33 Apocalypse Ave, Saturday Morning

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After a night spent crashing in the front room catching up on some of the K-dramas that had come out while she'd been dead, Kathy decided that it was a good morning to make a hearty Korean breakfast. It was definitely cold enough that the hotteok sellers would be out in force in the streets of K-town and gaeran tost-u was always a hearty breakfast food. Kathy decided to make something like a Southwestern vegetarian omelette for the tost-u and set to work chopping, dicing, and slicing the fillings while waiting for the hotteok dough to rise. She still wasn't up to eating meat yet, but figured everyone else in the house would appreciate a side of bacon with their meals. And maybe if she fried the tost-u bread in the bacon drippings, she could get a little bit of the flavor without tripping over her current aversion to meat?

It was worth a shot, anyway.

Not knowing that anything was weird yet, Kathy danced and sang around the kitchen, hoping Raven had fallen asleep in her room last night instead of out in a tree somewhere, planning on waking the guys up with breakfast in bed. It was a good morning and already the house was beginning to smell of delicious sugary pancakes, frying bacon, and brewing coffee.

And the strains of upbeat pop music, too. Because you couldn't cook breakfast without bouncing around to the bippiest music you could find.

[Open for housemates and wandering children alike, warning for SP in the afternoon]

Comments

[vdistinctive]

"Ooo, there's food?" That wasn't actually why he'd come over here, but Eliot was always hungry. "I came over to see if you wanted to play."

Kathy was super-fast! Perfect for running around the park until the grownups stopped looking like they wanted to nail you to the ground!

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She was at that! And that was also perfect for getting kids tired out until all they wanted to do was nap!

...In fairness, odds were pretty good Kathy would also want to nap after running around in the park for hours.

"That does sound like fun," she said. "But only after a good breakfast so we have lots of energy to play. Have you had breakfast yet?"

Yes, she was going to interrogate you about what you ate, Eliot. She cared about your nutrition.

[vdistinctive]

"Nope!" He'd eaten some of Parker's cereal, but Kathy didn't need to know that.

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Parker's cereal didn't count as food anyway. It was sugar and food dye and puffed rice for structure.

"Good, then why don't you come in and wash up, then take a seat at the table for some breakfast?" she invited. "And after breakfast we can talk about how you want to spend the day, huh?"

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"Ugh, you sound like my mom," Eliot said, even as he went to go do exactly that. "I thought I was supposed to boss you around."

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Definitely Eliot.

"Nope!" Kathy said cheerfully. "This weekend I get to do the bossing. And if you really want me to sound like your mom, I can check to make sure you've washed behind your ears, too."

This is what happened when you let the teenage mom friend be in charge all weekend. They went mad with power.

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"Gross," Eliot said, leaning his head away as though she would try to look right now. "What, do you think I have tree sap in my hair or something?"

That had definitely happened before. Multiple times.

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"How many trees did you climb between my house and yours?" Kathy asked, because her mama didn't raise no fools.

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"Um," Eliot said, looking up towards the ceiling. "None? I mean, no really sappy ones."

Lampposts, stair railings, and miscellaneous low walls, though. . . .

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"That is the face of a young man who is winning on technicalities," Kathy declared, pointing at him. "But the backs of your ears are safe from me for now. Breakfast?"

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"Yes please!" Eliot's whole life was winning on technicalities, okay? "With chocolate milk?"

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"If you eat the whole egg sandwich, you can have some chocolate milk," Kathy decided. She didn't want him just filling up on sugary hotteok, after all. "But you have to eat the whole thing, including the vegetables."

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Eliot gave her a suspicious look. "What kindsa vegetables are we talkin' 'bout?"

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"You like Southwestern omelettes, right?"

Right now, Kathy was a little glad she hadn't gone for something really authentic, like kimchi or whatever. She wasn't looking forward to explaining Asian cuisine to middle American half-pints.

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Honestly, Eliot would be mostly a little confused that it wasn't quite like Chinese or Vietnamese food.

"So, like, corn and peppers and stuff?"

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Good on him for knowing more than roadside Chinese, though!

"Peppers and onions and mushrooms, yup," Kathy said. "And a bit of kimchi slaw on the side, but that's an add-on, you don't have to eat it."

She was used to having to twist arms on weekends like these when it came to eating vegetables.

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"Ewwwww, kimchi. . . . What is it?"

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"Oh, just a special Korean thing," Kathy said, suuuuper casually. "Probably too spicy for you, though. It takes some tough taste buds to really enjoy it."

Kathy!

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"Spicy's good. What's it made of?"

He was no fool, this one.

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"Yangbaechu, mostly," Kathy said, pretending to think. "And mu. Oh and sometimes scallions and sugar and red pepper powder...garlic and ginger and geotgal." She shrugged at him. "It's a Korean dish, it uses Korean ingredients."

Like cabbage and radishes and salted seafood.

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"What's yang-bachoo?" Eliot asked. "It sounds like a spicy thing. Is it spicy? And is moo called moo 'cause it's made of cow? What's got-gal? This isn't a vegetable thing, is it?"

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"Geotgal," Kathy corrected, pronouncing it slowly so he could get it right. "And no, there's no vegetables in geotgal. Yes, the yangbaechu is spicy, because it soaks up all the spice from the pepper and stuff."

She scooped out a small spoonful of kimchi and put it on the side of his plate. "I only gave you a little," she told him, "because it's probably going to be too much for you."

So, first a challenge to get him to try it and then a distraction to hopefully keep him from thinking about what he was eating. "And good attempt at etymology for mu, but Koreans don't think that cows say 'moo.' They think cows make a whole different sound."

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Oh please. Eliot was going to poke at that stuff and do all sorts of texture and smell checks before it ever went near his mouth. "What sound do Korean cows make, then?"

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"Eum mae," Kathy said, in her best impression of a cow's low. "Euuuuum maaaaaaaae."

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"Cows don't make two noises," Eliot protested.