Closing hir eyes, Enoki tried to imagine hir personal cookbook. Burgers and buns was the second video ze made on the vlog. Ze made so many before recording to get it right that hir brother joked 5 cows must have died in Enoki’s honor. The main issue here was the unfamiliar ingredients, which meant breaking down the needs of the buns and meat to make proper substitutions.

“Don’t tell me you are freezing up now.” Daikon half joked, his voice tinged with worry. 

A quick shake and Enoki started to move. “Ok I need yeast, flour, salt, eggs, butter, and some warm water. We’re making the buns first.”

Daikon took a slight glance down. “I’d say your mother helped you make a nice set already.”

“Daikon!” Enoki’s voice went sharper than ze meant. Ze took a moment to bring it down to a softer tone. “Focus. I need to make bread basicly.”

“Ah! Then I know the things you want. Knock Out used to…” He trailed off, his words lost in the forest of his memories. 

Still his body moved, getting a brown circle with small chunks cut out of it along with a few bags. Enoki looked around and found a basket with brown eggs speckled with flecks of gold at the top. They were the size of duck eggs, so larger than ze needed. As Enoki turned around to Daikon, he was dipping his finger into the light brown cloth sack. 

“None of them are labeled. That one is the sugar. Want me to proof the riser for you?” He was already getting a bowl and putting in a small amount of the sugar. 

“Sure. You get the water, I’m going to check the flour and the eggs then.” As ze spoke, Bob slid off the palm of hir hand and made a small metal bowl. 

Cracking the first egg in, a bright green yolk slid out with the clear white of the egg. Enoki was about to panic before realizing there was no foul smell. Carefully wafting the air over the egg, Enoki double checked. Not even the smallest hint of being spoiled. 

Ze caught a knowing smile from Daikon out of the corner of hir eye. “Even fresh like that many Gnomes never trust it either without a quick whiff.”

“To be fair, back home they are a golden color. Green normally means it’s bad.” Ze looked at the egg a moment longer before taking off hir gloves and putting them in hir belt for safe keeping. “Where can I clean my hands?”

“Normally we just use a small spell.” He gestured to his own hands, showing the magic runes over his fingers making what little dirt was left disappear. “I’ll do the same for you.” 

He gently took Enoki’s hands in his own, looking at them. “Even as a shapeshifter, you have the hands of a worker.” He gently touched some of the rougher spots on Enoki’s hand.

“To be fair I’ve had jobs since I was twelve. Moving things. Cleaning things. Stocking things. It’s just how it was.” 

Enoki looked at hir hands, thinking how ze hadn’t even bothered shifting those to look different. They had almost constantly been in the leather gloves that held Bob and McStabby since ze arrived in this world. If anything, ze was surprised they still looked like hands instead of something more efficient given the constant coverings.

As the thoughts in hir mind finished the spell ended, leaving a small tingling sensation. Ze’d trust they were clean for now. If ze focused on the meat after getting the basic things started, then Daikon seemed to know enough from his friend to get the bread going. Without another word ze set to work, lightly touching the yoke to get a feel for the fat contained within. Without tasting it, it felt like the same amount of fat as a duck egg. Which meant it was worth the two chicken Enoki would normally use. But there was less egg white. Ze thought for a moment before deciding to crack in the second egg. 

“We’re skipping the butter.” Enoki stated simply as ze moved around the table to scoop the flour and salt into the bowl.

Daikon gave a small grunt. “Got it. They look low anyway. And it’ll need time to rise right? Want me to knead it or get the oven good and hot?”

A quick glance showed the fire had been allowed to die down. Not surprising as it only recently became evening. The kitchen was still sweltering, with Daikon getting small beads of sweat on his brow. It’d be miserable in here shortly but they needed that flame. 

“Start the fire, I’ll start to dough. We’ll switch if I have any issues.” 

Without another word, Enoki quickly added the measured ingredients into the water. The yeast floating on top had taken on a creamy, almost frosting appearance, giving that gentle bread smell ze loved so much at home. This part Enoki always loved doing with hir bare hands. Sure, mixers were great and there was nothing wrong with using one. But getting your hands really into the dough as the ingredients came together was something else. The flour mixture first clumped up, the streaks of green yoke creating a soft mint color to the dough. Slowly it came together with the colors blending, the dough starting to look smoother and more stretchy, almost with a shine to it.

As soon as Enoki had formed the dough into a ball, ze threw some spare flour onto the table for kneading. No point in having the slightly sticky dough join with the table. The heat from the fire flickered away to keep out the chill creeping in from the desert night. The few moments of relief that existed went away. Enoki slapped the dough down on the flour. 

“Can you knead it?” Ze asked, already walking away.

Daikon grinned. “If you knead me to.” 

He quickly took the dough, forcing it flat with the palm of his hand before flooding, rotating the dough ninety degrees, and then pressing down and away again. As Daikon repeated the process Enoki summoned Bob back to hir glove and went to look at the meat available. Various pieces were hanging from the ceiling and ze inspected each one. Ze paused at one. The creature hadn’t been fully butchered yet. It had the tail of a scorpion and body of something like a tortoise, with two extra limbs acting as pinchers. 

Ze grabbed it and brought it to the table, McStabby quickly going into Enoki’s hand as a large butcher knife. Once ze cracked the side of the shell open, there were more than a few surprises inside. Most people didn’t realize that tortoises were fully attached to their shells, their spine fused to it. In this case there were connections, but they all appeared to be tendons and muscle tissue attaching the main body with its incredibly soft skin to the shell. This was followed by the tail going out the back. Its poison stinger was removed. 

Most importantly, the creature had, as Enoki cut into it, good fat stores. Exactly what ze needed. Enoki quickly cut it apart, going for the parts with a good mix of fat and meat. While ze wanted to experiment with the tail, ze held back. Even from here the tail looked like it’d have a texture more similar to a lobster. Helpful if making a fake crab cake, but not for a burger. Bob turned into a new bowl as ze used McStabby to quickly and carefully mince the meat as fine as ze could. Without a proper meat grinder, there was only so much Enoki could do. But there was time, thankfully.

Daikon put the dough into a bowl and covered it. As he placed it near the fire to rise, he looked back. “What do we need now?”

Enoki paused. “There were some of those green tuber things. What are those called again?”

“Erikins. Do you want to bake them or boil them?” He was already grabbing a few, checking them for blemishes. 

“Boiled then fried. I need them cleaned, cut into stick shapes the size of my pinky, and then they need to be simmered for a few minutes.” Enoki looked up. “I’ll get a pot of oil ready once I’m done with these.”

Already ze was starting to throw into the meat mixture some seasonings that smelled like the ones from home. It created a strong aroma of onion, garlic, peppers, and paprika. The rest of the work went quickly. Before ze could even think about the patties ze made and how to best cook them in the kitchen, the water was simmering and the soon to be fries were blanching. From there they were removed, patted dry, and allowed to rest. Within seconds, Enoki put a full pot with oil above the stove’s fire. It warmed the oil, releasing a slight fishy smell into the air, like canola oil from back home. Ze hoped this meant the smoke point was high enough for this.

As Enoki carefully monitored the oil and heated a pan for the burger patties and some mushrooms ze had found, Daikon began to pinch off the dough into small green balls. He placed them onto a small metal tray and quickly put it into the oven. Ze wished there had been something like sesame seeds to put on top, but time and resources were not on hir side at the moment.