The Countdown

Mind Games

Tigress and Viper headed over to the kitchen so that Viper could show her friend how to bake. When they entered the kitchen, Viper turned to Tigress and said, "So, the first step in baking cookies is knowing what ingredients you need for the recipe. So, you're making almond and chocolate chip cookies, which means you need two separate recipes."

"Two recipes?" Tigress repeated.

"You can't make two different types of cookies in the same batch," Viper told her.

Tigress groaned. "This is going to be impossible," she muttered to herself.

"No it won't. It'll just take a little more time than you thought."

The master sighed. "Alright," she said. "What am I supposed to do then?"

"Well, lets go over the first thing: what do we need to make cookies."

"The last time I had to make anything," Tigress reminded her. "Shifu just wrote down the things I needed to put into the pot."

"You know, in hindsight, it was probably a good thing you blew the kitchen up," Viper said. "I mean, when I walked in to see if you needed help, you were putting the vegetables in the pot without cutting them up, you had the entire pot full of icey water, and I don't think you even washed the vegetables."

"Thanks," Tigress said with an eye roll. "So what do I need in order to make this stuff?"

"Well that depends on which batch of cookies you want to make first."

"I told him almond cookies first, so I guess those are the ones I'm making right now."

"Okay, so for almond cookies, you'll need flour, almonds, butter, an egg, salt, baking soda, and sugar."

Tigress eyed her but then slowly walked over to collect the ingredients that Viper had directed her to get out. She placed everything on the counter and said, "Okay, what now?"

"Now we have to mix them in a bowl, minus the almonds," Viper said.

Tigress got out a small bowl from the dishware pantry and set it down on the counter. Viper laughed. "It needs to be a little bigger than that," she said.

"Like the soup pot?"

"No, we have mixing bowls on the shelf over there; they're a little bit bigger than regular food bowls."

Tigress glanced over at the shelf, spotting bigger bowls. "Oh," she said. She walked over and grabbed one of the bigger bowls, setting it down on the counter and putting the other one back. "So, I just put everything in here?" she asked.

"In certain amounts, yes," Viper said. "You need measuring cups so that you can measure everything out."

Tigress sighed and opened up a few drawers before she found the one with the measuring utensils and took them out.

"Okay, good so far," Viper said.

"The egg doesn't need to be measured, does it?" Tigress asked.

"No, you just put it in."

Tigress shrugged and put the egg gently inside of the bowl. Viper stifled a laugh. "Tigress," she said. "You have to crack it open and put the yolk in the bowl, not the whole egg."

"The yolk?"

"Yes, that's the yellow part inside of the egg. That's the part we eat, not the outside."

Tigress took the egg out and looked at it.

"Okay, now I want you to-"

Viper was interrupted when the master then slammed the egg into the bowl where it smashed into pieces with eggyolk and egg shell mixed into the bowl. "So, do I have to take the white shells out then?" she asked, her paw stiff from the unnatural goo that hung on it.