Nano-Sapiens: Carter and Chocolate Chip Cookie Day
It's August and the heat means we can bake on the sidewalks. Our critters did obedience and rally indoors and air conditioned. In this month's story, Carter does some baking - also indoors.
Welcome to August!
It is August and since we live in Texas that means that the sidewalks are so hot we can cook on them. However, those of us that don’t like gravel in our cookie use the inside ovens instead.
Still, the heat is something that saps the life out of most of us. If you are going outside with a furred companion, we suggest water, more water, some shade and maybe even turning your umbrella into a parasol.
Since we have a Newfie, August is the month he barely goes outside. Although he does sometime search for the door into winter. (Hat tip to Robert Heinlein.) Someday buddy. Someday. (Looks longly at the Alaska pictures pinned to my computer.)
Until then, remember dogs cool down from their paws and from panting. So, if your dog gets too warm, help them out by letting them put their paws in something cool or cold. And ALWAYS have some water they can drink. If you are worried - call the vet. Sorry for the lecture, I heard of some horror stories recently and so this has turned into a public service announcement.
Here are some pictures of our animals enjoying the AC and being dorks at the dog show. Enjoy!
For August, Tod found out what day was “chocolate chip cookie day" and off he was to write another story… So, enjoy cuteness to the full.
Carter and Chocolate Chip Cookie Day
The big black and white Newfoundland dog looked at the ingredients on the counter. Drool dripped from the side of his mouth. But it didn’t quite touch the counter.
He lurched back and looked down at his adopted siblings. “Okay, everybody. We need to mix the dry ingredients first.”
Valerie, one of his Maine Coon kitten siblings, looked at the big bag of tigernut flour. It was almost as big as she was. “Are you sure about this, Carter?”
“Yes,” Carter nodded vigorously. “Chocolate chip cookie day is this month. We need to make cookies to celebrate! And Critter Explainer helped me find a recipe safe for us and that avoid Raihana’s allergies.”
Charles and Raymond, the other two Maine Coon kittens, were already busy putting together the tigernut flour and the butternut squash flour. Valerie shrugged and carefully picked a measuring spoon up in her mouth and added tapioca flour.
Carter carefully wiped his face on his own drool towel that hung by the door and then came back to grab the big stirring spoon in his mostly dry mouth. His two kitten brothers held the bowl still, and he leaned in to vigorously mix everything together.
Ducking one splash of flour mixture, only to be hit by a second, Valerie hissed at him but added the salt, sugar, and baking soda just as the recipe said.
Charles shook his gray fur out and whispered, the sound coming from a collar with a blue LED they all wore. “Keep an eye out for Mom and Dad. Or our aunt and uncle.”
Raymond and Valerie hissed back, “We know.”
Carter still had the spoon in his mouth and didn’t say anything, but he thought it was good advice, nonetheless.
Finally, the big bowl was mixed. He ambled over to the cabinet and pulled down another big bowl. “Now we do the wet ingredients.”
As Carter worked on figuring out how to open the avocado oil without drooling into it, all four kids heard a sound from the hallway.
Charles, the gray tabby, sniffed. “It’s dad.”
Raymond turned into an orange blur as he ran towards the door with Charles. “We’ll distract him.”
Carter turned back to the avocado oil question. But in the back of his mind, his ears still listened to the two boys and their dad talking in the hallway.
Raymond was saying, “Dad, we’re looking for the best nap spot. We’re not sure which one. Is it the upstairs window, the downstairs window, or the back of the closet where we keep all the sheets and towels?”
Their dad started lecturing about which spot was best. When Timmy started expanding on why it depended on the time of day, and even the year, and thus was not as simple a question as one might think, Carter knew the boys had chosen the correct topic to distract their father.
The voices faded off as the two led their dad off to test the best aspects of each sleeping spot
A few minutes later, as they were adding the flaxseed milk to the avocado oil and vanilla mixture, Raymond and Charles came back.
“Raymond, you’re the best at opening the container with the egg replacements. Can you put some in while Valerie gets the apple cider vinegar ready for later?”
