Eugene smiled and found the ginger cookie recipe. He pulled it out of the box, placing it on the counter. Turning back to face Jay, he took the cupcake container and placed it with the rest of them. "Hey, you wanna start getting ingredients out? They're all on the recipe."
“Oh! Yes! Of course!”
Jay turned to grab the box, smiling at the ingredients he needed to get. He went to work quickly, tilting his head.
“Do you remember where we keep our sugar? I don’t really think I remember.”
"I've honestly never seen you use sugar." Gene laughed, pointing to a cupboard. He kept most of his cooking stuff in one cupboard just to make it easier. While Jay was getting some ingredients, Eugene went to get bowls, measuring cups and spoons, and any other utensils they would need.
“I don’t use it often…” he admitted with a sheepish grin. Jay opened the cupboard and smiled at the sugar and other cooking items. Perfect!
Everything else he needed was in the cupboard as well. He pulled the sugar down, humming softly as he turned to look at Eugene.
Eugene had everything on the counter and a large smile on his lips. "So, could you start just measuring the flour into the bowl according to the recipe? I'm going to get some music started. I always listen to music when I bake, so I really hope you don't mind."
"I don't mind. I use music for everything." Jay admitted with a soft giggle into his hand. He eyed the flower, drawing it closer along with the measuring cup.
He had to admit it took too long to read exactly how much he needed to measure out. He really should have gotten replacement contacts. He was not going back to wearing glasses.
"That makes two of us," Eugene said, connecting his phone to a small set of speakers he had. He started his playlist then quickly went back to the kitchen, humming along to the first song. "Okay, so we need to preheat the oven, I'll do that. Did you get all of the flour?"
Jay smiled. He swayed slightly to the music and nationally poured the flower into the bowl. He was proud of himself for measuring it out. “Yeup! It’s all measured now,”
"Perfect, thank you." Gene said, pulling the other bowl towards himself. "Would you mind measuring in all the dry ingredients, except for the sugar?" He measured out the sugar and butter into the bowl and started creaming them together.
Jay blinked at the bowl, tilting his head as he watched. “How often have you done this?” He asked, grabbing the dry ingredients. He started to measure them out, biting his tongue as he did so. “Mm… this is kinda fun. Just measuring.”
"Well, this is a pretty common thing for cookie recipes and considering cookies are a universal favorite and they're one of the easiest things to make, I would say pretty often. But for this specific recipe, I usually make these every year around Christmas, as well as many other times throughout the year. Long story short, I have done this very often." Gene explained, focused on creaming the two ingredients in his bowl.
Jay laughed, shaking his head. “Often, huh? You must be really good at this then.” He praised, bringing the bowel of dry ingredients over to Eugene. “Do I mix these?”
Taking a very short break from the butter and sugar to look at Jay, Eugene smiled and nodded. "Yes, you do." He got back to mixing, taking only a little more before adding the other wet ingredients and mixing them together as well. "I guess I am pretty good at it, huh?" He giggled quietly to himself.
Jay nodded sheepishly. He was way out of his element here. He really hadn’t cooked before. He sure as hell hadn’t baked before. But it was comforting to have Eugene with him, mixing while he told Jay what to do.
“Way good. I’m not even sure where to start on my own but you were able to just dive right in! Amazing.” Jay leaned over to see into the bowl, his eyes wide. “How many cookies will this make?”
Eugene smiled at Jay's compliment "Hmmm well, at least 24, if I'm remembering the right recipe. But it could be more or less depending on how consistent the size of the cookies are and if they're bigger or smaller. I have a cookie scoop, you can use that since it's pretty easy to use." He set down his bowl to search for the cookie scoop in a drawer. He found it and set in on the counter close to Jay.
It looked like those ice cream scoops that have a handle that is squeezed and a piece of metal scrapes along the inside of the scoop. "You just squeeze the handle after you scoop up the dough and the dough will fall onto the pan. I can show you if that explanation didn't make sense." He said laughing.
“That’s a lot… I can’t wait to try one.”
Jay laughed with Eugene, gently picking up the scoop and grinning. “I got this, unless you’d like to show me~” he teased, winking playfully. “Mind passing the dough?”
Eugene winked back as he poured the dry ingredients into the wet. "I will once I mix the dry with the wet ingredients. It'll just take a second." He kept the bowl on the counter and mixed the quickly thickening dough. After a minute or two of constant mixing, he finished and handed Jay the bowl. He quickly washed his hands again and went over next to Jay. He started grabbing pieces of dough about the same size as the cookie scoop and placing them on the cookie sheet with parchment paper on it.
Jay waited patiently, wetting his lips when the dough was completed. He giggled excitedly and began scooping it out, setting each ball of dough into the cookie sheet with a careful precision.
He had to admit, he was really impressed by Eugenes ability to just scoop it out without needing a guide or help.
"How are you doing?" He asked, pausing his scooping of the dough to look at Jay. Eugene was going a little slower than Jay since he was always making sure the dough he scooped out was of similar size to Jay's. He usually used the cookie scooper so it was quite a bit easier even for Eugene.
"Me? Oh pretty well, this scoop is really useful. I'm surprised it works so well." He flashed a grin. "It's kinda fun, I'm not going to lie. I just hope it tastes okay. I mean I measured it all out correctly and I made sure I did but I'm still afraid I messed something up." He murmured, laughing softly.
"It'll taste just fine! I sometimes botch up some things and they taste fine. Usually, it's okay to mess up a thing or two. Unless it's way too much or too little of something. And if something that catastrophic happened then I would have seen it or you would have probably told me." Eugene smiled and went back to scooping the dough by hand.
“That-“ he fell silent, frowning slightly. “That is right actually. Well, then I hope we both enjoy these cookies.” He smiled brightly, aiding the other by scooping out more cookie dough.
He stood back when they were finished, admiring their work with a proud smile. The satisfaction of making cookie dough felt just as good as the satisfaction of finishing up a large piece.
Eugene went to the sink to wash his hands from the cookie dough. He then went next to Jay, a satisfied smile on his lips. "Do you wanna put the pans in the oven or should I?" He asked, turning his head to the side to look at the other.
“Ah, it’d be best if you did it. I’m quite clumsy.” Jay ran his fingers along his own sleeve, brushing flour off his shirt. “As you’ve probably heard me fall about a million times in my room.”
He chuckled at that, staring down at the floor in front of him. “Its a wonder I can even hold a paintbrush.”
(I know I haven't replied for a couple days, but I also won't reply for the next week, possibly two. I've been having trouble replying to things and I've been out of it for a few days. So yeah, I'll be inactive for a week, possibly. Sorry about that.)