The Curse

“Ok Radek, I’ve gotten most most of the ingredients set.” Stove said while making a sweeping motion over the counter she stood at. “All you need to do is a bit of cutting, kneading, and a little prep work.”

I looked over the assortment of whole vegetables, cooking oils, a bowl of dough, and 2 blocks of cheese. “What do I need to do first?” I stepped forward and picked up a large, clean chef's knife. I’ve cooked before, but I’ve never really done homemade pizza before.”

Stove slid a wooden cutting board to me and placed a large onion and a few roma tomatoes on the board. “I need you to cut the onion into thin rings, then cut the rings into 4 parts.” Stove then brought her front hoof to the board, pointing at the tomatoes “Once you’re done with the onion, I need the tomatoes cut into really small pieces. Think you can manage that” Stove looked at me expectantly

“Yeah, so slice and quarter the onion, and dice the tomato.” I slide the tomato to the side of the board and brought the onion to the center. Making quick work of slicing the top and bottom off of the onion and peeling the top most layers away.

“Wow, You said you’d cooked before, but I figured it was just microwave meals.” Stove’s eyes were locked on my hands as I halved the onion and plucked the middle out and threw it away.

“Yeah, my mom taught me to cook at an early age. Always said that either had to get married to someone that could cook or learn to cook for myself. She also said to never trust the Mailman.” I laid the onion halves on their side and braced the flat of the blade against my fingernails and began to slice the onion. “She was a little weird, but I think the cooking part about cooking was pretty good. I’m not married now, so I got know how to cook.”

Stove snickered into her hooves “Did she think the mailman was going to try and steal from her?”

“Probably. She was pretty racist, and a little paranoid. Still my mother, still love her.” I finished the onions and moved the pile over to the side, the grabbed the tomatoes and pulled them to the center.

“Hmm, anyway, back to cooking. when your done with the tomatoes, we need to get the dough ready.” Stove brought a bowl close to the cutting board “I’ve done the early prep of making the dough and let it rise. All that’s left is to knead it and roll it out.”

“What about the sauce?” I asked as I sliced the tomatoes into small cubes, removing the seeds and fleshy middles “You said we’d be making a pesto or something like that.”

Stove looked over to the counter opposite of us where a blender was setup “I’ve got that covered too.” Stove trotted over to the blender “I’ve got all of the ingredients in the blender ready to go. I wasn't really expecting you to know much about cooking so I did most of the major prep.” She kicked one of her front hooves a little, head dropping slightly, a look of worry crossing her face. “Guess I should have asked, sorry.”

“S’all good. I don’t know much about pesto sauces anyway. what in it?” I finished the tomatoes and pushed the whole board back as I brought the bowl of dough closer.

Stove perked up quickly, a smile crossing her face “Well, I started with 2 cups of fresh basil, another cup of parsley, a quarter cup of toasted pine nuts, 4 crushed cloves of garlic, a tablespoon of water and lemon juice, a half cup of extra virgin olive oil, and finally, salt and pepper to taste.

“Sounds pretty fancy, so all we have to do is run the blender for a few seconds and we’ll get pizza sauce?” I said while kneading and rolling the dough into a ball.

“Yep, but once you’ve finished the dough, we’ll need to shred and slice some cheese. I’ve gotten use some parmesan and some mozzarella.” Stove came back and pulled the cheeses closer to where I was now placing the dough ball onto a backing sheet.

I picked up the chef’s knife and grabbed the small log of damp mozzarella “ How does this need to be cut?”

“Just in flat slices. That cheese is going to be on top of the parmesan” Stove said as she pulled a rolling pin from one of the overhead cabinets “I’ll get this dough rolled out while you finish the cheeses. I’ve got the oven preheated, so once we topped the pizza dough, we’ll slide it in and set the timer.”

“Alright then. I’ll finish this is then and start the blender right after.” I laid the cheese slices to the side and brought a large shredder next to me and I took the dry, hard, parmesan and ran it along the raised ridges, shredding it into small slivers.

“Sounds good Radek.” Stove said as she continued to roll the dough into a circular shape about 10 inches across.

I finished about half the block of cheese, and stepped over to the blender. I pressed and held the pulse button until the mass of leafy veggies, and oils were blended into a thick green paste.

The room filled with the smell of fresh cut basil and the pungent tang of garlic as the paste was spun around at high speed. I released the button and lifted on the handle. The motor casing separated from the blades and blending cup. “Sauce is ready Stove. Do I need to just spread it and top the pizza dough now?”

“Yep, bring it on over and we’ll finish this up.” Stove  spread a light coat of olive oil on the dough as I stepped over with the sauce.

I grabbed a spoon from the silverware drawer and pour the sauce onto the dough. I used the spoon to lightly spread the green paste around, leaving a small edge to the pizza so there would be a bit of exposed crust to the pizza. “Ok, sauce is on, now the cheese?”

“Nope, first the veggies.” Stove grabbed the cutting board and using her hoof, pushed several of the tomatoes and onion slices onto the pizza. “Now you can put the cheese on. Start with the parmesan o first thought.

I reached over with both hand and scooped up a good sized pile of cheese into my hand and sprinkled the little slivers across, covering everything with a layer of the dry cheese. I then took the sliced mozzarella and placed six pieces, evenly spaced around the pizza.

“Alright, great job Radek. Looks good. Lets pop this into the oven and set the timer for 10 minutes.” Stove said as she picked up the pizza tray and walked over to the already running oven.

The room slowly filled with the wonderful aroma of garlic, basil, olive oil, and several other fragrances. “Damn, that smells great. I didn’t think it’d smell so great being healthy food and all.”

“That's great to hear Radek! Healthy food can taste great and be fun to make. Now we just need to do the dishes and we’ll be done just in time to take the pizza out of the oven!” Stove waved her hoof at the assortment of leftover foods, dishes and cooking implements still laying on the counter.

I shuffled over to the counter and began gathering up the various items left over. “Damnit, I hate doing dishes.”