Their sister purred. “I like not using eggs. Mom and Raihana don’t yell at us for tasting when there are no raw eggs in it.”
Putting deeds to words, she delicately swiped a bit of mixture onto her claw and sampled it. “Needs even more vanilla!”
Raymond nodded and bounced to the pantry, coming back with the egg replacement package swinging back and forth from his mouth.
Charles looked at the big bag of chocolate chips. “Dark chocolate chips. How much should we put in?”
They all thought for a moment.
Finally, Carter spoke. “I think too much is never enough, so we’ll put in a lot.”
He started mixing the wet ingredients together. Just as he had finished stirring all the wet ingredients into a wonderful, messy, massive, not-quite-dough, all four kids froze again as their mom’s voice came from the hallway.
“Kids, have you seen your father?”
Valerie bounced to her feet and shook off flour that had gotten mixed into her tortoiseshell fur earlier. “I got Mom. Keep going.”
As Valerie ran out the door, Carter heard her start in on their mom.
“Mom, which is better, Robert Heinlein juveniles or Georgette Heyer period romances? Carter thinks it’s Heinlein. I think it’s Heyer, but we need a third opinion as a tiebreaker.”
Again, the voices trailed off as Valerie led their mom to the library to look at examples of each writer on screen. While she was gone, Carter and the two other boys worked on mixing the dry ingredients into the wet slowly.
Carter looked at bowl and his notes. “I think we should have added the chocolate chips now and not earlier. So, we should put some more in now to make sure.”
The two kittens, also liking the new Nano-Sapiens safe chocolate that was on the market, agreed. They added even more chocolate chips. Carter pushed the bowl over towards the refrigerator while the two kittens pried the door open. Together, they got it onto the bottom shelf and closed the door.
Carter was lifting Charles up to the cabinet to turn on the oven to preheat when Valerie came back in.
“Okay. I got mom reading Georgette Heyer, so we’re good there.”
Carter nodded. “Do you think she’ll read The Star Beast to us? I like Lummox.”
The three kittens giggled. They always told Carter he reminded them of Lummox.
Valerie looked around the kitchen. “So where are we now?”
Carter checked his notes printed out from the Critter Explainer website.
“Okay. Now we need cookie sheets.”
Raymond pointed out which cabinet they were in. Once again, Carter pried them out. Together, the siblings set them up on the cabinet. This was noisier and took more time than they had expected.
They kept looking at the doors, making sure nobody else was going to sneak up on them.
Finally, the twenty minutes was gone, and Carter got the bowl of dough out of the refrigerator. “Now it’s time to scoop them out onto the cookie sheet. It should make about two dozen cookies.”
Just as they were about to start scooping, they heard noise in the hallway. This time it was Edmund and Raihana, the two graduate students turned scientist-engineers who had worked in the lab where Carter and his family had been made intelligent with nanotech shots.
Carter looked around desperately. “Okay, kids. You take care of this. I’ve got our aunt and uncle.”
And he dashed through, leaving the kitchen door swinging back and forth vigorously behind him as he ran down the short hallway towards the two humans. One a big and blond man, the other a dark and short woman. How can I distract them?
At first, words wouldn’t come, but that gave him an inspiration.
“Edmund, Raihana, my--”
Then he intentionally yipped and barked some nonsense words that his collar chirped over as untranslatable.
“I think there’s a chirp chirp in my chirp collar chirp. Chirp. Chirp. Help. Chirp.”
Raihana and Edmund, among other things, had worked on the Nano-Sapiens translation collars.
Raihana bent over him, trying to see his collar. “What’s wrong?”
Carter barked nonsense again.
The two humans escorted him into the garage where, after having Edmund and Raihana needlessly adjust his collars internals, he started talking normally again.
“I don’t know what happened. The kittens and I were talking, and my collar started chirping.”
His aunt and uncle barely answered him. One was looking at code that seemed to be linked to whatever useless adjustment Carter had let them make, while the other was looking at the related physical electronics.
Knowing that they were thoroughly distracted as only a scientist-engineer could be, Carter carefully and quietly headed back to the kitchen.
