Side Story: Viola’s Adventures in Cookie Baking

“Uhh... Where was the flour, again? Not the white flour—the whole wheat.”

“Over here, Madame!”

“Thanks! Next up, I need, uh...sugar...and eggs...”

“Here you go. Have at it.”

There I was, cooking for you live from the Fisalis manor kitchen! Well, I say “cooking,” but I wasn’t making any real food—just baking cookies. Cartham was the one setting out the ingredients for me on command.

“The recipe calls for candied camellia fruit too...but my mother used to make that herself, so there’s no way we’d have it here.”

Now this was a problem.

Though our kitchen had just about anything you could name, it was nothing but luxury ingredients. Seeing as my family had been deep in the depths of poverty, all our foodstuffs had been commoner-tier, and we’d provided for ourselves however we could. Our candied fruit, for example, had been homemade with the pickings from our garden trees.

“If we don’t have something, there’s not much to be done about it. Why don’t you substitute something we do have?” Cartham suggested, fishing out some dried fruit from the stock. Top-of-the-line dried fruit, naturally.

“That’s not a bad idea, but it might taste different if I do that.”

I wanted to follow the recipe as closely as possible to replicate the taste of my mother’s cooking—and that meant making some things from scratch.

What exactly was I trying to make, you might be wondering?

“Cookies” was the short version, but these weren’t just any cookies; I was specifically attempting to reproduce a treat that my mother used to make back home. The Euphorbia household wasn’t exactly loaded with cash, so whipping up all our meals and snacks herself had been par for the course.

One of her favorite treats to bake for me had been the cookies I just mentioned.

Back when I lived with my parents, I used to watch my mother make them all the time. It had been a while since then, however, so my recollection of the ratios was a little fuzzy. Though I did remember the ingredient list, if nothing else.

“The recipe calls for flour, butter, eggs, sugar, and dried fruit. We’ve got everything set out, but now the question is how much of each to put in.” I stared daggers at the ingredients lined up on the counter, doing my darndest to remember how this went.

“Madame! You’ll get wrinkles on your forehead! Such a waste of beauty!”

“Oh, whoops. Was I frowning that hard? I just can’t seem to remember the proper ratios for everything, that’s all.”

“Then why don’t you try basing it off a similar recipe?” he suggested, letting me have a look at his own version. Ooh, this is valuable information! Thanks a bunch!

Grateful for the help, I was officially pumped to give this thing a try. “All right, it’s time to make a test batch!”

So why did I decide to make these cookies in the first place, you ask? Well, it all goes back to something that adorable daughter of mine said...

* * *

Rewind to a few days earlier.

Mr. Fisalis was going to be on a business trip for a couple days, so Violet and I went to stay with my parents at the Euphorbia manor.

Violet may have been the star of the Fisalis manor, but that was nothing compared to how much the Euphorbias adored her. My little brother, Thistle; my little sister, Freesia; and even my frequently absent father had all been eagerly awaiting her arrival.

“Grandpa! Granny! Thistle! Freesia! Hi!”

Seeing our little Violet grown-up enough to greet the family brought a smile to everyone’s faces.

My father threw open his arms in welcome, and Violet flung herself right at him.

“Thanks for coming, kiddo! What do you feel like playing today?” Father lifted her up in his arms, totally gaga over her already! He sure did love to spoil that girl rotten.

My contract—ahem! I mean, my marriage had managed to free my family from rock-bottom poverty. The bridewealth alone had been enough to wipe their debts clean, and between that and the aid they’d continued to receive from the Fisalis family afterwards, they were far from destitute. Why, they even had a little money to spare these days!

Father, Thistle, and Freesia played with Violet in the living room. The only ones around to watch over this heartwarming scene were our butler, Orchis, and the same old family maid. Hardly anything had changed since I’d left home to get married.

“Now that you can afford it, you should hire a few more servants,” I said to my mother. “Isn’t it hard for you and the one maid to handle all this work by yourselves?”

