I feel great about life right now, I honestly do. I have good food, a nice apartment, quality games to play and stories to read, it feels good even amongst all this suffering, and I should be able to admit that.

Now let's get to the meaty 'conclusion' of this story, shall we?

Chapter 12: Delicious Results

OR

Over Or Under The Rice

It is said, that somewhere across the horizon, lies an island who's surface might be plain, but carries under it a fantastical marvel. Floating below the choice waves lie hundreds, thousands, of white strands that float through the surf to the sand like massive tendrils of an all-mighty jellyfish. These strands, are choice, juicy pasta that moves as one from the cresting waves to the ocean sands below, adding to their grasp countless passing by fish and buried spices from the depths below, all mixing together and becoming denser and denser with ingredients as the pasta approaches its center, hiding away taste combinations any pirate would be glad to hoard for his own! This, is the Jumbalisland!

The day had come and gone, and now we had the E.T. Rice. And, oh god...

It was so worth it.

For the load of Minks and Squirrels, we got a 3 pound bag of E.T Rice to use as we wish, and we had made fabulous effect.

The first first pound and a half we set aside for planting and stress testing, all of which passed with flying colors. While it was able to grow well in numerous environments, ranging from the frigid wastes left behind by the Minks, to the heated fields besides the Sausage-Snakes, to even a small section of drywall I stuck some in just to see what would happen, it all sprouted and started to bud within a week, leaving us with far more than we had started with, even if at a slightly lesser quality than the truly space-age food. It actually seemed to grow the best when left alone in a bucket for a week and a half, door closed with a single drop of water per bucket, if even that, making us titter and grin like children.

The other pound and a half we were originally given? We sectioned it off so each of us could have a single bowl and it. was. amazing.

Cooked, Fried, Pounded, Over Sauce, or Under Meat, it was all so fluffy, flavorful, absorbable of flavor, any and every descriptor that could be applied to the wonderous grain. There were tears of joy in all of our eyes, the taste and what they meant overwhelming us all.

It would take ages for us to either farm enough rice or be traded stock to make this a part of every person's meal, but the fact was that it was now possible. It would years, possibly decades, but this precious ingredient from the stars above would find its place on the world below. The B.F.O. knew that was our intention, but maybe they didn't mind. It would get people off their back to keep supplying it to them at least a bit after all.

Still, no matter what the reason, if there even was one, progress tasted sweet.

Now we just had to find what other ingredients to pair it with.

END OF CHAPTER

And there we have it! The 'end' of Aidan's story. Now I have two options here. The first is I call this little foodie-based experiment to a close and slap a completed label on a story for the first time, or I go into an option I'd been debating a fair amount from the beginning of writing this; namely, turning this into an open story centering around shorts of different Hunters, Chefs, and Organization members exploring this taste-tastic world, with room for you all to write your own little blurbs to be added to the tally. Like the Loop Threads that people can go through and enjoy as they wish. Probably won't be as popular as the aforementioned threads cause Toriko is kind of a niche interest, but it works as a comparison, yaknow?

Now, for the 'last' Tips and Tricks

Emphasison 'Short' Bread: Shortbread Cookies

Short bread is delicious, without a doubt. Unfortunately though, it gets a terrible wrap for being stupidly difficult to make, leading most to only buy it from over-priced vaguely British or Scottish themed tins. Well struggle no more my friends, as I share with you a recipe that's quick, easy, and will leave you no shortage of these cute little crunchable confections.

3 Bricks of Margarine (or 12 oz of Butter, for 36 oz) Melted

2 Cups of Flour

1 Cup Icing Sugar

1 Cup Corn Starch

1 Medium to Large Sized Bowl

1 Cutting Board

2 Cookie Sheets

Parchment Paper

Granulated Sugar

Simple right? But it's also incredibly delicious. The recipe is just as easy to follow as the ingredient list will have you believe.

You start with getting your margarine (Or butter, doesn't make a ton of difference, but margarine is a bit cheaper for baking) in your chosen bowl, then pop that sucker in your microwave for 90 seconds or a minute and a half, depends on what your microwave allows. Either way it'll leave you with a nice melted base to work off of, and it's the only wet ingredient in this whole shebang.

From here, add it your Flour, Icing Sugar, and Corn Starch and mix it all up, till you get a nice bright dough to knead around.

Once it's nice and solid, get your hands on it and move it over to your cutting board. You're gonna be sectioning off what you want to bake at the moment into a nice, roundish tube shape, like a snake, then your gonna cut nice little rounds to pop on your baking sheets, with some parchment paper on them to make it hella easy to get off the pan once all is baked and done.

The rest of the dough you don't use, or don't fit over 2 pans, you can just wrap in plastic wrap and have it either live in the fridge for a few days while you make your way through your current batch, or freeze it for later to be dethawed and made then.

In any case, once you have your cookies all sliced up and on your tray, we finish it all up with a light sprinkling of white sugar over them all, then they're ready to go into the oven, set at 350 degrees for a whopping 12 to 18 minutes, with the former being better for those looking for light, crumbly cookies, while the latter is good for a more solid, crunchy cookie. For those who're after a great experience, then you can split the difference at 15 minutes.

Now you can make some delicious treats for any time of the year, perfect to melt some chocolate on, or dunk with some milk. I hope you all enjoy, this, and many more sweet treats, whether they be here or anywhere else.