It turns out the kittens had managed to scoop out the cookies onto the two cookie sheets. He thought about it for a moment, realized he had no idea how they had managed it. He wasn’t sure now how he would have done it.
But that was for later. Now, he had to put the cookies into the oven.
He made all three kittens sit at the other end of the room, and he carefully picked up his protective mouth mitt and slowly opened the oven up. A blast of gas-heated air hit his face and nose as he opened it. I’m glad I don’t have better smell genes than I do. That might be a little strong.
He carefully put both cookie sheets in and nosed the oven shut, making sure it was still set for 350 Fahrenheit.
Then he and the three kittens collapsed into a sleep pile. “Only eight minutes to nap is still an eight-minute nap.”
They woke nine minutes later. Alarmed, Carter poked his three siblings awake.
“Guys, help! The cookies! I think they’re burning.”
All four agreed they could smell just a touch of crisped cooking smell coming from the oven, but they thought it was still okay. Carter made the three kittens stand back again, although all three craned their heads to look into the oven from a safe distance.
Grabbing his glove in his mouth, Carter carefully opened the oven and put the cookies onto the counter to cool.
The kittens joined him, climbing up his body and onto the cabinet so they could look at the cookies. They were so engrossed in this inspection, they missed the four adults coming into the kitchen.
Veronica with her large orange Maine Coon body led the way. “Kids, we’ve been talking. What are you four menaces up to?”
Carter and the kittens turned. Carter thought quickly. Well, the cookies were done. Right?
He shouted, “Surprise. We made cookies for National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day.”
Their father blinked. “There’s a National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day?”
He and Edmund exchanged glances. The tall human replied, “I didn’t know either. Definitely one of our better customs. A day to celebrate chocolate chip cookies!”
Veronica and Raihana looked at the kids’ cookies.
Raihana poked one carefully. “It needs to cool a minute or two more, but they look pretty good and they smell wonderful.”
Veronica carefully examined another cookie and inhaled. “There’s an awful lot of chocolate chips here. And it smells like just the edges are crisped.”
Carter nodded enthusiastically as the sights and smells of the cookies made him drool. “Of course. More chocolate chips are better. Right?”
Veronica just nodded at her adopted offspring. Then she looked at him again. “Carter, perhaps you should--”
Carter shook his head at the thought of getting to eat some of these cookies. This caused the drool that his mom had noticed to splatter across the room, fortunately missing the cookies.
As Edmund and Raihana wiped the kittens off, their father laughed. “Drool is love.”
After discussing, everyone decided since Carter had come up with the idea and the best, most distracting distraction, he deserved the first cookie.
As he chewed it, he thought very carefully. Then he announced, “It’s just slightly burned on the edges, but it makes a good contrast to the gooey center. The vanilla enhanced the favor profile significantly. Definitely our best cookies yet.”
Valerie mewed as she tasted one, “We should do this every August Fourth!”
Carter had a sudden thought. He looked at his smaller, older siblings. “How did you three scoop the cookie dough onto the trays anyway?”
We hope you’re enjoying Carter’s adventures in learning to be sapient!
~Anna and Tod
More IP Writing on the Way!
Anna and I are please to announce that our story, Family Honor, has earned a spot in the Annals of the Auran Empire anthology. The anthology is set in the Adventurer Conqueror King System Imperial Imprint RPG universe of the Auran Empire. (Think Fantasy Rome.)
Crowd funding opens in September. But don’t fret - you can sign up to be reminded via BackerKit now and get the first chapter of John C Wright’s story “Shadowblade”!
https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/8b8be898-82a5-4dc9-868d-aa9a9b449f6e/landing
We’re pleased to see our fellow Alpha Mercs joining us: Zane Voss, Sam Robb (the first anthology we were in was also with Sam), B.K. Gibson (who also gave great developmental feedback during edits https://coldlightrpgpress.weebly.com/), and Nathaniel McIntyre.
We think our story has the most interesting one liner in the announcement:
“Family Honor” by A. Kristina Casasent, featuring a Ring Against the Wolf, tells the story of a Tirenean nobleman struggling with the challenge of producing an heir with his new wife.
For more details, checkout the Arbiter of Worlds blog!
