After Lyn told her friends over the breakfast that it is not going to be possible to prepare Macaroni due to lack of some ingredients. After finishing taking coffee, they set to the kitchen to inspect the available ingredients so as to settle on what to prepare on lunch time. The girls quickly check the store, laying out their ingredients on the kitchen counter.
"So, what's on the menu judging by all this we have here?" Harriet asked, tying her apron.
"I am thinking we make some mix dishes something like chapati, chicken stew, and a fresh salad," Lyn suggested. The other two nodded in agreement, excited to get started.
"So, who is going to do what and what, or are we going to do one at a time?" asked Sharon.
"I think we should choose depending on what one feels is capable of making," suggested Harriet. "Now that what we are to make is totally different from the initial plan, I think we can all agrees that I make chapati as you two do chicken and salad."
"That sounds fair, but personally I wanted to know how to make chapati. Since my love for chapati has grown immensely, it would be better for me to learn how to make it." Sharon murmured.
"You can start by helping Harriet as I chopped the vegetables for the salad," said Lyn.
"What of chicken, don't we need to start preparing it now?" Sharon asked.
"Yes, but it won't be fair to you if you miss this chance of learning to make chapati today, besides we still got enough time to cook all these food in time." Suggested Lyn.
"I guess it is me and you now Harriet."
As Sharon moves to where Harriet was, she was reminded by Harriet to put on her apron and also to tie her hair neatly before coming closer. Hariet took her time to educate Sharon of the origin of the food she now loves very much. As the ladies were preparing themselves to start cooking, on the other hand Samuel was contemplating on how she was going to convince her sister to let her speak to Sharon a lady he has crushed on for so long.
Now that the lady is here, he was thinking how is he going to maneuverer his way to be able to express his feelings. He had supressed his feelings enough and today is that day he is going to set his heart free out of the bondage. He remembers how he deceives the boys whom he was supposed to go hunting with toady. Sitting on his bed upstairs. He could clearly hear the girls giggling as they are talking in the kitchen. He was afraid to face Sharon for he feared rejection from her. He knows very well that her sister Lyn will not approves of him dating Sharon considering his history with ladies. Sharon too knows all of his past girlfriends so to him this was a bigger task to handle now that Sharon is within his reach in the kitchen talking and laughing.
When it came to relationships, his luck seemed to play hide and seek. Almost every month, he found himself bidding farewell to one girlfriend and awkwardly introduce another girlfriend to her sister Lyn almost immediately after leaving another one. The frequent of which he always does that always leave Lyn in disbelief wondering if he always had other girls in line ready to replace the current girl he is dating. It was not that he lacked affection towards the girls he is dating or a lack of effort. In fact, he always charming to his dates a guy who is ready to go far as organizing surprise dates and even singing off-key love songs.
He thought maybe, his habit of trying to mould himself into what he thought each girl wanted is what drives the ladies away for he thought he did not meet the expectations of the ladies.
"So here is what we are going to do," Harriet told Sharon. "We are going to need four cups of fluor in a bowl, a teaspoon of salt but with salt you can taste in the process to get the correct measurement. Then we can either decide to use melted butter or a tablespoon of cooking oil."
"Can't we use both oil and butter at the same time?" Asked Sharon as she set the bowl for kneading the dough.
"No, we can't use both. We can only use one in substitute of the other. Bear in mind that the purpose of the oil or butter while kneading is to make the dough soft so as to produce soft chapati and when our dough has too much of oil in return the chapati will be too oily."
"You said four cups of flour, but you have not mentioned the amount of water need and what if water is going to be too much for flour?"
"We are going to need an extra flour which we will use to adjust the thickness of the dough and also it will be used for dusting when we start rolling. Again, oil or ghee for cooking chapatis. For water one can use cold water or warm water. For us we are going to use warm water."
Harriet mixes the dough in a bowl. Sharon watches keenly, she combines flour and salt. She then adds warm water gradually while kneading until a soft, non-sticky dough forms in a bowl. "You have to knead well then add oil, after that you have to knead for at least 10 minutes again until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. Now we will have to cover it and let it rest for about 30 minutes"
Harriet demonstrated for her friend how to divide the dough into small balls, Sharon joins her in the making round balls, they then dust the flat surface with flour and roll each one into a thin circle. Place a rolled ball in the pan flip and cook on the other side, they pressed gently to help it puff up as they wet the pan with oil. The two ladies make a mouth-watering chapatis which were golden brown in colour. They then proceed to help Lyn with marinating the chicken. As they worked together, the kitchen filled with laughter and chatter. The rhythm of their movements was synchronized, a testament to their close bond.
"Remember that time we tried to make mandazi, and we ended up with rock-hard biscuits?" Sharon recalled, laughing.
"Oh, that was a disaster! But hey, we have come a long way since then," Lyn added, grinning.
The aroma of the cooking food the three friends were making soon filled the house, drawing Lyn's elder brother, Samuel from his room where he was still contemplating. He gathers courage and approaches the kitchen where his sister and the two ladies were.
"What's going on here?" he asked, pretending not to know what was going on as he peeks into the kitchen.
"Hey, Samuel! We're having a cooking party. Want to join us?" Harriet offered.
Samuel shook his head, smiling. "I think I will just wait and eat, am terrible at cooking" he lied that he does not know how to cook while disappearing back to his room afraid to be in the same room as Sharon with other ladies for he knows he was going to blows his chance staying there.