that bad.

  “Alright, well, I’ll work on getting the recipe perfect for later. For now, let’s finish eating our glorified snot snack.”

  The adults all winced at that description, while Leah giggled.

  ***

  While Draden began working on the recipe, Coradine and Marcus took Leah into the room Marcus had added on to the house and began teaching her. The older man had deliberately avoided teaching the little girl anything up to that point as he waited for Coradine. Instead, he had spent the last few days watching and studying Leah.

  He had learned a few things about the girl during that time. Namely, that she was odd. Not just because of her young age, but also due to the sheer amount of energy she could hold. It was an oddity that she shared with her father, and that both seemed unaware of. In her case it was magical energy, whereas for her father it was qi.

  They sat the girl down at the desk that had been prepared for her, while Draden kept one ear open to what they were teaching her. In this case, he was actually glad that there was a female and male teacher. With one of each, it decreased the chances of either one trying anything. Not that he truly believed either would do anything of that nature, this fell under the case of trust but verify.

  They began with an extremely simple explanation of what magical energy was, and where it came from. They didn’t expect the little girl to understand or remember all the information, but hoped some of it would make an impact for later. After that, they began going through a few exercises with the little girl.

  Up to that point, Leah had accessed her magic almost subconsciously, now, they were teaching her how to work with it properly.

  While Draden listened to their teachings, he continued working in the kitchen, gradually getting the recipe into better shape for later. While he was doing that, he was also thinking about different items that he could make which would accelerate his healing.

  He had a few requirements for them. They needed to be small, not super filling, and easily made and edible. Oh, and also packed with energy.

  The pad of paper near the stove was gradually filling with a list of spices that he had noticed contained more energy than others.

  If he wanted to create something absolutely unpalatable, then he could simply throw them all into a bowl. The thought brought a smile to his face as he remembered those absolutely foul grass smoothies’ people would drink on Earth. This would be the ultimate nasty smoothie, unfortunately, he had never had a desire to drink nasty things.

  So, making snacks was the best method for him to consume lots of them.

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

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