“Goodness, no! This is all we need. I have much more fun staying active than I would living the leisurely life of a countess.”

Wow, Mom, that’s the most relatable thing I’ve ever heard.

So there you have it—as usual, it was just my mother and our small handful of servants running the Euphorbia manor.

“Lettie, Thistle, Freesia! It’s snack time!” Mother announced, bringing in a basket from the kitchen. Inside was a small batch of cookies hot from the oven.

“Oh, wow! Hooray!”

“I’ll grab one for you, Lettie.”

“Thank you, Freesia.”

My parents and I got a case of the warm fuzzies as we watched the three kids happily chow down on their treats. These freshly baked, fragrant cookies were my mother’s homemade specialty.

Violet soon came over to me with a cookie in hand, insisting, “Here, Mommy! You have one too!” The moment I took a bite, a nostalgic flavor exploded in my mouth.

“Mmm, this is so good! The taste is as great as ever! Man, the camellia skin gives it such a nice flavor.”

“I made sure to candy plenty of camellia fruits this year. It’s a handy way to preserve them.”

Yep, you heard me—this recipe called for camellia fruit skins.

Cleaning may be the first thing to come to mind at the mention of a camellia fruit, but it’s perfectly edible too! It has a tart but refreshing flavor. Back at the Fisalis manor, we always used the juice in our cooking, then kept the leftover skins for cleaning. Here at the Euphorbias’, however, we would get even further use out of those fruits by zesting them for flavoring or preserving thin slices of the outermost skin in sugar.

The aforementioned candied peels were a key ingredient in these cookies.

“Talking about camellias sure takes me back. I remember how you used to send me out into the garden to pick some so I could peel and candy them.”

“What, you don’t do that anymore?”

“I couldn’t even if I wanted to!”

“Oh, fair point.”

Two days later, Mr. Fisalis came to pick us up on his way home from his business trip, which marked the end of our homecoming. The three of us went back to the Fisalis manor together.

And that brings us to today.

“I want to eat Granny’s cookies,” Violet announced.

“Granny’s not here, sweetie. She can make some the next time we go visit. I’ll be sure to mention it to her.”

“But I want them now!”

“Hmm... What to do...?”

Violet was usually pretty good about listening to what I said, but this was bad timing. With how close it was getting to her naptime, her sleepiness was turning her into a little terror. And if I told her “no” too harshly, it’d just make her burst into tears.

Oh, I know!

“I’ll make you a batch myself! Does that sound good?”

“Yeah!”

“While you’re napping like a good little girl, I’ll be doing my best to make you those cookies.”

“Okay! I’ll have a nappy-nap like a good little girl.”

It looked like I’d succeeded in winning her favor.

“Why don’t you take your nappy-nap with Daddy?” Mr. Fisalis, who had been listening in on our conversation thus far, scooped Violet up in his arms and assumed bedtime duty. “I’ll go put her to sleep, so you just worry about making those cookies, Vi.”

“Please and thank you!”

Leaving my husband and daughter behind in the parlor, I hurried off to the kitchen.

And that brings us back to the beginning of our story.

* * *

To get the ball rolling, I gave it a try using Cartham’s recipe.

“It’s not bad... In fact, these are perfectly tasty. But something’s just not right.”

That was one of Cartham’s recipe for you—even with a bit of my own spin on it, it still came out great. Was he some kind of wizard or what?

“Not right how?” Cartham asked, taste-testing one of the cookies.

“It should be, I dunno...a little more tart? Or like...a refreshing camellia fragrance is supposed to fill your mouth...”

“Hmm... Then your recipe must have included grated camellia fruit peel, non?”

Good old Cartham! He knew exactly what I was missing based on my explanation alone.

“Oh, you’re right! Mother used to put camellia fruit zest in the cookies! Gosh, how could I have forgotten that? Do we have any camellia skins here now?”

“Sorry, Madame, but no dice! We’re all out.”

