"We start with the flour," Stella said, handing him a bowl of wheat .

"What?" Joseph asked, with a laugh . "I'm supposed to grind my own flour?"

"Why not? Instead of using magic all the time, try doing things the old-fas.h.i.+oned way . The grain grinder is right over there," she said, smirking as she pointed to the grinder mounted on the thick table behind him .

"Alright, how much do we need?" he asked, setting the bowl down and examining the grinder curiously . A tiny makers mark of a mouse attested to the fact it must have been brought over from the other realm with some of the beast-kin .

"The recipe requires three and a third cups of finely ground flour . In my life as Sylva, it would have been called all purpose . "

Joseph dutifully placed a handful of grain in the grinder, making sure there was a bowl under the outspout, and began turning the handle to grind the grain . As it slowly trickled out, he looked at the results and gave her an incredulous look .

Stella couldn't hold back her laugh anymore, and ended up leaning against the counter holding her belly .

"Oh, haha," he grumbled .

PREPARE FOOD .

A bowl of fine white flour replaced the bowl of unground grain .

"Oh, spoil sport," she laughed, wiping her eyes .

Setting the bowl down next to her, he said, "Okay, other than flour, what's in these mystical cookies?"

"The next thing is baking soda and salt . Both of which we get from mines far to the west . "

"Wait, I know that salt can come out of the ground, but baking soda?" he looked at the white powder she pulled out of her purse, suspiciously .

"How else do you think it's made? Sylva's people always mined it, and crushed it into fine powders to use for baking with . It actually comes in many different colors . I always liked the blue myself, but it's white here . "

TEST FOOD .

It was indeed baking soda . While it wasn't completely pure, it would definitely do the job .

"I guess I never thought about it before . "

She raised an eyebrow . "How can you consume food, and not know where it came from? That would be like going to a market, and purchasing food, without understanding that the eggs came from chickens or the milk from goats . "

Joseph was silent because he knew that happened a lot in some of his previous lives .

"How much baking soda and salt go into these cookies?"

She raised an eyebrow at his redirection, but turned back to the table . "One and a half teaspoons of baking soda, and one and three quarters of a teaspoon salt . "

"There's more salt than baking soda?"

"Are you going to question every ingredient?"

"Sorry . "

"Mix those three together, and set the bowl aside while we work on the other parts . "

Joseph dutifully measured and mixed the three ingredients,

Stella went over to the cabinet that had been magically reinforced to stay cool inside, and pulled out a bowl of b.u.t.ter .

"Measure out a cup of this b.u.t.ter into another bowl," she said, handing it to him, as she closed the cabinet .

"Wow a whole cup? No wonder I like them . I just hope I don't get fat off of these . "

"That's not the best part . We need two cups of sugar and a third of a cup of mola.s.ses . "

"Let me guess, we don't have brown sugar?"

"If we had brown sugar, it would be two cups of brown sugar, but we don't, so it's white sugar and mola.s.ses . "

"It's a good thing I had sugar cane grown down here . "

"Otherwise these poor people would never know the joys of white sugar," she said with a grin .

"Exactly . " Joseph measured and mixed again, as Stella watched him carefully, to make sure he mixed it enough . He was tempted to use magic again, but decided not to, with her hawk gaze on him .

"That's nice and creamy, you can stop stirring it now . "

"Are you sure? I can sc.r.a.pe the bowl a couple more times to be sure," he said, exaggerating the sc.r.a.pes along the edges .

"Oh, you!" she said with a laugh, shaking her head . "We need to add three eggs to the sugar mix, and some vanilla extract . "

Taking a jar out of another cabinet, the vanilla beans could barely be seen floating in the alcohol .

Cracking an egg against the edge of the bowl, he froze when some of the sh.e.l.l fell into the mix .

"Use the spoon to get it out," Stella said, holding out a spoon before he could use his fingers or magic .

Closing his mouth, Joseph took the spoon and chased the tiny piece of sh.e.l.l around the bowl, before finally getting it out with the spoon . The next two eggs he cracked into another bowl, before he added to the sugar mix .

"Alright, how much vanilla extract?"

"I love vanilla, so I put in three teaspoons . "

"Isn't that a bit strong for this concentrate of vanilla extract?"

She looked at him, blinking a couple of times, and he sighed, measuring out three teaspoons of the extract . The smell of the vodka was pretty strong, but he didn't say anything . He now knew why she loved these cookies so much .

"Now, mix the wet ingredients until they are smooth, and we'll start adding in the flour mix . "

"This is looking pretty good, could I try it?" he asked, glancing at her as she turned back to look at him in horror .

Laughing he mimed taking a bite, and she glared at him until he went back to stirring . She made him add the flour mixture until it was incorporated, but not over-mixed, then pulled out the best ingredient of them all, the bowl of chocolate chips .

"How many of those, do we add?" he asked, watching as she smelled them with a smile .

"Three- and three-quarter cups," she said with a wide grin, pouring them carefully into the measuring cup .

"Wait, that's more chocolate chips than flour!" he exclaimed, as she dumped the chocolate into his bowl of cookie dough .

"I know!" she crowed in delight, taking the bowl and stirring the chips in and grabbing the cookie sheet off the shelf behind him .

Joseph stepped back and watched her s.p.a.ce the tablespoon-sized mounds an equal distance from each other onto the cookie sheet, easily getting twelve cookies on it, before grabbing another sheet . By the time she was done, there were thirty-six cookies ready to bake in the oven .

"What's the temperature?" she asked him, glancing inside the oven .

DETECT FIRE .

"About 450 degrees Fahrenheit, or 230 degrees Celsius . Isn't that a bit hot?"

"Nope! That's perfect!" she said, sliding all three cookie sheets into the oven and shutting it securely .

"How long do they cook?" he asked, furrowing his brow in concern . He didn't want them to burn!

"Only about five minutes! I like to take them out about four and a half, because they keep cooking . If they stay too long, they burn quickly . "

Joseph stepped back and watched her do her magic . She had said there was another ingredient, but he hadn't seen her add anything . Maybe it was the vodka from the vanilla extract? He doubted it .

At just the right time, she pulled the sheets out, and set them on the counter . Then with a thin metal spatula, she transferred them to a wire rack to finish cooling .

"You can have one now," she said, popping one in her mouth with a soft moan of delight, closing her eyes as she savored the gooey mess .

"It's a good thing I gave you a tattoo that protects against fire, otherwise I'm pretty sure that was too hot to eat . "

"Oh, it was," she said after chewing and swallowing . "Now, we just need a couple of gla.s.ses of cold milk . "

CREATE FOOD .

"Done," he said with a smile .