Chapter 54: Sourdough Bread
After she got over the initial shock, Amber was happy that she was pregnant. She loved Eli so much and knew she would love her other children just as much!
She wondered if she would have a cheetah cub or a mermaid. She was kind of excited about a mermaid, but she didn't voice her opinion in case she hurt Nick's feelings.
"So, when will I know if it is a male or female?" Amber asked Dr. Tony. He responded, "Nick should be able to hear heartbeats in a few weeks if it is Cheetah cubs. In two or three months you will know if it is a male or female."
Amber nodded. She would have to wait and see what she would be having. Nick was so excited his tail was wagging. He came up to Amber and hugged her gently around the waist.
"Are you hungry? Are you thirsty? What can I get for you?" He was already spoiling her even more knowing that she might be pregnant with his cubs.
Amber thought about it. She was a little thirsty and wanted some lemonade. She asked, "Do we have any sour fruit?" Barry responded, "Yes, we have some. Would you like that drink you showed us last time with sour fruit and sweet water?"
Amber's eyes glowed in anticipation and she nodded her head like a bobblehead doll. Barry thought she was extra cute today. He was so happy she had returned.
He went to make some of her special drink she called lemonade. While he was mixing the drink, Tyler brought her some cool water from the freshwater stream.
Amber thanked him and sipped on it until Barry returned with her lemonade. She was thinking about what to eat and then remembered the sourdough starter she brought back with her.
She asked, "Do we have more wheat or flour?" Barry brought her the lemonade and responded, "We have more wheat. I can grind it into flour."
She thanked him and nodded in agreement. She announced, "I will teach you how to make sourdough bread. We should have a special dinner to celebrate the new member of the family."
She thought baking bread was a great way to celebrate a bun in the oven! She didn't tell them her thoughts because it would be hard to explain. She smiled at her thoughts.
Oliver was excited to learn how to make this new recipe. He was a good chef. He learned how to make tortillas well and thought this would be the same.
He asked Amber, "What do you need? I will help you make it so I can learn." Amber smiled at him. Barry was grinding up the wheat into flour, so she asked Tyler to get her some more water.
Tyler brought the water to Amber, she used it to do a float test and see if the sourdough starter was ready. In a small cup, she dropped a small amount of the sourdough starter into the water and it floated. It was ready!
Eli and Oliver were watching intently. This could be considered a science experiment in the beast world. Blue Tang asked, "Is it alive or dead since it floats?"
Amber explained. "The sourdough starter is kind of alive. It has wild yeast that grows if you feed it and take care of it. It will keep growing. It floats because of the air bubbles inside. That means it is ready to turn it into dough and then bake it into bread."
They were all impressed with her explanation. They had never seen anything like this before. Amber asked Dr. Tony, "Are you going to stay for dinner?"
He wanted to say yes, but he had to get back to the Cheetah Village. He was the only doctor and there were a few females who were pregnant. "I have to get back to Cheetah Village today. I only came for a quick check-up. Congratulations. I will be happy to see you again soon."
Amber nodded and Dr. Tony left. Nick made sure no one else was around. He didn't want too many beast men to know about Amber's newest invention.
He already shared some life-saving ideas from Amber with the rest of the beast men, but he didn't want them to become too interested in her. He wanted to keep Amber to himself as much as possible.
If other kings found out that Amber was not from this world, they may join together to abduct her. He already went through that with Blue Tang accidentally and wasn't excited to do it again.
Amber was oblivious to Nick's thoughts and was only being nice to Dr. Tony since he was a friend. She didn't think about the consequences.
She pulled out her notebook from her backpack and found the recipe she wrote down for bread. She asked Oliver, "Do we have any oil?"
Oliver nodded. She had shown them how to make cold-pressed oil last time from certain plants and seeds. They collected olives and created olive oil for cooking.
She replied, "Great! I will need flour, water, oil, and some salt. We will mix them with this starter and make the dough."
The beast men brought her the ingredients she needed. Nick went to get salt. Barry brought the flour. Tyler brought the water and Tom brought some oil.
They were all excited to learn this new recipe. Eli jumped up and down in excitement. He was playing with the float tester. He would poke it with his finger to make it sink and watch as it floated back to the surface.
He was easily entertained. Amber laughed at his game. She let him play with the dough. In her world, she would have given him playdough. It wouldn't hurt to let him play with it.
She asked Oliver to clean off a large stone table and bowl so she could show them how to make the dough. She started by squishing the mixture with her hands until the flour became part of the dough.
She placed the dough ball into the stone bowl and covered it with a damp cloth she brought with her. She didn't want to use a fur towel in case it got hair in the dough.
She explained as she washed her hands, "Now we wait for the dough to rest. It will take about 30 minutes to an hour."
They waited and then Amber rolled the dough into a ball. "Now we wait again until the ball grows twice its size. This can take 3-4 hours. We will check it after lunch."
It was still warm outside, so Amber didn't think the dough would take too long to rise. She asked, "What else should we eat for dinner?" Oliver was excited and brought Amber some Spinach he found.
"I found some edible leaves for you. They are good for pregnant females." Amber was glad to see a different type of vegetable. She needed nutrients other than from meat and bread.
"This is called Spinach in my world and I love it with some olive oil dressing! Thank you!" She remembered a salad recipe her mother made that had Olive oil, red wine vinegar, honey, Dijon mustard, garlic, salt, and pepper.
She didn't have all of the ingredients, but luckily she brought some red wine vinegar in her backpack. She didn't think she would be able to make it in the beast world.
She started to mix a salad dressing with oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and garlic. She tasted it to test it and it was not bad. She added a squeeze of lemon juice and it was perfect!
She decided to save the honey since she didn't have the Dijon Mustard. She could add some berries to give it some sweetness.
She made a side salad and tasted it after Oliver washed the spinach leaves. "Mmm! This is so good! Thank you! I needed this!" Oliver's ears turned bright red from Amber's exaggerated praise.
He was just happy that he found more food for Amber. Most of the beast men only ate meat, but he knew that Amber loved fruits and vegetables as well as meat.
Amber asked them, "Would you guys like to try the salad?" There were not enough spinach leaves for everyone, but they didn't want to eat the leaves.
Nick responded, "You should eat it. There is not a lot. We mostly eat meat."
Amber just shrugged and offered a bite to Oliver. He hesitated at first, but Amber was persistent. She knew he liked vegetables and she knew he would love this salad.
Oliver took a bite from Amber's salad and his eyes widened in surprise. He had tried the leaves before, but they never tasted this good! He loved the new salad!
Amber chuckled at his response and offered a bite to Eli. Eli also liked the salad, but not as much as he liked fruits. He was happy that his mother found more food that she liked.
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