“Too bad.”

We had some camellia fruit growing in the manor garden, so whenever we needed them for something, we’d take the opportunity to pick them fresh off the trees.

“Okay! Then I’ll go pick some now!”

“What?! Madame?!”

I flew out of the kitchen before he could stop me. If we didn’t have the ingredients I needed, I’d go acquire them myself!

Luckily, I could find those camellia trees with my eyes closed. I made a straight dash for where I knew they were. If I dilly-dallied too long, Violet would wake up from her nap!

I made my way to the camellia tree closest to the manor. Thinking back, this was exactly where I’d fallen on my back way back when.

The fruits were growing a little high up today. If Mr. Fisalis were there, he would have been able to reach up and pick them for me, but I was a little too short to make it work. It seemed my only option was reverting to my old tree-climbing days.

Then, just as I oh-so-stealthily crept over to the tree and placed my hands around the trunk...

“Weren’t you banned from tree-climbing?”

“Eek! It’s the Demon King!”

Out of nowhere, Bellis’s voice rang out from behind me. I thought my heart was going to leap out of my chest!

“Oy vey. You want to earn yourself another crash-landing?”

“Come on, it’s not like I was trying to fall out of the tree that one time! Oh, but you came at just the right time, Bellis! See those fruits up there? Those are what I’m looking for. Now if only someone could pick them for me, I wouldn’t have to climb this tree...”

“Wait here.”

The moment I turned my puppy eyes on Bellis, he went ahead and picked the fruit for me.

“Thanks so much! Once the cookies are done, I’ll bring a few of them to the greenhouse!”

As soon as I’d taken the fruits off Bellis’s hands, I turned on my heels and hurried back to the manor.

When I made it back to the kitchen, Cartham had a menacing look on his face.

“Oh, Madame...? You didn’t go climbing any trees, now, did you?”

“Don’t worry! Bellis went ahead and picked them for me, so I kept both feet firmly on the ground!”

“C’est bien!” The moment he knew I hadn’t broken the rules, he flipped right back to his usual, smiling self.

“Okay, now it’s time to zest these fruits!”

“It’ll turn out bitter if you add too much, so moderation is key here.”

“Got it!”

Getting advice from Cartham on the side, I once again went to work making the cookie dough.

“All done!”

“My, what a simple but flavorful cookie!”

“Isn’t it just?! It’s a little different from the taste of my mother’s cooking, but I think this’ll do!”

The camellia flavor was stronger than in the last batch, giving the cookies a much crisper taste. Since I’d followed Cartham’s advice and held back on adding too much zest, it wasn’t particularly bitter either.

It was close—but not identical—to the taste of home.

“Do you think this will be enough to satisfy Lettie?”

She did say she wanted to eat “Granny’s” cookies...

Just as I let my head hang, starting to lose my confidence, Cartham stepped in to give me the encouragement I needed. “Even if it’s not the exact taste of your mother’s cooking, to little Lettie, it will be the taste of her mother’s cooking. I’m sure she’ll be delighted!”

“So it’s my own version of ‘mom’s home cooking,’ huh?”

“Precisely. Just call it a Viola Original!”

“Good thinking!”

A Viola Original, eh? Yeah, let’s run with that!

* * *

As soon as Violet woke up from her nap, I treated her and Mr. Fisalis to my cookies.

What will they think? I wondered as I watched their expressions closely, my heart pounding with anticipation. And then...

“Yummy! Did you make this, Mommy?” Violet asked, her face lighting up like a sunbeam.

The look on her face tells me everything I need to know!

“That’s right! Your mommy did her very best to make you happy, Lettie!”

“Yay! Thanks, Mommy!”

“Let’s have Granny’s cookies the next time we go to her house, okay?”

“Okay!”

Whew, I’m glad that worked out. My mother’s cooking was her own, and my cooking was my own—and so we closed the case by counting these cookies as my own spin on an old favorite.