Nano-Sapiens: Carter and the Easter Cookies
Carter discovers the meaning of Easter and helps Kathy sneaking around in the kitchen again. Plus, critter pics and links to published and future fiction!
Happy Easter and Fourth Day of Passover
We hope everyone is having a good weekend.
This week we’re starting off with critter pictures and a group shot of roses.
Those are followed by the story of Carter learning about Easter, while helping Kathy out in the kitchen. As normal, next week expect the accompanying recipe.
Carter and the Easter Cookies
“Dad’s asleep in the dining room. Ready?” From her stool, Kathy set the oven. “300 Fahrenheit, right Carter?”
A blue LED on his collar showed where his canine voice was translated into English. “Yes, I checked it twice.”
Once Kathy was on the floor, Carter put his head down. His white and black Newfoundland dog body was bred for pulling, but he pushed her stool to their ingredients.
Afterwards, Carter carefully stood with his front paws on the countertop.
Again, atop her stool, Kathy announced, “Carter, we’re going to surprise everyone with Resurrection Cookies tomorrow.”
“Isn’t Easter tomorrow?”
“Yes silly. That’s when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. This year with cookies!”
Doubtfully, Carter surveyed the ingredients. “Are you sure this makes cookies? Are we grinding almonds into flour?”
Kathy put on her most grown-up voice. “No. We’re making the cookies with crushed almonds because momma’s allergic to pecans.”
She measured almonds into a plastic bag and retrieved a huge wood hammer from behind the ingredients.
Carter’s ears pulled back, and he yawned in suppressed concern. “I’ve never seen either of our parents cook with a hammer.”
Kathy’s voice grunted as she smashed the almonds. “This is to remind us. Uph. How bad people hurt Jesus.”
Carter whined and cocked an ear, but the dining-room door blocked the sound.
After a bit, Kathy gave the almonds a final whack. Carter was no chef, but he suspected the last strike was just for fun.
She held a bowl of clear liquid to her gigantic canine companion. “Smell that.”
Carter stuck his enormous black nose into the bowl and woof inhaled.
With a deep boof, he dropped to all fours, sneezing. Carter shook his head, trying to get the harsh smell out. Drool flew from his jowls to coat the lower cabinet doors.
Kathy put the bowl down and hugged Carter.
He felt her rubbing a towel on his face and chest.
“Sorry Carter. Can you imagine drinking that like Jesus did?”
“Drink it? I don’t even want to smell it again.”
They both froze as a car flew past the third-story window. After a moment, they went back to work.
“Now, we add the egg whites. Carter, what do eggs represent?”
“Oh.” Carter knew this. His long, heavy tail waved back and forth, low and slow as he thought.
His floppy ears visibly perked. “I remember. Eggs are life. Because live chickens come from eggs. Not kitchen eggs though.”
Kathy laughed. “That was pretty funny - and smelly - when you tried hatching eggs.”
Carter watched her add clear eggs to the bowl.
She opened the container of salt. “Now salt from tears cried when Jesus died.”
Kathy reached in and froze.
“Carter,” she whispered. “There’s no salt.”
Carter felt his tail drop and his ears with it. “No cookies?”
“We only need a little bit.”
They both considered the problem.
“Carter, I got it!” whisper-yelled Kathy. “The dining room saltshaker.”
“Where your dad is sleeping?”
Kathy’s brown eyes dimmed. Her dark face turned even darker.
Carter couldn’t stand to see Kathy sad. “We’ll sneak in and get it. Right?”
He and Kathy got down on all fours. They pushed open the heavy dining-room door.
A snore came from Kathy’s dad.
Without a word or a whine, Carter lowered himself and crawled forward.
Kathy crawled on all fours next to him. Finally, they reached the edge of the table.
Carter placed his head on Kathy’s neck, to tell her to hold still. He forgot his chin was always cold and wet from Newfie slobber.
Kathy started to squeal but buried her face in his fluffy mane to drown the noise.
Once she recovered, Carter lifted his head up. Seeing the salt right there, he grabbed it, closing his mouth around the small shaker.
He tasted the bitter grains as some spilled.
Back in the kitchen, Kathy added a pinch of salt to the bowl.
“Now the best part!” She slowly poured what Carter thought was a lot of sugar into the bowl. “Because of how sweet that Jesus loves us.”
Carter helped Kathy move the new mixing bowl to the cabinet. He let her plug it in, since they both knew from painful experiences that wet Newfie drool did not mix with electricity.
The new mixer was Kathy’s inspiration.
“One of the other Nano-Sapiens designed this. It’s quiet and doesn’t hurt dog or cat ears. Dad won’t hear it either.”
Carter fought down a laugh. After all, her father hadn’t heard the almonds being wacked with a hammer; he was pretty sure he would sleep through worse than the annoyance of a blender. As the mixer ran, Kathy lifted one of Carter’s ears and whispered, “The white is clean, like when our sins are forgiven by Jesus.”
Carter got really interested as Kathy mixed the nuts and put little cookie mounds on the parchment paper covered cookie sheet.
“Carter, this part is like Jesus’ tomb. But I expect His was bigger.”
He watched as she put the cookie sheet into the oven. Nobody had found a way for a Newfie to put stuff into an oven and not get burned yet.
Carter felt useful again as he pushed Kathy’s step stool over so she could switch the heat off. She also let him help seal the oven shut. His big nose was perfect for smoothing down tape.
“We seal the oven just like a tomb.”
“Kathy, I’m sad. I want cookies now.”
He felt her little arms wrapped around his neck. A little human peck of a kiss warmed the top of his nose momentarily.
“That reminds us of how sad it was while Jesus was dead.”
Carter considered this. “But we get the cookies tomorrow?”
Her arms renewed their hug. “Yes. The neat part is the cookies are sort of hollow inside. Just like Jesus’ tomb was empty on Easter.”
“Kathy, you know, I think these cookies are my favorite. Even better than canine safe chocolate-chocolate chip ones.”
Chaos Tip of the Week
Always check your chin for drool before resting it on someone’s neck; otherwise, it might be difficult to get the other person to hold still.
Chaos Question of the Week
Have you ever tried to pleasantly surprise a friend for loved one and ran into issues doing so?
~ Anna and Tod
More Nano-Sapiens!
Need something to read while your cookies are baking?
Curious about Carter’s future career?
Do you want to know more about the Nano-Sapiens and Carter’s cat friends and their adventures?
Are you aware of the intersection of poetry and monster-of-the-week television shows?
These questions and more are answered in “It’s Raining Cats and Dogs” part of Raconteur Press’ anthology Moggies in Space: A Galaxy Fur Fur Away. Buy it for the chaos and share it with the poetry lover or veteran in your life!
Available on Amazon! https://www.amazon.com/Moggies-Space-Galaxy-Raconteur-Anthologies-ebook/dp/B0CXZ5ZGXK
For other Nano-Sapiens adventures check out our author’s page at https://amazon.com/author/casasent
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. Arbiter of Worlds has a blog post with the complete author list and more details. The anthology is set in the Adventurer Conqueror King System Imperial Imprint RPG universe of the Auran Empire. (Think Fantasy Rome.)
Crowd funding opens June 8th, and you can sign up to be reminded via BackerKit now!
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!
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